Judging by the undergrowth spilling over the path, Ferozpur military cemetery sees few visitors these days. But it is here, amid the brambles and rock pythons, in the sun-scorched heart of the Punjab, that the trail leads for anyone seeking the final resting places of those who died in the early battles of the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845-1846).
‘There they are, look,’ said Amar Singh, my Sikh guide, as he pulled at some weeds and brushed away goat poo to reveal the headstones of just two of the British officers who fell to Sikh blades and bullets at Ferozashah, one of the earliest battles of the conflict, on 21-22 December 1845. ‘There’s Lieutenant Colonel Louis Bruce, 54th Bengal, and Major George Broadfoot’ – or the ‘Foremost Man in India and an Honour to Scotland’, as the inscription on the gravestone of the latter had it. Amar was dead right, but it was a smaller stone, right next to the others, that rocked me backwards – for here, at last, was the legendary ‘Fighting Bob’.
To his admirers, Major-General Sir Robert Henry Sale GCB (1782-1845) was what a British officer should be – a positive ‘Bayard’ (to use a traditional term for one who encapsulates the chivalric virtues of bravery and honour). Many with an interest in military history have studied his swordplay in steamy Burma (during the First Anglo-Burmese War, 1824-1826) and his brass-lunged leadership in the snows of Afghanistan (during the First Anglo-Afghan War, 1838-1842), and it was not only he, but also his flint-sharp wife, Florentia – the almost-equally-renowned ‘Grenadier in Petticoats’ – who had made such a deep impression.
Excavating the CA archive: Major church buildings