Independence or Mutiny? Oudh/Awadh, India,1857
Lieutenant Arthur Bright, 22nd Bengal Native Infantry
Holy Trinity, Abbots Leigh
Holy Trinity, Abbots Leigh
We do not know in any detail how Arthur Bright met his end. A Lieutenant of the 22nd Bengal Native Infantry, he was killed near Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh on June 7th, 1857, by mutineers from the 17th Regiment. His memorial in Abbotsleigh specifically refers to his being killed by soldiers of a different regiment, presumably because this implies that his own regiment remained loyal to him. Possibly, but the 22nd did mutiny on the day of his killing, so it is doubtful that any died trying to defend him. And why should they have done? They may have eaten the Queen's salt, but is that trumped by a fight for independence?
It is a fair bet that Arthur Bright's family would not have thought so. His grandfather, Richard Bright, was a Bristol merchant at a time when that mainly meant one thing - slavery. Richard's father-in-law, Richard Myler, had been a slaver, and passed on slaving interests, such that Richard Bright owned three plantations in Jamaica, and his son, Robert (Arthur's father) was a slave-owner in Barbados. It is difficult to imagine such people having sympathy with the mutineers of 1857. Arthur's brothers were similarly establishment figures: a Somerset M.P; a judge in India; an army Lieutenant-General; a prominent Australian businessman. Only the absence of a clergyman prevents them being a classic Empire family.
On a different tack, one of Arthur's uncles, another Richard, became a prominent physician, a leading expert on kidney diseases. There is the irony behind many of these families; scientific advances benefitting mankind based on money from an immoral source.
In memory of Arthur, 6th son of Robert and Caroline Bright, Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 22nd Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry full of the highest promise he perished by the hands of mutineers from another regment near Fyzabad Oudh on the 9th of June 1857 in the 27th year of his age
It is a fair bet that Arthur Bright's family would not have thought so. His grandfather, Richard Bright, was a Bristol merchant at a time when that mainly meant one thing - slavery. Richard's father-in-law, Richard Myler, had been a slaver, and passed on slaving interests, such that Richard Bright owned three plantations in Jamaica, and his son, Robert (Arthur's father) was a slave-owner in Barbados. It is difficult to imagine such people having sympathy with the mutineers of 1857. Arthur's brothers were similarly establishment figures: a Somerset M.P; a judge in India; an army Lieutenant-General; a prominent Australian businessman. Only the absence of a clergyman prevents them being a classic Empire family.
On a different tack, one of Arthur's uncles, another Richard, became a prominent physician, a leading expert on kidney diseases. There is the irony behind many of these families; scientific advances benefitting mankind based on money from an immoral source.
In memory of Arthur, 6th son of Robert and Caroline Bright, Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 22nd Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry full of the highest promise he perished by the hands of mutineers from another regment near Fyzabad Oudh on the 9th of June 1857 in the 27th year of his age
Sources
www.winchestercollegeatwar.com
www.ucl.ac.uk
'Slavery and the British Country House' - ed. Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann (English Heritage, 2013)
www.glosters.tripod.com
www.winchestercollegeatwar.com
www.ucl.ac.uk
'Slavery and the British Country House' - ed. Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann (English Heritage, 2013)
www.glosters.tripod.com
