346 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



Hodson was entitled as the widow of a Company's 

 officer, a special pension was bestowed upon lier 

 by the Secretary of State for India in Council 

 "in testimony of the high sense entertained of 

 the gallant and distinguished services of the late 

 Brevet- Major W. S. R. Hodson." In further 

 acknowledgment of those services Queen Victoria 

 herself was graciously pleased to assign to Mrs 

 Hodson a set of apartments in Hampton Court. 

 After her death in 1885 the whole of her property 

 was sworn by her executrix under £400. So much 

 for the slanders that have dogged the memory of 

 one of the finest soldiers whom England has ever 

 sent forth to fight her battles on Eastern ground ! 

 After Hodson's death his regiment was attached 

 to the Cavalry Division, and took part in the 

 fruitless attempt to cut ofi" the retreat of the 

 mutineers from Lucknow. " Though its distin- 

 guished commandant was dead," writes Sir Hugh 

 Gough, " the regiment continued to maintain its 

 reputation under his successor, Colonel Daly (after- 

 wards Sir Henry Daly, G.C.B.); did gallant service 

 during the remainder of the Mutiny ; was subse- 

 quently made into three regiments — 1st, 2nd, and 

 3rd ' Hodson's Horse ' ; and finally, on the reorganisa- 

 tion of the native army, the 1st and 2nd regiments 

 were renumbered and renamed 9th and 10th Bengal 

 Lancers (both these regiments retaining the ad- 

 ditional title of 'Hodson's Horse'), whilst the 3rd 

 regiment was disbanded. I do not wish to be 

 invidious, but I have no hesitation in saying that 

 the 9th and 10th (Duke of Cambridge's Own) 

 Bengal Lancers are quite among the pick of the 

 Bengal cavalry of the present day — in each case 



