PUNJAB CAMPAIGN - THE MURDERS

The Punjab War was sparked by the murder of two British representatives visiting the Fort at Multan:

AGNEW - Patrick Alexander Vans - Bengal Civil Service - On the 19th April 1848 he was knocked from his horse and wounded by Sikh soldiers at the Fort. The officers were carried into shelter, but the next day a mob burst in and killed them. He was born 21 April 1822, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Vans Agnew, CB, Madras Army. He went to india in 1841 and was present at the battle of Sobraon.

ANDERSON - Lieutenant William Andrew - 1st Bombay Fusiliers - Murdered as above. He was born 15 July 1837 and joined the Bombay Army in 1837. In 1847 he was appointed Assistant to the Resident at Lahore.

Grave in Multan Fort - "Beneath this Monument lie the remains of Patrick Alexander Vans Agnew of the Bengal Civil Service and William Andrew Anderson, Lieutenant 1st Bombay Fusiliers Regiment, Assistants, to the Resident at Lahore who being deputed by the Government, to relieve at his own request, Dewan Moolraj, Viceroy of Mooltan, of the fortress and authority which he held were attacked and wounded by the garrison on the 19th April 1848; and being treacherously deserted by the Sikh escort, were on the following day, in flagrant breach of national faith and hospitality barbarously murdered in the Edgah under the walls of Multan. Thus fell these two young public servants at the ages of 25 and 28 years, full of high hopes, rare talents and promise of future usefulness, even in their deaths doing their country honour, wounded and forsaken they could offer no resistance but hand in hand calmly awaited the onset of their assailants, nobly they refused to yield foretelling the day when thousands of Englishmen should come to avenge their deaths, and destroy Moolraj, his army and fortress. History records how their prediction was fulfilled, borne to their grave by their victorious brother soldiers and countrymen they were buried with military honours, here on the summit of the captured citadel on the 26th January 1849. The annexation of the Punjab to the Empire was the result of the war of which the assassination was the comencement."


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