Outram, SIR JAMES

Outram, SIR JAMES, the 'Bayard of India,' was born 29th January 1803, at Butterley Hall, Derbyshire, the residence of his father, Benjamin Outram (1764-1805), a well-known engineer. His mother in 1810 removed with her five children to Aberdeen, where and at Udny James was educated. After one session at Marischal College, in 1819 he received an Indian cadetship, and became lieutenant and adjutant in the Bombay native infantry. Between 1825 and 1835 (in which latter year he married his cousin, Margaret Anderson) he successfully organised a corps of the wild Bhils; from 1835 to 1838 he was political agent to the Mahi Kantha district in Gujrat. In 1839 he attended Sir John Keane as aide-de-camp into Afghanistan (q.v.); and his eight days' ride of 355 miles, disguised as an Afghan merchant, from Kelat, through the perilous Bolan Pass, to the sea, will long be famous in eastern annals. Appointed in 1840 political agent in Sind, he distinguished himself by his heroic defence of the British Residency at Hyderabad against 8000 Beluchis (15th February 1843), as also by his manly opposition to what he deemed Sir Charles Napier's aggressive policy towards the Ameer. He was afterwards resident at Satara and Baroda, and in 1854, on the eve of the annexation of Oudh, was selected by Lord Dalhousie for the highest political office in India—the Residency of Lucknow. In 1857, after a third brief furlough to Europe, he commanded the Persian expedition—a short, brilliant campaign, whose objects triumphantly attained, he returned to India a G.C.B. (he had been knighted sixteen months before). When he landed in July the Mutiny was raging; and Lord Canning tendered him the command of the forces advancing to the relief of Lucknow. He chivalrously waived that glory in favour of his old lieutenant, Havelock (q.v.), who already had fought eight victorious battles with the rebels; and accompanied him only as chief-commissioner of Oudh, whilst tendering his military services as a volunteer. Lucknow (q.v.) was relieved, and Outram took the command, but only to be in turn himself besieged. He held the Alum-bagh against almost overwhelming odds, until Sir Colin Campbell advanced to his relief. He then made a skilful movement up the left bank of the Gumti, which led to a final and complete victory. For his services he was in 1858 promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, thanked by parliament, and created a baronet. He took his seat as a member of the Supreme Council at Calcutta, but in 1860 had to return to England, already stricken by the hand of death. He spent the winter of 1861-62 in Egypt, and, after a short stay in the south of France, expired at Paris, 11th March 1863. He was buried in Westminster Abbey; and statues of him have been reared in London and Calcutta. See his Life by Major-general Sir F. J. Goldsmid (2 vols. 1880).