|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Son of the Rev. B. Edwardes, was born on 12 November 1819. He joined the Bengal infantry as a cadet in 1841, and served as Urdu, Hindi and Persian interpreter to his regiment. He was aide-de-camp to Lord Hugh Gough during the first Anglo-Sikh war and was, in 1847, appointed assistant to Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, British Resident at the Sikh capital, who sent him to effect the settlement of Bannu, the account of which is given in his work, A Year on. the Punjab Frontier in 1848-49, London, .1851. Upon the murder of Vans Agnew and Anderson at Multan and the rebellion of Diwan Mul Raj in April 1848, Edwardes collected a force of tribesmen and, with the aid of Nawab of Bahawalpur and Colonel Van Cortlandt of the Sikh service, attacked Mul Raj and his supporters, defeating them at Kineri on 18 June and gaining another victory over them at Saddosain on 2 July. Edwardes opened negotiations with Mul Raj and, at the same time, frantically sought from the Resident at Lahore a few heavy guns, a mortar battery, and sappers and miners. The Multan affair was a local incident
which the Governor-General Lord Dalhousie seemed determined to enlarge
into a Sikh national uprising to have an excuse to invade the Punjab.
He was critical of the conduct of Edwardes and wrote to the Resident
at Lahore saying that he altogether disapproved of army officers
such as Lieut. Edwardes taking upon themselves to volunteer negotiations
on a subject of such critical importance without authority from
their superiors. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|