lecture

18/4/07

11:20

Page 1

The Last Mughal:

the fall of a dynasty, 1857
An Evening Talk and Book Signing
by the author

William Dalrymple
at

The Rifles Officers' London Club

56 Davies Street, London W1K 5HR (Close to Bond Street Tube Station)

Wednesday 4th July, 2007 6.00 p.m.

Doors open at 6.00 p.m. Lecture starts at 6.45 p.m.

Tickets 20 per head (17.50 for Friends of The Royal Green Jackets Museum)
Ticket price includes a glass (or two) of wine plus canaps before the Lecture
Tickets must be booked in advance through:
Major Ken Gray, Curator,The Royal Green Jackets Museum, Peninsula Barracks, Romsey Road
Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8TS
Tel: 01962 828 549
Fax: 01962 828 500
email: museum@royalgreenjackets.co.uk
Make cheques payable to Royal Green Jackets Museum Trust

Rifles and Kukris: Delhi, 1857

by Lieutenant-General Sir Christopher Wallace
will be on sale and the author present to sign copies purchased
Also available from The Royal Green Jackets Museum or The Gurkha Museum
Peninsula Barracks,Winchester, Hants S023 8TS
Tel: 01962 828 549 or 01962 842 832 respectively
20 but pre-publication price of only 16 for orders received by 25 May 2007
Postage and packing 3.50

An Exhibition Delhi, 1857

is also being mounted jointly by The Royal Green Jackets and Gurkha museums.

Winchester 17 August - 16 September 2007

lecture

18/4/07

11:20

Page 2

The Last Mughal:

the fall of a dynasty, 1857
An Evening Talk by the author,William Dalrymple
This year (2007) sees the commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny (Sepoy Revolt)
at Meerut on 10 May 1857 and of the subsequent siege and recapture of Delhi, the capital city of the old Mughal Empire
and focal point for the assembly of large numbers of mutineers hailing the King of Delhi as their leader.With the British
hold on India threatened, a small British force, including loyal Indian and Nepalese soldiers, advanced on Delhi.There, they
heroically defended the ridge that overlooked the city from repeated attacks and, after receiving reinforcements from the
Punjab, stormed the city on 14 September 1857, completing its recapture six days later. By any measure the assault on a
city defended by a force at least four times as great was an extraordinary feat of arms, with 20% of the British force (1,170)
killed or wounded in less than 24 hours.The stakes were high. Success was crucial.Thereafter the Mutiny was doomed to
fail, with British rule in India prevailing for a further 90 years.
Bahadur Shab Zafar II, the last Mughal Emperor, presided over one of the greatest cultural renaissances of Indian history
but while his Mughal ancestors had controlled most of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the 82 year-old Zafar was king in
name only. When, in 1857, Zafar gave his blessing to a rebellion among the East India Company's Indian troops, it
transformed the army mutiny into the largest uprising the British Empire ever had to face.The Siege of Delhi was the Raj's
Stalingrad: a fight to the death between two powers, neither of whom could retreat and it reduced Zafar to an anonymous
grave in a prison in Rangoon and his beloved Delhi to a battered, empty ruin.
William Dalrymple's powerful retelling of the last days of the great Mughal capital is shaped from groundbreaking material:
previously untranslated Urdu and Persian manuscripts that include eyewitness accounts and the records of the Delhi courts,
police and administration during the Siege.
His lecture will provide context to the actions of six of the regiments that took part, namely: the 52nd Light Infantry,
1st/60th Rifles and 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment, all antecedent regiments of The Rifles (the new Regiment
formed on 1 February, 2007); the Sirmoor Battalion of Goorkhas, an antecedent regiment of The Royal Gurkha Rifles; the
Kemaoon Battalion, later the 3rd Gurkha Rifles, now a part of the Indian Army; and the Guides Infantry, now a part of
the Pakistan Army. Their story is told in a book to be published on 1 July entitled Rifles and Kukris: Delhi, 1857 by
Lieutenant-General Sir Christopher Wallace, who will introduce William Dalrymple.
All those interested in what happened at Delhi in 1857 and in the actions of these regiments should
not hesitate to attend this talk, with all proceeds benefiting The Royal Green Jackets and The Gurkha
museums.

The evenings event is generously sponsored by

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