KASHMIR GATE, DELHI
From Album IV * Image 3 * Edited from full
size 9½ x 7½ inches.
(George W. Randall
Archive)
The Kashmir (also Kashmere, Kashmiri) Gate was built
during
the thirty year reign
of Emperor Shah Jehan, 1628-1658.
One of the historic walled city’s original
fourteen gateways
it is so named because the road leads due north to
Kashmir.
The storming of Delhi’s Kashmir Gate took place during the
1857 Indian Uprising
against the high-handed rule of the
British East India Company* operating
as a sovereign power responsible to the British
Crown.
Just after sunrise on the 14th September
1857 the gate was
stormed by a nine hundred
strong force under the command of
Colonel George Campbell of Her Majesty's 52nd Regiment
of Light Infantry, comprising: two hundred men of
his
own Regiment,
250 Kumaon Battalion Gurkha Rifles and
500 1st Punjab Infantry (Coke’s
Rifles).
Covered by fire of Her Majesty’s 60th Rifles
and “under close
and destructive heavy enemy fire,”
twenty-nine year old
Lieutenant Duncan Charles Home and twenty-six year old
Lieutenant Philip Salkeld of the First Bengal
Engineers,
led a suicidal mission
comprising a small group of British and
Indian sappers to place gunpowder charges
against the gate.
The subsequent explosion sufficiently breached the
gate to allow
Campbell’s 3rd Column, despite
strenuous opposition
from the enemy's infantry and heavy artillery,
to charge through and enter the city.
Born on 10 June 1828 at Madhya Pradesh, Central India,
Lt. Home survived the assault
unscathed only to die “by the
accidental explosion of a mine” less than three weeks
later
on 1st October at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh,
North India.*
(* from Find A Grave Memorial)
Lt. Salkeld was born at Fontmell Magna, Dorset, England, in
1830,
the seventh child
of the Reverend Robert and Elizabeth Salkeld.
He joined the Bengal Army in June1848.
Severely wounded in the arm and leg he was stretchered
to a military
hospital where
he died on 10 October and interred on the Delhi Ridge.
He is remembered by a memorial cross
in St. Andrew’s churchyard, Fontmell Magna.
Both were awarded the Victoria Cross,
the United Kingdom’s highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy.
* The British East
India Company was incorporated by royal charter
granted by Queen
Elizabeth the First on 31 December 1600.
Headquartered in
London it was dissolved on 1 June 1874
when its
operations were transferred to the British Crown.
On 1 January
1877 Queen Victoria was proclaimed
Empress of
India.
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LAHORE GATE, DELHI
From Album IV * Image 2 * Edited from full size 9½ x 7½ inches.
(George W. Randall Archive)
The Lahore Gate is the principal entrance to the Red Fort, commissioned by
Emperor Shah Jahan in 1639 when he decided to move his capital city
from Agra to Delhi. The three storied gateway is flanked by semi-octagonal
towers each crowned by open octagonal pavillions.
Completed in 1648, the Red Fort was the residence of Moghul dynasty
emperors for two hundred years until 1857.
Deriving its name from its red sandstone walls, the octagonal fort covers
almost 255 acres and is enclosed by a wall, punctuated by bastions and turrets,
varying in height between 59 and 108 depending on the defensive
nature of the terrain upon which it is built.
The Fort's interiors were finely decorated in marble.
In 1739 Emperor Nader Shah of Persia (modern day Iran) invaded India;
attacked, easily captured and plundered the Fort of its contents including
the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Nor diamond. (See Note 2.)
Eight years later Nader Shah was assassinated. In 1813, after passing
through several hands the diamond was given to Ranjit Singh,
founder of the Sikh Empire, for his help in placing Shah Shuja
back on the throne of Afghanistan.
Following the conquest by British forces of the Punjab in 1849,
Sikh Empire property (which included the diamond) was confiscated.
Transferred to the East India Company Treasury in Lahore,
the diamond was presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 and
exhibited at the Great Exhibition the following year.
Today, as part of the British Crown Jewels,
it is on public display at the Tower of London.
The Red Fort was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2007.
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KUTUB MINAR, DELHI. (Bourne 1371)
From Album IV * Image 20 * Size 9½ x 7½ inches.
(George W. Randall Archive)
Qutbuddin Aibak (1150-1210), founder of the Mamluk dynasty
and first
sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, commissioned and laid the foundation stone
of
this 240 foot high, ultimately five storey minaret in 1199 to celebrate the
victory of Mohammed Ghori over the Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan,
seven years earlier. His son-in-law,
Shams ud-Din-Aibak Iltutmish,
ruler from 1211-1236, completed three more storeys.
In 1368 (1369 also recorded) lightening completely
destroyed the fourth storey.
Firuz Shah Tughluq, 19th emperor of Delhi
carried out repairs,
replaced the fourth story and added a fifth. The minaret
has five projecting balconies
supported on ornamental corbels.
The first three stories are of red sandstone,
the later additions a combination
of sandstone and white marble.
The exterior is covered with the most intricate
inscriptions.
The Qutab Minar is the tallest such minaret in the world.
See Note 5.
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