Single Campaign Medals x871


The important Indian Mutiny medal awarded to George Schilling, Principal of La Martinière College throughout the siege of Lucknow


Indian Mutiny 1857-58, 1 clasp, Defence of Lucknow (G. Schilling) edge nicks, otherwise good very fine £3,600-£4,600 Provenance: Brian Ritchie Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, March 2005.


George Schilling, the Principal of La Martinière College, was born in Dublin 1827 and was educated at King’s College, London. La Martinière, a large and impressive palace, lying a mile south east of Lucknow and about two and a half miles from the Residency, was built by Major-General Claude Martine (1735-1800), a French soldier and adventurer who allied himself to the British. Having amassed a fortune of 28 lakhs, Martine left instructions that on his death he was to be buried in one of the ground floor rooms, and endowed three schools; one in his former residence at Lucknow, one at Calcutta and one in his native Lyons.


In March 1857, Schilling, a married man with a daughter, was responsible for 268 pupils and the teaching staff and their dependents, about 100 in all. On hearing of the attacks on Europeans at Meerut and Delhi, Schilling arranged for stocks of food, ‘rice, ghee dall etc., etc.’, and reserves of drinking water in large earthenware pots, to be laid in. A small guard drawn from the 3rd Oudh Military Police was provided, and he also immediately took several other wise precautions, afterwards outlined in his report to the Trustees of the Martine Charities: ‘ ... the Establishment was moved into the main building of the Constantia House; the bigger boys armed, and sentries from among them stationed on top of the building during the day; the duty of keeping watch at night being assigned to the masters. At the same time the bridges connecting the main building with the wings of Martinière were destroyed; the numerous doors in front of the building barricaded, those behind built up with kucha walls, five feet high, and of course the same thickness; all the staircases built up; and also all the doors leading to the central staircase, excepting one filled up with bricks which had been purchased for the construction of a large well.’


On 11 June the cavalry of the Oudh Military Police mutinied and next day the infantry of the Military Police followed suit, but fortunately the guard at the Martinière absconded to join their comrades without first striking a blow at Schilling. The boys, who had been further reduced in number by some returning to their parents, were now sixty-one foundationers and four boarders, and they watched expectantly from the top of the Martinière as a body of mutineers, apparently intent on attacking the College that night, took up a position in a mango tope on the southern boundary of the park. But help from the Residency was at hand and some guns and a party of Lawrence’s Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain Radcliffe, galloped up and went into action. A few rounds of grape at close range scattered the mutineers who were then charged by the Volunteer Cavalry and driven into some trees. Two columns of the H.M’s 32nd Regiment, under Colonel Inglis, appeared in skirmishing order and, advancing into the wooded area, accounted for a number of Sepoys. While all this was going on, Schilling, who was returning from the Residency, ran into some mutineers in the park, but, digging in his heels, was able to escape ‘because of the swiftness of his horse’.


A guard of one Sergeant and eight men of the 32nd now replaced the Oudh Military Police at the Martinière, but over the course of the next few days Lawrence decided that it would be impractical to defend the College in the event of a general uprising and on 17 June he issued orders for the school to join the other Europeans inside the Residency perimeter. ‘By order of Sir Henry Lawrence’, reported Schilling, ‘the school was removed into the Residency on the 18th of June; the order came at 4 o’clock the day before, when all preparations for the defence of the building were at once stopped, and the Principal went down to the city to ascertain where in the Residency, the school was to be placed, and what articles would be allowed to be taken in. Provisions, clothes, a bedstead and a chair to each individual, and a few tables, were all that the rules permitted. For the boys it was impossible to take as much as this, as the rooms assigned to them would not have held bedsteads and seats for all. Consequently only twelve bedsteads for hospital use, tables to dine half the boys, with forms in proportion, all the provisions that had been stored up in the main building, school-books sufficient to carry on the studies of the Christian pupils, with their summer clothing, were taken in, as much in fact as coolies could be obtained to carry.’


Once inside the Residency perimeter the school was allocated a house on the southern face of the entrenchment next to Sikh Square and in front of the Brigade Mess. The house belonged to a native banker, Shah Behari Lal, but from the moment Schilling was placed in command and took possession, it became the Martinière Post. At first Schilling ensured that school routine continued as far as possible, and Crank and his European subordinates continued to keep their pupils at their studies. The maulvis and pandits were given leave of absence on half pay for three months on 20 June and went away never to return, and the Indian doctor sloped off at the first opportunity. At first College servants collected supplies daily from the Martinière, but on 30 June, following the rout of Lawrence’s troops at Chinhut, they deserted. Also on that day of blood, panic and confusion, a flock of sheep belonging to the College was regrettably locked out of the Residency entrenchment when the gates were hurriedly shut.


The Martinière Post was in a very exposed part of the garrison, being separated from the rebel held godowns of Johannes House by a road only twenty feet wide. The boys who bore arms would go on to the roof of their Post and fire through loopholes at whatever targets presented themselves. Besides rebels, these included Mr Johannes’ palka ghari and the pumpkins in his garden which might provide the enemy with an additional source of food. Firing at these latter targets, however, was banned after a small boy called Hornby came onto the roof and addressed some question to two senior boys, namely Edward Hilton (the Sergeant Instructor’s son) and James Luffman. As the two elder boys turned to face the junior, a rebel fired and the bullet, glancing along the barrel of Luffman’s musket, struck him in his left shoulder. Schilling reprimanded the boys and subsequently put that part of the house out of bounds. By preventing his charges from exposing themselves unnecessarily, the remarkable fact emerged that by the time the entrenchment was evacuated in November not one of the Martinière staff or boys had been killed by enemy action though there were many narrow escapes. Two boys, however, were wounded, Luffman as stated, and another named Smith. Two more succumbed to disease.


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