Havelock, SIR HENRY, one of the heroes of the Indian mutiny, was born April 5, 1795, at Bishop-Wearmouth, in Durham, where his father was a merchant and shipbuilder. He was educated at the Charterhouse, and was at first intended for the law, but, following his elder brother's example, entered the army a month after Waterloo, and went out to India in 1823. It was during the voyage that that conversion occurred which coloured all his after-life. Havelock distinguished himself in the Afghan and Sikh wars, but was still a lieutenant after 23 years' service. In 1856 he commanded a division of the army that invaded Persia. News of the Indian mutiny hastened his return to Calcutta, and ere long he had organised a small movable column at Allahabad with which to push on to the relief of the British at Cawnpore and Lucknow. A forced march brought his 2000 men to Fatehpur, where he engaged and broke the rebels. He continued his march upon Cawnpore, driving the enemy before him. The cowardly miscreants at the suggestion of the infamous Nana Sahib revenged their defeats before abandoning Cawnpore by the atrocious massacre of all the European women and children in their hands. At Ahirwa Havelock found the rebels strongly entrenched, but turned their left, and carried the village by a splendid charge of the 78th Highlanders. He now entered Cawnpore, and saw with his own eyes the horrors of the massacre. The sight steeled the hearts of his handful of heroes, who quitted Cawnpore to advance upon Lucknow. Crossing the Ganges, he repulsed the rebels at Unao, but after fighting eight victorious battles he found his little army so thinned by fatigue and sickness that he was reluctantly compelled to retire upon Cawnpore. Early in September General Outram arrived with reinforcements, and Havelock again advanced to the relief of Lucknow; Ontram, with a chivalrous generosity characteristic of that heroic time, waiving his superior rank, and serving under Havelock as a volunteer until Lucknow was saved. The relieving force, which mustered 2500 men and 17 guns, after a sharp brush with the enemy engaged them at the Alum-Bagh, an isolated building about three miles from the Residency of Lucknow. Next with desperate bravery they fought their way through streets of houses, each a separate fortress, until they gained the Residency, to the indescribable joy of the beleaguered garrison. The victorious army were now in turn besieged, but held their own until November, when Sir Colin Campbell in his turn forced his way to their rescue. After the relief of Lucknow Havelock was attacked by dysentery, died November 22, 1857, and was buried in the Alum-Bagh. Before his death news arrived of his elevation to the distinction of K.C.B. Other honours were in store for him, but they came too late. He was made major-general; appointed to the colonelcy of the 3d Foot, and a baronet, with a proposed pension of £1000 a year. The rank and the pension were given to his widow, daughter of the Baptist missionary, Dr Marshman; a new patent of baronetcy issued in favour of the eldest son, as his father's was sealed only the day after his death; and a statue was erected by public subscription in Trafalgar Square. Havelock was strict in his religion, and severe in his discipline, somewhat after the type of the grave and fearless Puritans who fought and conquered under Cromwell. 'For more than forty years,' he said to Sir James Ontram in his last moments, 'I have so ruled my life that when death came I might face it without fear.' This he did, and among her noblest soldiers England will never cease to remember the Christian hero, Sir Henry Havelock.
See lives of him by W. Brock (1858), Miss Marshman (1860), and A. Forbes (1890).