A Picture, a School and a Victoria Cross

The Picture That Resurfaced

This picture of mine was taken some years ago with Shri R.B. Singh, Principal of St. Andrews Higher Secondary School (now St. Andrews Inter College), Gorakhpur.

I had misplaced this picture and only recently found it. It brought back memories of my first visit abroad in 1972, when I visited a museum in Warwick, England, with my dear friend and colleague, Shri R.K. Nagar.

The reader might be wondering how a picture taken in a school office in Gorakhpur could trigger the recollection of a museum visit in Warwick after more than half a century! Allow me to share the story behind the picture.

Back to My Alma Mater, Sixty Years Later

I passed my tenth standard from this school in 1960, and the picture with Principal Singh was taken more than fifty years after I left school.

Over the years I had passed by the school (now a college) on the road in front of it numerous times, but I had never entered the premises.

Interestingly, my cousin Ravikar runs Cinnamon, one of the finest restaurants in Gorakhpur, just across the street from the school. Whenever I find myself in Gorakhpur, I make it a point to visit the restaurant and take the window-side table they kindly reserve for me. As I savour a hot soup and an array of mouthwatering dishes, I can’t help gazing through the large glass windows at my alma mater.

Strangely enough, it never occurred to me to step inside the school until that fateful afternoon. As we age, we often find ourselves doing strange things – and that is what happened. One day something compelled me to venture beyond the familiar and capture the place in photographs. It was after school hours and only the office was open. After a walk around, I met the Principal Sir, and the picture above was clicked.

A School Since 1828

This school has been functioning since 1828 and will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2028. I have many fond memories of my school days. I passed the 1960 UP Board examination with a first class and a distinction in Mathematics.

The grounds of St. Andrews Inter College have changed over time. The buildings, which were already old in the 1960s, now appear even older and neglected. However, the college now has an ornamental gate, whereas in my time it had only a rickety steel gate that was often left half open.

The road in front, which in my school days carried a few cycle rickshaws, pedestrians, the occasional motor vehicle and even a bullock cart, has now become so busy that one has to wait for the red light to cross.

When I joined the school, I was told that it was housed in the barracks where British forces used to stay even before 1857. I don’t have any historical documents or other proof to support this claim. Sometimes I wonder whether it is true that I studied from class 8 to 10 in a room of a building constructed as barracks for the British forces. Who knows?

From Gorakhpur to Anand, and on to England

After completing my studies in Gorakhpur, where I obtained a Master’s Degree in Mathematics in 1967, I started looking for a job. Eventually, in 1968, I secured regular employment at NDDB in Anand.

In 1972, my colleague Rashmi Kant Nagar and I received an FAO fellowship to study computer systems analysis and design in the United Kingdom. Nagar has written a blog about our first air travel and visit to England, which one can read at this link.

As FAO fellows we were given a daily allowance of five pounds for food and other expenses; the sponsors of our training programme arranged and paid for our hotel stays directly. During the three-month programme, Nagar and I also stayed in Warwick, a market and county town in Warwickshire, for a few days.

A Weekend in Warwick – and a Victoria Cross

On one such weekend we stayed in Warwick, in a building that had a pub on the ground floor and rooms for lodging on the first floor. We didn’t have much to do except watch TV and go out for walks and window shopping. During one of our walks we came across an old people’s home that also had a museum. We decided to take a look.

And guess what I found there? A Victoria Cross displayed as a souvenir. I can never forget the inscription: “Awarded to Captain … (I cannot recall the name) … of … Hussars for exemplary bravery on … at the Battle of Rapte.”

This incident has remained etched in my memory for over fifty years. Why? Because of what I had been told about my school – that it stood in old British barracks.

After reading this blog, Nagar wrote to me and filled in my old-age memory lapses:

“Shailendra, thank you for recollecting our visit to Warwick museum. Our host, Wally Saunders, was with us. When we were looking at the Victoria Cross, Wally remarked, ‘Oh, he got this honour when the British crushed the Indian mutiny of 1857.’ You couldn’t control your emotions and almost instantly retorted, ‘For you it may be mutiny, but for us it was our first war of independence,’ leaving poor Wally red-faced. I have such a vivid recollection of that incident as though it happened only yesterday.”

– R.K. Nagar

Rapte or Rapti? Babu Bandhu Singh of Tarkulha

Gorakhpur city is situated on the banks of the river Rapti. The battle place mentioned in the Victoria Cross inscription was Rapte. Could Rapte be Rapti? Was there a battle of Rapte, or was it the battle of Rapti?

Babu Bandhu Singh, a Rajput Zamindar of the Srinet clan to which our family belongs, was a devotee of Goddess Durga. Legend has it that when he was hanged in Gorakhpur, the Tarkul (palm) tree in his village, Tarkulha, broke from the middle and blood oozed out of it. Now there is a large Devi temple at the site. The second Mundan ceremony (when a child’s head is shaved or tonsured) for all children in our Srinet families is performed there. My second Mundan was also done at Tarkulha.

After the visit to the old people’s home in Warwick that day in 1972, I spoke to Nagar about Bandhu Singh and my Mundan, and about how both the English and Indian communities preserve their memories.

Who Was the Hero? Major Charles Craufurd Fraser

Thanks to Google, decades later I found the name of the British officer awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery at the River Rapte: Sir Charles Craufurd Fraser.

Fraser, then 29, was a major in the 7th Hussars (The Queen’s Own) during the Indian war of independence, which the British called the Mutiny. The deed took place on 31 December 1858 at the River Rapte. His citation reads:

For conspicuous and cool gallantry, on the 31st December, 1858, in having volunteered, at great personal risk, and under a sharp fire of musketry, to swim to the rescue of Captain Stisted, and some men of the 7th Hussars, who were in imminent danger of being drowned in the River Raptee, while in pursuit of the rebels. Major Fraser succeeded in this gallant service, although at the time partially disabled, not having recovered from a severe wound received while leading a Squadron in a charge against some fanatics, in the action of Nawabgunge, on the 13th June, 1858.

He was also awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Medal, 1st Class. More about him is available on Wikipedia and on the VC and GC Association site.

The Rapti, then, was the very river of my Gorakhpur, though the action took place upstream in northern Oudh, near Bankee by the Nepal border. Captain Stisted and the others whom Major Fraser rescued were British soldiers pursuing the “rebels”. And who were those rebels? The most important among them were Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, and the Queen (Begum) of Oudh.

In December 1858 Sir Hope Grant campaigned in north-eastern Oudh around Tulsipur while Lord Clyde (Sir Colin Campbell) pursued Nana Sahib and the Begum of Oudh through northern Oudh. After a series of engagements, on 31 December 1858 he attacked the rebel force close to Bankee, near where the Raptee river, flowing west through Nepal, turns east towards the Gogra. The rebels fled towards the river and the 7th Hussars and 1st Punjab Cavalry charged in after them. Some were swept away by the fierce current but Major C C Fraser, though wounded, rescued Captain T H Stisted and others. With the Begum, Nana Sahib fled into Nepal, where he probably died of fever in 1859.

Another version has it that from Nepal Nana Saheb went to Bhutan, where he died. Please click this link to read further.

How One Picture Weaves a Story

How one picture brings out memories, raises curiosity, makes one search and learn, and weave a story that makes sense! Such a story might bring out the whole or a partial truth, or even help create a myth. It may raise questions too – answers to which others will find at some other time and place.

Humans do not live beyond their lifetime, but in the case of some, their stories continue to exist beyond their lifetime.