REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 249 



Hugh Wheeler, who fell at Cawnpore during the Mutiny ; it 

 included the yth Bengal Cavalry, and acted on the left 

 of the main army which, under Lord Gough, fought the 

 battles of Chilianwala and Gujrat, and Lieutenant Montagu 

 Turnbull served during the greater part of the campaign 

 as officiating Quarter-Master-General to the force. He was 

 specially mentioned in Sir Hugh Wheeler's despatch, and 

 was rewarded for his military services on the annexation of 

 the Punjab by being removed to civil employ and posted as 

 Assistant Commissioner in the Punjab in April 1849. He did 

 not long remain in the Punjab, however, for, after being pro- 

 moted captain in June 1851, he was appointed Agent for 

 Army Clothing at Fort William in December of the same year. 

 " 'When the news of the mutiny of the Bengal Army, of 

 the loss of Delhi, and of the general spread of the revolt, 

 reached the capital, something of a panic seized on Calcutta 

 society, and, after one abrupt refusal, Lord Canning gave per- 

 mission, on nth June 1857, f r the enlistment of a body of 

 volunteers. The Calcutta Volunteer Guards were divided into 

 cavalry and infantry, and Captain Turnbull was placed in 

 command of the former force. Colonel G. B. Malleson, who 

 was at this time resident in Calcutta, speaks of Montagu 

 Turnbull as "a splendid specimen of a cavalry officer. . . . 

 Not only was he ' every inch a soldier/ possessing an inspering 

 presence and most genial manners, but he was loved by all 

 with whom he came in contact. I never heard a single man speak 

 ill of him, nor do I believe that he had an enemy. He was 

 the man of all others to secure the confidence and affection 

 of the classes forming the cavalry of the volunteers, and he 

 secured both." (Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny, 

 vol. VI., p. 17.) The Calcutta Volunteer Guards, though they 

 attained considerable proficiency on parade and did good ser- 

 vice in restoring confidence among the European residents 

 in Calcutta, were not called on to take the field, and so Captain 



