LUCKNOW MEMORIES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 16, 30 October 1933, Page 8

LUCKNOW MEMORIES

LIVING HOLDER OF MEDAL. TRIBUTE TO SOLE SURVIVOR. Canadians have been paying tribute on the 76th anniversary of the relief of Lucknow, to one of its nine survivors, Major C. G. Palmer, of Duncan, Vancouver Island, who, as a boy of 10, acted at ammunition carrier and dispatch-bearer in the beleagured garrison, and later had a distinguished career in the engineering service of the Government of India. The “London Times” simultaneously pays tribute to the survivors, in a sketch written by Arthur. F. Dashwood, whom Major Palmer recalls as the “siege baby” as he was born at that time. Major Palmer is the only living holder of the Lucknow Medal, awarded him in recognition of his services. All nine survivors were children at the lime of the siege. Since the last anniversary the ranks have been reduced by three deaths. Major Palmer, son of an Indian army general, retired to a farm near Duncan 24 years ago, and has played a prominent part in local affairs as municipal councillor, police commissioner, and president of the United Farmers of British Columbia. “Our elders showed the anxiety they felt,” lie said, “hut we children took things as they came—as children always do. I recall the excited buzz of talk about a Scotch girl named Jean, who said she saw and heard the Highlanders approaching two days before they got in and brought relief. Even we youngsters took note of that talk. 1 would not call the incident supernatural. It may have been that the girl had • a much keener .sense of hearing than we, but nevertheless it was a popular topic in the garrison and was regarded as a great mystery.” “About India to-day? Well, I would like to put it this way : There are a lot of good men there. So far as I can sec, nine-tenths of life goes on just the same as it used to and I think things will come out all right. That recent murder of a magistrate at Midnapore. It was a nasty thing and the third murder there since 1931. You know, these murders are done by misled youths, who have been contaminated by the teaching of wild fanatics. ' They fly off the deep end without much persuasion. “It has always been rather a surprising thing to me that the Biitisli Government has so entirely given up the old India idea of holding the head of the family responsible for the actions of the junior members. Among the Hindus, the head of the family, which might include .as many as 50 households, lias immense , authority, and, if the younger members get into had company and murder officials the head must have neglected his duty to keep order among his own people. “I wonder that the Government has not adopted some means of punishing the family head, as would be done by all Oriental governments.”