Sir Hugh Gough

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Sir Hugh Gough

British military officer

Also known as: 1st Viscount Gough, Baron Gough

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Also called (1846–49):: Baron Gough, or (from 1849) 1st Viscount Gough

Born:: Nov. 3, 1779, Limerick, County Limerick, Ire.

Died:: March 2, 1869, St. Helen’s, near Dublin (aged 89)

Role In:: First Opium War; Peninsular War; Second Sikh War; Opium Wars; Sikh Wars

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Sir Hugh Gough (born Nov. 3, 1779, Limerick, County Limerick, Ire.—died March 2, 1869, St. Helen’s, near Dublin) was a British soldier prominent in the Peninsular War and in India, who was said to have commanded in more general actions than any British officer except the Duke of Wellington.

The son of a lieutenant colonel in the Limerick city militia, Gough obtained a commission in the British Army at age 13. He took part in the British occupation of the Cape of Good Hope in 1796 and campaigned in the West Indies in 1797–1800. A major by purchase at 25, he commanded the Royal Irish Fusiliers regiment in Portugal and Spain during the Peninsular War (1808–14). He was severely wounded at Talavera (1809), led his forces to victory at Barrosa (1811), helped defend Tarifa, and captured the baton of the French marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan at Vitoria (1813). He was knighted in 1815 and pensioned, and for 20 years he saw action only briefly, against the peasantry of southern Ireland (1821–24). As a major general, he was given command in Mysore, India, in 1837 and led the expedition to China in the first Opium War (1839–42). He was appointed commander in chief in India in 1843 and defeated the Marāthā army that year and then the Sikhs in the Sikh Wars in 1845–46 and in 1848–49.

Gough suffered unexpectedly heavy losses against the Sikhs; his tactics were criticized, and he was replaced by Sir Charles Napier. Gough was made a baron after the First Sikh War (1846) and raised to a viscountcy after the second (1849); he returned home to the thanks of both houses of Parliament. In 1855 he was appointed colonel of the Royal Horse Guards and in 1862 was made field marshal.

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Sikh Wars

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Sikh Wars

Indian history

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Date:: 1845 - 1846; April 1848 - March 12, 1849

Location:: India; Multan; Pakistan; Punjab; Punjab Plain

Participants:: United Kingdom

Major Events:: Battle of Firoz Shah; Battle of Gujrat; Second Sikh War; Battle of Sobraon

Key People:: Dalip Singh; Sir Hugh Gough; Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge; Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier; Sir Harry Smith, Baronet

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Sikh Wars, (1845–46; 1848–49), two campaigns fought between the Sikhs and the British. They resulted in the conquest and annexation by the British of the Punjab in northwestern India.

The first war was precipitated by mutual suspicions and the turbulence of the Sikh army. The Sikh state in the Punjab had been built into a formidable power by the maharaja Ranjit Singh, who ruled from 1801 to 1839. Within six years of his death, however, the government had broken down in a series of palace revolutions and assassinations. By 1843 the ruler was a boy—the youngest son of Ranjit Singh—whose mother was proclaimed queen regent. Actual power, however, resided with the army, which was itself in the hands of panchs, or military committees. Relations with the British had already been strained by the refusal of the Sikhs to allow the passage of British troops through their territory during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838–42). Having determined to invade British India under the pretext of forestalling a British attack, the Sikhs crossed the Sutlej River in December 1845. They were defeated in the four bloody and hard-fought battles of Mudki, Firozpur, Aliwal, and Sobraon. The British annexed Sikh lands east of the Sutlej and between it and the Beas River; Kashmir and Jammu were detached, and the Sikh army was limited to 20,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry. A British resident was stationed in Lahore with British troops.

The Second Sikh War began with the revolt of Mulraj, governor of Multan, in April 1848 and became a national revolt when the Sikh army joined the rebels on September 14. Indecisive battles characterized by great ferocity and bad generalship were fought at Ramnagar (November 22) and at Chilianwala (Jan. 13, 1849) before the final British victory at Gujrat (February 21). The Sikh army surrendered on March 12, and the Punjab was then annexed.

Sikh Wars events