The Start of a Military Career (1853–1878)

Miller, Stephen M.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-50834-0_2

Stephen M. Miller²

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Abstract

Chapter 2, “The Start of a Military Career (1853–1878),” examines the formative years in White’s career when he was posted to India just before the start of the Rebellion of 1857–1858. He served primarily in the Punjab during this period, at various cantonments and outposts. It looks at issues including military life, opportunities for advancement and promotion, racial attitudes, and the debates over foreign policy concerning India.

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Notes

1.
The site was later known as Low Rock Castle. It was torn down in 2001. “Low Rock Castle,” Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland, accessed 18 November 2019, http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/07/low-rock-castle.html
2.
According to Leo Keohane, a biographer of George White’s son, Jack, the Whites, originally Whyte, were from York and after supporting the Royalist cause during the English Civil War, relocated to Ireland. During the Glorious Revolution, the family supported William of Orange. Leo Keohane, Captain Jack White: Imperialism, Anarchism & the Irish Citizen Army (Sallins, Ireland: Merrion Press, 2014), 9–12.
3.
Mortimer Durand, The Life of Field-Marshal Sir George White, Volume I (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1915), 6–7.
4.
For more on Sandhurst, see Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, “The Shop”: The Story of the Royal Military Academy (London: Cassell and Company, LTD, 1900); and, Hugh Thomas, The Story of Sandhurst (London: Hutchinson 1961).
5.
Anthony Clayton, The British Officer: Leading the Army from 1660 to the Present (London: Pearson, 2006), 106, 139.
6.
In a letter to his sister, Jane, shortly after arriving the Royal Military Academy, White was already expressing his impatience in getting a commission. White to Jane White, 8 September 1850, White’s letters to his sister Jane White, Mss Eur F108/97(a)-(b)(c. 1845–1910), GWP.
7.
The commission had been held by the scandalous, self-titled, Viscount Forth, George Henry Drummond. For more on Viscount Forth, see Deborah Cohen, Family Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain (Oxford: University Press, 2013), 56–83.
8.
James White to James Robert White, 30 May 1855, Letters from James White to his father James Robert White and to his sister Elizabeth White, during the Crimean War, Mss Eur F108/117, GWP.
9.
White to Jane White, 9 June 1854, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
10.
According to William Copeland Trimble, the 27th left for India on 27 June 1854. White’s letters disputes this. The right wing of his regiment, which included White, embarked from Cork on 20 June; the left wing, 30 June. White to James Robert White, no date, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP. Trimble, Historical Record of the 27th Inniskilling Regiment, from the period of its institution as a volunteer corps till the present time (London: Wm. Clowes and Sons, 1876), 111–12.
11.
White to Frances White, 27 June 1854, White’s letters to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Robert White, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
12.
White to James Robert White, 29 September 1854, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
13.
White to James Robert White, 29 September 1854 and 5 October 1854, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
14.
White to James Robert White, 5 October 1854, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
15.
White was incorrectly listed in most contemporary reports as being aboard the ship when the tragedy struck. Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Telegraph, 9 December 1854.
16.
White to James Robert White, 18 October 1854, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
17.
Ibid. The wars with the Xhosa along the Eastern Cape Frontier were known as the Kaffir (Caffir) Wars through the nineteenth and mid twentieth centuries. Kaffir is a pejorative with its roots in the Arabic word for infidel.
18.
White to Frances White, 14 June 1855, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
19.
White to Fanny White, 29 April 1855, White’s letters to his sister Fanny White, Mss Eur F108/99 (1855–1906), GWP.
20.
White to James Robert White, 29 July 1855, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
21.
White to James Robert White, 8 March 1856 and 22 March 1856, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
22.
For more on the purchasing of commissions and the eventual end of the practice, see A.P.C. Bruce, The Purchase System in the British Army, 1660–1871 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1980).
23.
White to Frances White, 4 January 1856, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
24.
Douglas A. Lorimer, Colour, Class and the Victorians: English Attitudes to the Negro in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978), 41.
25.
White’s journal, 1 May 1856, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
26.
White’s journal, 4 May 1856, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
27.
White to Frances White, 16 December 1856, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
28.
White to James Robert White, 21 January 1857, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
29.
Kaushik Roy, The Army in British India: From Colonial Warfare to Total War 1857–1947 (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013), 2.
30.
Douglas Peers, “The Indian Rebellion,” in Queen Victoria’s Small Wars, edited by Stephen M. Miller (Cambridge: University Press, 2021), Chapter 2.
31.
See, for example, Amal Chatterjee, Representations of India, 1740–1840: The Creation of India in the Colonial Imagination (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998); T.A. Heathcote, The Indian Army: The Garrison of British Imperial India, 1822–1922 (London: David & Charles, 1974); David Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj: The Indian Army, 1860–1940 (London: Macmillan, 1994); Douglas Peers, “The Indian Rebellion.”
32.
Irfan Habib, “The Coming of 1857,” Social Scientist 26: 1/4 (January–April 1988), 8.
33.
Roy, The Army in India, 34.
34.
White to James Robert White, 13 June 1857, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
35.
Eric Stokes, The Peasant Armed: The Indian Revolt of 1857 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), 27; as cited by, Douglas Peers, “The Indian Rebellion.”
36.
Trimble, Historical Record of the 27th Inniskilling Regiment, 122.
37.
White to Frances White, no date (most likely June 1857), Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
38.
Ibid.
39.
White to James Robert White, 13 June 1857, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
40.
Ibid.
41.
White to Frances White, 5 September 1857, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
42.
Ibid.
43.
Ibid.
44.
For British public reactions to the Rebellion, see Christopher Herbert, War of No Pity: The Indian Mutiny and Victoria Trauma (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
45.
White to James Robert White, 13 June 1857, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
46.
White to an unnamed sister, 13 July 1857, in Durand, The Life of Field-Marshal Sir George White, I, 71–2.
47.
White to John White, 28 August 1857, White’s letters to his brother, John White, Mss Eur F108/98(a)-(c) (1857–1910), GWP. Almost fifteen years later, White stopped in Delhi on his way home. He visited Hindu and Muslim religious and cultural sights, the tomb of Brigadier-General John Nicholson, and the old fort. He wrote to his sister, “some of the scenes are rather apt to make you slay the first native you see such as the tree where the few Europeans inside the walls when the mutiny took place were tied up and shot at, the princes of Delhie [sic] looking on.” White to Jane White, 15 March 1871, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
48.
White to James Robert White, no date, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP. The letter was most likely written in late 1857 due to the reference to the death of Nicholson in September 1857.
49.
Pardeep Rai, Times of India, 25 March 2011, accessed 25 November 2019, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/1857-Ambala-led-the-charge/articleshow/7790074.cms
50.
While in India, White’s uncle, John White, the Auld Captain, died. His father inherited the family estate known as Whitehall in Broughshane, County Antrim. White’s older brother James also died in 1857 and, as a result, George became his father’s heir.
51.
Trimble, Historical Record of the 27th Inniskilling Regiment, 126.
52.
White to Frances White, 19 July 1859, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
53.
Ian Beckett, A British Profession of Arms: The Politics of Command in the Late Victorian Army (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), 71.
54.
White to Frances White, 18 December and 25 December 1859, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP; White to Jane White, 15 January 1860, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
55.
White to Jane White, 10 August 1860, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
56.
Fragment of a letter, White to unnamed parent, March 1860, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
57.
White to Frances White, 8 June 1860, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
58.
Durand, The Life of Field-Marshal Sir George White, I, 94.
59.
White to Frances White, 11 July 1860, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
60.
Trimble, Historical Record of the 27th Inniskilling Regiment, 127–9.
61.
White’s surviving correspondences during the mid-1860s are very sparse. It is unclear how he came up with the money.
62.
White to Frances White, 16 May 1867, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
63.
White to Jane White, 16 February 1868, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
64.
White to Jane White, 1 September 1869, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
65.
White to Frances White, 4 January 1870, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
66.
White to Jane White, 28 July 1869, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
67.
White to Jane White, 29 March 1870, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
68.
Charles Greenhill Gardyne, The Life of a Regiment: The History of the Gordon Highlanders From 1816 to 1898 (Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1903), 110.
69.
White to Fanny White, 4 April 1869, Mss Eur F108/99, GWP.
70.
White to Jane White, 21 April 1870, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
71.
White to John White, 2 August 1870, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP.
72.
White to James Robert White, 30 August 1870, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
73.
White to James Robert White, 29 November 1870, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
74.
For more on the Cardwell reforms, see Robert Biddulph, Lord Cardwell at the War Office (London: Murray, 1904); Halik Kochanski, Sir Garnet Wolseley: Victorian Hero (London: The Hambledon Press, 1999); and, Edward M. Spiers, The Late Victorian Army 1868–1902 (London: St. Martin, 1992).
75.
Spiers, Late Victorian Army, 18.
76.
White to Jane White, 15 March 1871, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
77.
White’s sister Libby (Elizabeth) did not return to Whitehall after she wed Mr. Montgomery. White’s aunt, Victoria, and her husband John Clements, also lived at Whitehall. See J.R. White, Misfit: An Autobiography (London: Jonathan Cape, 1930), 108.
78.
Keohane, Captain Jack White, 14.
79.
White to Jane White, 29 August 1875, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
80.
White to Jane White, 30 January 1873, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
81.
White to Fanny White, 13 July 1874, Mss Eur F108/99, GWP.
82.
White learned of his promotion in a letter from his brother in February 1874. He immediately wired London to confirm it. Lieutenant-Colonel F. McBean’s retirement led to Major A.W. Cameron’s promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel and opened up a spot for White. Cameron commanded the 92nd until 1876. Lieutenant Henry (Harry) Brooke who acted as White’s best man at his wedding was made captain at the same time. White to John White, 12 February 1874, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP; London Gazette, 20 January, 1874, p. 239.
83.
White to Jane White, 20 July 1874, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
84.
These included a khansamah (house steward), a cook, a plate cleaner, two kitmaghars (table attendants), two bearers (house maids), two gardeners, an ayah (female maid), a man to sweep the house, five grooms, five grass cutters, an English maid, and a soldier servant. White to Jane White, 4 February 1875, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
85.
White to John White, 22 March 1876, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP.
86.
David James, Lord Roberts (London: Hollis & Carter, 1954), 78–80.
87.
It should be noted that Lytton also arrived at the start of a devastating famine which struck India and led to the deaths of over five million people. See David Fieldhouse, “For Richer, for Poorer?” in The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, ed. P.J. Marshall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 132.
88.
Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, 3rd Series, ccxxvii, 1876, p. 410; as cited in, Bernard S. Cohn, “Representing Authority in Victorian India,” in The Invention of Tradition, eds. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University, Press, 1983), 184.
89.
Cohn, “Representing Authority in Victorian India,” 208.
90.
Anchi Hoh, “The Delhi Durbar and the Proclamation of Queen Victoria,” Library of Congress, accessed on 4 December 2019, https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2017/11/the-delhi-durbar-and-the-proclamation-of-queen-victoria/
91.
Gardyne, The Life of a Regiment, 121.
92.
White to John White, 2 March 1877, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP.
93.
G.W. Hunt, “By Jingo,” 1877.
94.
White to John White, 4 January 1878, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP.
95.
White to John White, 11 January 1878, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP.

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University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
Stephen M. Miller

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Miller, S.M. (2020). The Start of a Military Career (1853–1878). In: George White and the Victorian Army in India and Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50834-0_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50834-0_2
Published: 14 November 2020
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50833-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50834-0
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