Victorians have always fascinated me, especially the Victorian Generals. Most people have an image of them as a set of stuffed shirts, pretentious and hypocritical. They have faded into history and as our imperial history is no longer taught and a milksop revisionist version put into place to placate. The PC brigade. If I mentioned Napier, Campbell, Havlock, Gough, Hope Grant and Sir Harry Smith, would anyone know who I was taking about, I very much doubt it. The life story of everyone of these reads like an unbelievable fairytale. These were the successful ones, the ones that retired with a Baronetcy and a pension, most though lay buried and forgotten in far corner of an empire that most Brits have been taught to despise and feel embarrassed about. John Nicholson is one of the later types he lies buried in Delhi where he died at the age of 34 leading an assault on the city during the Indian mutiny or the first war of Indian independence as the politically correct like to refer to it. He is for me perhaps the most interesting of all the Victorian Generals and one wonders how far he would have risen and what feat he would have performed if he had lived.
I will just give you a flavor of this exceptional man. He certainly had charisma, a sect called the Nicolsonites worshiped him as a God, they were allowed into his presence to adore him but if they fell down to worship him he had them taken out and flogged. I don't think that that would have happened with George Patton. As Magistrate in the area he controlled his sense of justice could be called somewhat robust. Not many judges nowadays would place the head of the criminal he had last executed on his desk in the court house when judging the next case. I am certain that concentrated peoples minds. His manners were impeccable, it is not many Generals who would go into the Officers mess to apologizes for the lateness of their meal because he had had to execute the cooks because he had caught them poisoning the food. The most interesting thing about the man is that he keep Waziristan quiet and did it virtually on his own. This is more than Pakistan can do now. If you would like to read more about this unusual man you can download the E-book called
John Nicholson
the lion of the Punjab
at Gutenburg.org
here is the link
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21985
24 comments:
Nicholson appears as a character in one of George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman" novels. If you're interested in the Victorian era, you're probably already familiar with these books, but if perchance you're not, they make wonderful reading.
Dear David,
thank you for mentioning the Flashman novels they are one of my favourite reads. Yes you are right Nicholson is mentioned in Flashman and the tower of Light. All the others are also mentioned by the way, Gravedigger Havlock in two books Campbell in two books and I think Hope Grant in three. I hope that George Macdonald Fraser gets a move on and finishes a few more before he croaks his output is dropping off the time between a new novel coming out gets longer he is now well into his 80s. I hope that the new one that comes out will be over flashmans exploits in the American Civil war.
When are the English going to apologize for all the millions of people that they murdered during the Conquest & Colonial era of their history?
The English people are by far the most violent people to ever afflict the Earth with their presence. You could fill an entire ocean with all the blood that the English spilled as they gained control over the entire Earth.
England ... will you ever stop murdering civilians, O England?
Dear anonymous,
may I suggest you go to this web site you will certainly find it fascinating it is about a traveling exhibition concerning Muslim inventions. It is called 1001 muslim inventions. Here is the link
http://www.1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewSection&intSectionID=309
When you have puffed yourself up with pride at how superior you culture is, then start and make a list of all the inventions we infidels have made.
Here is my list I will let you add to it
movable type, steel plate, portland cement, tar macadam, the motor car, rubber tyres, steam engine, the railways. Iron ships, ships screw, the lathe, the capstan lathe, radio, television, computer, transistor, refrigerators, the vacuum cleaner, the vacuum flask so loved by muslims in the middle east, the telephone, television. Record players, electrical generators, the light bub. Artificial fertilizer. The tractor the steel plow. The electrical motor the transformer. Anesthetics, x rays, antibiotics. The telescope the microscope, The steam turbine, internal combustion engine, radar, sonar the submarine the periscope the airplane the jet engine. The modern rocket the bicycle, disk brakes, the telegraph the camera both still and cine. The radio, plastics, disinfectants, flushing toilets, the conveyor belt, the battery, nano technology, tin plate for tin cans, auto pilot, plate glass, hot air balloons, suspension bridges, microwave ovens, antiseptics, electric cookers washing machines. Stainless steel toilet paper synthetic fabrics, such as silk and nylon shall I go on I wouldn't want to embarrass you, put these by the side of the so called 1001 inventions and you will realize how insignificant they are. Is this all you can do after 1,400 years of so called islamic scientific endeavor. Did you know that Thomas Edison had 2,000 patents to his name. To think that one man and an infidel to boot could invent more things than the entire islamic community could in 1,400 year. Doesn't that make you ashamed, it should. All I have done is lay the facts before you everything here that I have said is all true. Facts prick fantasy bubbles, which is what seems to me you are living in. What I do on this blogg is try to lampoon Islamic idiocy and stupidity, especially when it effects me and my family. If you had taken the time and gone back through all my earlier post instead of putting a rant on every article for August you would have come to an article I posted in April you would have found an article about Qatar. It is critical but certainly not abusive please read it right through and the article by the Imman. And see if it doesn't basically agree with what I have just writen.
Hello Yorkshire English (Bigot):
"When you have puffed yourself up with pride at how superior you culture is, then start and make a list of all the inventions we infidels have made."
Yes, you & yours have invented all of these things. But you should not imagine that these inventions exonerate you & yours from all the Crimes Against Humanity, atrocities, genocides, oppressions, exploitations, rapes, coups and other acts of injustice which your nation has committed all across the world.
You could form a mountain over all England with the corpses of those your ancestors murdered on behalf of colonialism.
If the English are superior at anything they are superior at rape, murder, genocide and exploitation.
I recognize the Generals from the Flashman books.
About a half-dozen has been translated into Danish, but the publisher stopped back in the ´80ties. The last was the one with Flash in China I think.
I thought the reason was that Fraser had died or at least stopped writing, but by chance I recently discovered he had written a lot more books in the series. I'm going to start importing them one by one.
Good to know Fraser is still active!
By the way, you write:
the Indian mutiny or the first war of Indian independence as the politically correct like to refer to it.
Please tell me you're jesting!
Another excellent book by Fraser is "Quartered Safe Out Here," about his WWII service in Burma. It's interesting to read in combination with "Victory Into Defeat" by William Slim, who was the overall commander in Burma (and for whom GMF has great admiration)
Hello Everyone,
For those who have forgotten Britain's bloody history of global genocide:
"I have just finished reading William Dalrymple’s new book The Last Mughal, which is, in a number of ways, a revisionist and ground-breaking account of the story of a terrible genocide that has almost always, in the past, been told from the standpoint of the colonials who perpetrated it, the British."
A Brilliant Civilization Destroyed By Colonialism and Evangelical Christianity
These are same bloody English people who claim that Islam is a uniquely violent religion and therefore they are entitled to persecute & expel & kill & commit genocide against them.
Yorkshire probably would rather not look at his prejudice & bigotry & threats of violence within the context of England's long bloody history, but unfortunately the rest of the world remembers what England has done.
David Mathews
David Mathews' Home Page
Know a number of them thanks to Mr. Fraser; excellent books.
I notice that Everywhere England ruled, those nations now sport some of the world's greatest economies- Hong Kong, India... Just another one of the major achievements that you Never need to apologize for.
anonymouse ought to be apologizing for the 30-70 million people they murdered in India, and that is just for starters.
England's history is not flawless: we all know that. However, I think one has to be able to balance the good against the evil. For Anonymous, I would point out that these are things that England did in the past- in most cases two hundred years ago. English society has grown beyond that point. Muslim society has not. It's really pretty simple.
My first thought when I started reading this post was of Flashie. One of my favorite series. I'm always awed by the amount of research GMF does for the books. It's staggering.
I actually bought the book "The fall of the Sikh Empire" because of the mention of the author- his name escapes me now (Gardner?)- in one of the Flashie books.
And like so many, I often wondered if I was somehow not finding the American Civil War adventures, since they're so often mentioned in the other books. Glad to know I didn't. I recently read that it's almost finished...
For anonymous one - the 1400 year 'history of jihad' dwarfs anything any western entity can be accused of.
http://www.historyofjihad.org/britian.html
People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
AnonYmouse
or the first war of Indian independence as the politically correct like to refer to it.
Politically correct or incorrect, it is plain wrong. It was not the first war of independence but an attempt by Muslims to restore Islamic rule in India. Some Hindu leaders were fooled by Muslims in taking part. But that is no news as they have been ever gullible, and still continue to be gullible.
DP111
It would be wonderful if a tidal wave would exterminate the genocidal British.Nicholson was a murderous motherfucker.
Dear Anonymous,
finally got round to checking out this Blogg again. Yes I tend to agree Nicholson was a Murderous motherfucker, but then he was in a lose lose situation when it came to Murderous Islamic motherfuckers, who abounded in Wasziristan (nothing much has changed by the way, I traveled through Pakistan, the land of the pure, 30 years ago on a motorbike), but you have to admit that that Murderous Motherfucker, gave the provinces he controlled more peace than they have known before or after. People could travel without being robbed trade was beginning to get going again. Yes he did rule with a rod of iron and his methods were not politically correct by present day standards, but what would you have it its place anarchy, which seems to be the rule now. President Truman had to make similar choices in the Second world war, do I drop the Atom Bomb on Japan and kill 200,000 thousand Japanese or invade and lose 1,000,000 Americans and perhaps several million more Japanese. Truman used to have a notice on his desk it said ( THE BUCK STOPS HERE) When you are in a position like Truman the president of the USA then you have to make difficult decisions. Nicholson was in a similar position. If you read more about the man then you will realize this. He was also a decent honorable man who had a charisma which he didn't understand. He had great difficulty accommodating the Nicholsonites the followers who followed him around thinking that he was a god. In many ways his death at the siege of Delhi was a tragedy, a few more years as Governor of the frontier provinces with his ruthless imposed peace might have weaned it away from its lawless way, and enabled it to become a peaceful and prosperous area, something it certainly isn't now. Please don't blame that on the British we have been out of Pakistan for 60 years now, all the problems are of your own making.
Deep regards
Yorkshire miner
Nicholson was a decent man,was he?
He had a child beaten to death for crossing his path.
India gave the world the number system,algebra,the game of chess,many religions and a lot more.Our reward from the British was 40 million starvation deaths,the hideous brutality during the 1857 War of Independance,destruction of large amounts of the world's best architecture,destruction of it's culture,self confidence,it's economy and it's place in the world.
911 was an inside job.Al CIA duh is
a mythical entity created by the media to justify the war of terror.
Keep up the good work.
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I didn't know nothing about Victorian General and that they were really amazing army that they are really successful. It is really weird that they aren't very popular.
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