Flagstaff Tower

Flag Staff Tower.

Flagstaff Tower is a one-room, castellated tower, built around 1828 as a signal tower. It is located in Kamla Nehru Ridge near the North Campus of Delhi University in Delhi.^[1] It was here that many Europeans and their families sheltered on May 11, 1857, during the Siege of Delhi by the rebels at the beginning of the Indian rebellion of that year,^[2][3] waiting for help to arrive from nearby Meerut. ^[4] Built by the British Indian Army, the building was part of the British cantonment and was used as a signal tower. Before forestation started in 1910, the area where the tower was built was the highest point on the ridge and was mostly barren, covered with low-lying shrub. Today it is a memorial and "protected monument" under Archaeological Survey of India.^[2]

History

The Flagstaff Tower, Delhi, in 1858

Flagstaff Tower played an important role during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, when Delhi was captured by the rebellious East India Company forces. On the morning of 11 May 1857, when the sepoys started hunting for and killing European personnel and Christian Indians in the Cantonment, Civil Lines and the walled city of Delhi, the survivors started fleeing towards the Tower.

The women and children took shelter in the single room of the tower while the men stood guard outside. In the peak of the summer season the room, which was 18 feet in diameter, became like an oven. As a safety measure many women were asked to go up an interior staircase. Many women fainted due to suffocation in the cramped space. However, the biggest cause of distress was not the heat, the cramped space or the lack of water. It was the suspense, which was hanging thick in the air. The news from the city was not encouraging – the British soldiers were falling fast. The women were inconsolable after they got the news that their husbands, sons or brothers had been killed, or were still serving duty amidst the rebellious soldiers.

For their defence the besieged had two light field guns, which stood outside the tower. These were overseen by Brigadier Graves and Charles Theodore Le Bas, a Delhi judge. Under their command were a few Indian sepoys, but it was clear that the soldiers would not follow any orders from the British officers. A few Anglo-Indian orphans, who were part of the Christian Boys’ Band, had been assigned muskets and were standing guard on top of the tower.

Harriet and Robert Tytler

Brigadier Graves had sent a messenger to Captain Robert Christopher Tytler ordering him to urgently join him at Flagstaff Tower. Harriet, Captain Tytler’s pregnant wife, and their four-year-old son Frank was among the women and children huddled inside the Tower. A veteran of the 38th Native Infantry, Captain Tytler was at that time guarding the gunpowder magazine along with a company of 200 sepoys to the north-east of the Company cantonments. Though he knew all was not well, he was largely unaware of the extent of reverses being faced by the Company army.

Arriving at Flagstaff Tower, Captain Tytler assessed the situation and soon concluded that the isolated Tower did not offer effective defence against the mutineers. The gathering of defenceless women and children in such large numbers at the spot was like preparing for a large scale massacre. He immediately discussed the matter with Brigadier Graves and urged him to order an immediate retreat. Brigadier Graves and the other men were not in favour of Captain Tytler’s suggestion. Captain Robert Tytler then decided that he would rather face court martial than see his wife and child being killed.

At that moment a bullock cart appeared at the foot of the slope leading up to Flagstaff Tower. Inside lay the mutilated and bloodied bodies of British Officers. The cart had been sent to the cantonment by another British officer, Major Edward Daniel Hamilton Vibart of the 54th Bengal Native Infantry. The cart lost its way and was now moving slowly up to the Tower. The already confused and nervous refugees saw it as an act of intimidation by the Indian soldiers. The incident shook them up and they decided to flee Flagstaff Tower in search of safety. There was a mad rush among the British to reach their carriages and to immediately start their journey. The Tytlers reached Karnal at ten the next morning, on 12 May. They waited all day but by evening only six of the crowd that flee Flagstaff Tower had joined them.

A month later the Company army returned to capture Delhi, which was now with the sepoys. On 7 June, they faced stiff resistance from the sepoys at the Flagstaff Tower. A fierce battle followed which led to the killing and wounding of a great number of soldiers. However, by five in the evening the ridge had been recaptured and was now under British control.

Soon afterwards the besieged discovered that the bullock cart, which had led to the flight from Flagstaff Tower a month back, was still standing where it had been first found near the Tower. All that remained were the victims’ skeletons and uniforms. ^[5][6]

See also

• Siege of Delhi
• Siege of Cawnpore
• Siege of Lucknow

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flagstaff Tower.

• Rosie Llewellyn-Jones (2007). The Great Uprising in India, 1857-58: Untold Stories, Indian and British. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 1843833042. 
• William Dalrymple (2006). The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857. Penguin Viking. ISBN 0670999253. 
• Flagstaff Tower at wikimapia