Single Campaign Medals “Don’t sleep, no smoking” and a sharp slap on the cheek


In late September 1857, word came from the Maharao that it was safe for Majot Burton and his family to return to the Residency at Kotah. Their friends in Neemuch advised them to find excuses not to go, as the countryside was still dangerous. Kotah was relatively isolated, with no dependable troops nearby that could be counted on for support in a crisis - the Bombay officers adamantly refused to provide either an escort or bodyguards to ensure the Political Agent’s safety. Major Burton nonetheless decided to return to Kotah, as he could no longer tolerate the Bombay officers and he trusted the Maharao’s ability to protect him.


Mrs Burton disagreed, preferring to stay on with Charles William and their friends at Neemuch. It was decided that the two youngest boys, Arthur (who was 20) and Francis (who was 19), would return to Kotah with Major Burton. Their sister would naturally stay with her mother. Charles William had official duties to attend to, so James Edmond, as second eldest, was asked to take charge of the family at Neemuch. That left Cecil Morton, also 20, who was the twin brother of Arthur. He too stayed with his mother. As Major Burton and his youngest sons arrived at Kotah on 13 October, the Maharao ordered a 130-gun salute to be fired, in honour of the Capture of Delhi by the British. The Major reported to his wife that “The Maharao came to see me…he is very civil and kind and so is everybody else… all is quiet here but I use every precaution and have about 150 select men near the house, four sentries round the house by night and two by day, and I never stir without the revolver.” The next day, Major Burton rode out on an elephant to visit the Maharao at his Palace, followed by his sons, who shared a second elephant. Two days after the Burtons returned, at around 11 am on 15 October, elements of both the Maharao’s personal Bodyguard and the Kotah State Army, made up of infantry, cavalry and artillery, arrived at the Agency Compound and stormed it, murdering some of the staff who lived and worked in the outbuildings and terrorising the rest. Some of Major Burton’s 150 “select” guards precipitously fled. The remainder simply stood aside, watching as the Residency was surrounded and then attacked. Witnesses reported that there was gunfire from midday until 5pm, when Major Burton and his two sons were killed in a room on the upper floor. The Major’s body was decapitated and his head put on public display.


The plundered and heavily damaged Residency compound was repaired after the Mutiny, eventually becoming successively the State Guesthouse, and then, after the Indian government cancelled the privileges of the rulers of the Princely States, the private home of the former royal family, who converted part of it into the luxury Brijraj Bhawan Palace Hotel. The room where the Burtons were murdered is supposed to be haunted. Some British State Guests who occupied it before Independence complained of being unable to sleep, as they experienced ‘’discomforting and oppressive feelings of overwhelming fear”. In the 1980s the Yuvrani reported that the white- haired ghost of Major Burton would appear in the room, though he did not seem to cause the royal family any anxiety (“The Maharajas of India” by A. Morrow p 106-7 refers). The hotel staff reluctantly confirm this, adding that Major Burton’s ghost also wanders the compound at night, telling the chowkidars (sentries/security guards) “Don’t sleep, no smoking” and following up with a sharp slap across their cheek.


“Vengence is Mine, saith the Lord.”


The inscription on the memorial to the murdered Burtons summarises the feeling of James Edmond, his surviving siblings and their mother when news of the deaths reached them at Neemuch: ”Sacred to the memory of… Three defenceless Englishmen who on the 15th October 1857, the year of the Indian Mutiny, were barbarously surrounded in the Residency by the bloodthirsty soldiers of the Maharaja of Kotah. For five hours these gallant men, a father and two sons, kept the whole of the miscreants at bay, when alone and unaided they were finally overpowered and foully massacred. This tablet is erected by a broken-hearted wife and mother. ‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay.’”


Even before they learnt of the murders, the three Burton brothers at Neemuch had volunteered to serve with the Bombay Brigade in the fight against the mutineers, and the senior officers from the Bombay Presidency had agreed that they should become members of the “Officer’s Volunteer Corps”. Although no complete regiment of the Bombay Army mutinied in the same way as the Bengal regiments had done, documents with the lot record that both the Bombay Native infantry and Cavalry units at Neemuch had by this time shown some signs of mutiny, and that individual native soldiers regularly deserted to join the rebels. Consequently, the Bombay officers could no longer feel superior to their colleagues from Bengal, and were beginning to understand that they needed to employ every available reliable man who could assist the work of suppressing the Mutiny, which still affected much of north central India.


Nimbhaira, a walled town to the north of Neemuch, not far from Charles William’s domain at Jewud, was held by a rebel force. It was decided that a sortie should be made from Neemuch to capture the town, and an all-arms battlegroup commanded by Colonel Jackson of the 2nd Bombay Light Cavalry, consisting of 150 British and Native infantry, 150 Native cavalry and three artillery pieces, together with Cavalry Volunteers Charles William and James Edmond Burton, arrived outside the walls of Nimbhaira on 20 October. There was a delay while a summons for surrender of the town was made, and the attack began at half past one in the afternoon, despite heavy rain. The four-hour exchange of fire between the two sides cost the assaulting force two dead and seventeen wounded, two severely. Charles William Burton was slightly wounded. Colonel Jackson ordered his artillery to cross thick mud and by dusk they had closed up to within 100 yards of the walls. He hoped to blow open the gates and mount a general assault, but postponed the attack until next day. The mutineers abandoned the town during the night and retreated northwards.


The journey from Kotah to Neemuch took at least a week. The news of the murders would have reached the Burtons around the end of October, just as a new threat to their lives materialised. The main elements of the Bombay regiments were away from Neemuch, conducting field operations, when, on 8 November, a force of several thousand mutineers with cannons advanced on Neemuch from the south. This development forced nearly 800 people from the cantonment to move into the fort, a small square with 18 foot-high walls and a quadrangular bastion at each corner. The majority of those entering the fort were families and servants; after deducting the sick, there were 327 fighting men, including “two sons of the late Major Burton”, one of whom was James Edward.


The fort was commanded by Captain Simpson of the 2nd Bombay Light Cavalry. It was closely besieged for 14 days, culminating in a determined effort to capture the fort by escalade over the walls on the night of 21st-22nd. This escalade was repulsed with many casualties inflicted on the rebels, but another was planned for the following night. However, on 22 November the rebels were recalled by their paymasters, and the siege was lifted. Captain Simpson reported that, throughout the siege: “James Burton, son of the late gallant Major Burton… volunteered to perform the duties of Officer of the Watch”. Captain Simpson mentioned James’s “able assistance” in his official report on the Siege of Neemuch Fort, which led to an Expression of Thanks and approbation for his services “at this critical period” from the Commander in Chief of the Bombay Army (General Order, 17 December 1857).


“I will repay”


As a reward, all three Burton brothers were offered Commissions in the Bombay Army. Charles William transferred from being Assistant Superintendent to become a Lieutenant in the Bombay Army. Both James Edmond and Cecil Morton decided to remain civilians, and joined the Bengal Civil Service. Cecil became Assistant Commissioner at Jullundur in the Punjab. His widowed mother remained in India with Cecil until she died at Jullundur on 18 May 1881, aged 81. It was James who spearheaded the family’s quest to discover who had been responsible for the murders at the Kotah Residency.


The Burton family began to ask questions almost immediately after learning about the deaths. Eldest son Charles William wrote a letter which was published in The Times on 19 December 1857, when central India was still in a state of anarchy. In the early phases of the Uprising, mutinous sepoys had usually marched to Delhi, but by August 1857 this was no longer possible. It was reported that “the whole city [of Kotah] is in the hands of the mutinous soldiers” led by Lala Jai Dayal, Adjutant Agbudin Khan and Risaldar Mehrab Khan, that the Maharao was shut up in his palace and unable to exercise control over his subjects, that many more mutineers had arrived after escaping from Delhi, and that there were “about 5,000 insurgents in the city, they do what they like and take what they like… They say they intend to fight when the English come to attack them.”


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