Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet
Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet GCB, KCSI (29 January 1803 – 11 March 1863) was a British general who fought in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
James Outram
1st Bt., GCB, KCSI
The Bayard of India
29 January 1803
Butterley, Derbyshire, England
11 March 1863 (aged 60)
Pau, Pyrenees-Atlantiques, France
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1819–1860
Resident Minister of Lucknow
Chief Commissioner of Oudh
Early life[edit]
James Outram was the son of Benjamin Outram of Butterley Hall, Butterley, Derbyshire, a civil engineer, and Margaret Anderson, a daughter of James Anderson of Hermiston a Scottish writer on agriculture. His father died in 1805, and his mother moved to Aberdeenshire in 1810. From Udny school the boy went in 1818 to the Marischal College, Aberdeen and in 1819 an Indian cadetship was given to him. Soon after his arrival at Bombay his remarkable energy attracted notice, and in July 1820 he became acting adjutant to the first battalion of the 12th regiment on its embodiment at Poona, an experience which he found to be of immense advantage to him later in his career.[1]
Gujarat and Sindh campaigns[edit]
In 1835 he was sent to Gujarat to make a report on the Mahi Kantha district, and for some time he remained there as political agent. On the outbreak of the First Afghan War in 1838 he was appointed extra aide-de-camp on the staff of Sir John Keane, and went to Afghanistan, where he conducted various raids against Afghan tribes and performed an extraordinary exploit in capturing a banner of the enemy before Ghazni. In 1839, he was promoted to major and appointed political agent in Lower Sindh, later being moved to Upper Sindh (at this time, Gujarat and Sindh were both under the Bombay Presidency). While in Sindh, he strongly opposed the policy of his superior, Sir Charles Napier, which led to the annexation of Sindh into British India. However, when war broke out, he heroically defended the residency at Hyderabad against 8000 Baluchis, causing Sir Charles Napier to describe him as the "Bayard of India." On his return from a short visit to England in 1843, he was, with the rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel, appointed to a command in the Mahratta country, and in 1847 he was transferred from Satara to Baroda, where he incurred the resentment of the Bombay government by his fearless exposure of corruption.[1]
Family[edit]
He was married to Margaret Clementine Anderson (1813-1911). She is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. The grave is also to the memory of Sir James. Their son Sir Francis Boyd Outram lies with her.[7]
A memorial to Outram was erected in Westminster Abbey in 1863 to the designs of Matthew Noble.[8]
Fictional portrayals[edit]
General James Outrum appears as a character in Flashman in the Great Game[12] by George MacDonald Fraser. Outram is played by Richard Attenborough in the 1977 Satyajit Ray film The Chess Players.
Attribution: