Soldier Sahibs

This text retells the story of a brotherhood of young men who together laid claim to one of the most notorious frontiers in the world: India's north-west frontier, which in the late 1990s forms the volatile boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Known collectively as Henry Lawrence's Young Men, each had distinguished himself in the East India Company's wars in the Punjab in the 1840s before going out to carve out names for themselves as politicals on the frontier. Drawing extensively on the men's diaries, journals and letters, Charles Allen weaves the individual stories of these Soldier Sahibs together with the tale of how they came together to save British India, ending climatically on Delhi Ridge in 1857.

This text retells the story of a brotherhood of young men who together laid claim to one of the most notorious frontiers in the world: India's north-west frontier, which in the late 1990s forms the volatile boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Known collectively as Henry Lawrence's Young Men, each had distinguished himself in the East India Company's wars in the Punjab in the 1840s before going out to carve out names for themselves as politicals on the frontier.;Drawing extensively on the men's diaries, journals and letters, Charles Allen weaves the individual stories of these Soldier Sahibs together with the tale of how they came together to save British India, ending climatically on Delhi Ridge in 1857.

A study of British colonial history in the northwest region of India, and the role played by Brigadier General John Nicholson and other British army officers.

“The life of a soldier in the first decade of the twentieth century, before the Great War. Frank Richards is well known for his Old Soldiers Never Die, probably the best account of the Great War as seen through the eyes of a private soldier. Richards served in the trenches from August 1914 to the end in the 2nd Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF). Born in 1884 he enlisted in the RWF at Brecon in April 1901, just three months after the death of Queen Victoria... This is a marvellous book, full of nostalgia as it takes you back to the days of the Empire before the outbreak of the Great War, to that great little army that died on the Western front in 1914... Richards served in India and in Burma and his descriptions of the soldier’s life in those countries in those far off days and his anecdotes make wonderful reading. Kipling described east of Suez as ‘the place where there ain’t no ten commandments’. For the soldier the prime virtues were courage, honesty, loyalty to friends and a pride in the regiment. In his inimitable style Richards is down to earth though never having to use the four-letter language that is de rigueur today nor was the soldiers’ attitude to the natives very politically correct...Some of his yarns are for the broad minded - witness the ‘magnificently built’ prostitute who chose the date of the Delhi Durbar of 1903 to announce her forthcoming retirement. To celebrate the occasion and as an act of loyalty to the Crown she decided on her final appearance to make herself freely available to all soldiers between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m...But life in the army wasn’t all bad; Richards served eight years with the colours, nearly all of them in India and Burma, and in those eight years he grew three inches in height and put on three stone in weight. As a reservist he was recalled to the Colours in August 1914 and in the war that followed he was awarded the DCM and MM. This is a superb book!.”-Print ed.

Sahib is a magnificent history of the British soldier in India from Clive to the end of Empire, making full use of personal accounts from the soldiers who served in the jewel in Britain’s Imperial Crown.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Old-Soldier Sahib" by Frank Richards. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

"[B]egins with India's rise from commercial enclave to great Empire, from Clive's victory of Plassey, through the imperial wars of the eighteenth century and the Afghan and Sikh wars of the 1840s, through the bloody turmoil of the Mutiny, and the frontier campaigns at the century's end. With its focus on the experiences of the ordinary soldiers, Sahib explains why soldiers of the Raj joined the army, how they got to India and what they made of it when they arrived"--Fly leaf.

Imperial Boredom offers a radical reconsideration of the British Empire during its heyday in the nineteenth century. Challenging the long-established view that the empire was about adventure and excitement, with heroic men and intrepid women eagerly spreading commerce and civilization around the globe, this thoroughly researched, engagingly written, and lavishly illustrated account suggests instead that boredom was central to the experience of empire. Combining individual stories of pain and perseverance with broader analysis, Professor Auerbach considers what it was actually like to sail to Australia, to serve as a soldier in South Africa, or to accompany a colonial official to the hill stations of India. He reveals that for numerous men and women, from explorers to governors, tourists to settlers, the Victorian Empire was dull and disappointing. Drawing on diaries, letters, memoirs, and travelogues, Imperial Boredom demonstrates that all across the empire, men and women found the landscapes monotonous, the physical and psychological distance from home debilitating, the routines of everyday life wearisome, and their work tedious and unfulfilling. The empires early years may have been about wonder and marvel, but the Victorian Empire was a far less exciting project. Many books about the British Empire focus on what happened; this book concentrates on how people felt.