Lieutenant Havelock’s Helmet
In his autobiography, “Old Memories”, Hugh Gough relates a peculiar tale of a particularly smart helmet that had once belong the Captain Charles James Salmond, once adjutant in the Gwalior Contingent Cavalry, later serving as ADC to Sir Hope Grant. Grant narrated that Salmond’s death occurred during the Battle for Cawnpore on 6 December 1857. He “…had loitered a little behind, was found with his throat cut, and a terrible gash across his chin. The poor young fellow must have met with some of the enemy who had been lying hid till the force passed, and had murdered him in this shocking manner.” The helmet in question was brought back with Salmond’s body and subsequently auctioned.
The helmet “excited my envy and admiration,” so much so that Gough asked a friend to purchase it at the auction on his behalf. However, Lieutenant George Austen Patterson Younghusband of the 5th Punjab Cavalry outbid him, and Gough was left empty-handed. However, the helmet would shortly come up for auction again. In January 1858, Sir Colin Campbell marched on Fatehgarh and in the ensuing skirmish, Lieutenant Younghusband was mortally wounded, shot through the lungs. Following his death, his effects were up for auction. Still determined that the helmet should grace his head, Hugh Gough once again bid on it and was again “…outbid, and the helmet fell to the nod of Lieutenant Havelock, a nephew of the General. He, too, was killed wearing it; and rumour subsequently said a fourth officer had bought it and had been killed. It was a strange coincidence, and as these deaths occurred quickly one after the other, I ceased to wish I had been its possessor.”
Sources:
Ball, Charles. The History of the Indian Mutiny. Vol. 2. London: The London Printing & Publishing Company, Ltd., n.d.
Battye, Evelyn Désirée. The Fighting Ten. London: BACSA, 1984.
Behan, T. L. Bulletins & Other State Intelligence for the Year 1858, Part III. London: Harrison & Sons, 1860.
Caine, Caesar, ed. Barracks & Battlefields or the Experiences of a Soldier of the 10th Foot in the Sikh Wars and Sepoy Mutiny. London: C.H. Kelly, 1891.
Dodd, George. The History of the Indian Revolt and the Expedition of Persia, China & Japan. London: W. & R. Chambers, 1859.
Forrest, G. W. A History of the Indian Mutiny. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1902.
Führer, A. List of Christian Tombs and Monuments of Archaeological or Historical Interest & Their Inscriptions in the North-Western Provinces & Oudh. Allahabad: Government Press, 1896.
Gough, Hugh. Old Memories. London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1897.
Jocelyn, Julian R. J. The History of the Royal & Indian Artillery in the Mutiny of 1857. London: John Murray, 1915.
Malleson, G. B. History of the Indian Mutiny 1857-1858. Vol. 2. London: William H. Allen & Co., 1879.
The Sepoy War of 1857-58, Compiled from the Private Journals of General Sir Hope Grant. London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1873.
Mutiny Reflections 