LONDON.- Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, Northern India, was the last stronghold of Indian Independence by the beginning of May 1858, under the leadership of Khan Bhadur Khan Rohilla, who had declared himself Nawab of the city. General Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, along with Captain George Stewart and Sir William Mansfield led the British Army along with a number of East India Company troops and recaptured the city in a day.

Henry Hope Crealock had an impressive military career, serving with distinction in Crimea, again in the second Opium War in China with the Expeditionary Force and in India with Sir William Rose Mansfield. In 1860 he was appointed as Lord Elgin's military secretary in China and served there until the Austro-Prussian war when he was made military attaché in Vienna. From 1874-1877 he was Quartermaster General in Ireland. Crealock commanded the first division in the Anglo-Zulu war for which he was created C.M.G.

Crealock made sketches throughout his time in the army, and his scenes of the First Indian War of Independence, Anglo-Chinese war and the Anglo-Zulu war are valuable and painstaking records of these events. Crealock's Sketches of India was published by the forward-thinking Joseph Hogarth, who had begun publishing photographic reproductions of paintings and drawings in the 1850's. In 1861, Hogarth exhibited six albumen prints by Felice Beato of Crealock's drawings of India at the London Photographic Society. Hogarth also published a booklet listing 36 such drawings to coincide with the exhibition. These were accompanied by descriptive notes written by Crealock himself, including one on the present work.

"No. 7 / On the morning of the 5th May, 1858, the Head Quarter Camp was struck at Furreedpore, a village about ten miles from Bareilly, and the troops, under Sir Colin Campbell's orders, marched on the latter place. At five o'clock the column was halted about two miles from Bareilly. Sir Colin having drawn the troops up in order of battle, advanced on the city. Sir Colin and the Head Quarter Staff moved with Colonel Tombs' troop of Bengal Horse Artillery, which formed the advance of the left wing of the line of battle. The sketch represents the moment when the enemy discloses his advanced post by opening on the British Force with artillery from the Bareilly road; the first shot struck within a hundred yards in front of Colonel Tombs' troop, and passed over it; the second shot, better directed, struck one of the artillery horses in the hind leg, breaking it. At this moment Colonel Tombs turned round to the troops, saying to the officers, "Steady, gentlemen, steady, keep your intervals." The next two shots from the enemy killed two artillerymen, and struck Major Norma, the deputy adjutant-general of the army, on the heel, slightly wounding him. Sir William Mansfield at this time desired Lieut.-Colonel H. Hope Crealock to order up the heavy guns, to bear on the left flank of the enemy's post. Colonel Crealock is represented taking the order from General Mansfield, who is pointing out the direction of the spot to be fired on" (1)

The figures identified in the drawing are as follows: Field Marshal Sir Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, GCB, KCSI Gen. Sir William Mansfield, 1st Baron Sandhurst, GCB, GCSI, PC (Ire) Lieut.-Gen. Henry Hope Crealock, CB, CMG Major Gen. Sir Henry Tombs, VC, KCB Field Marshal Sir Henry Wylie Norman, GCB, GCMG, CIE.
Later in life Crealock spent a great deal of time in Scotland deer-stalking, and his Deer-Stalking in the Highlands of Scotland (1892) is a definitive text on the subject.
(1) Lieut.-Colonel Henry Hope Crealock - Sketches of the Campaign in India - J. Hogarth, 5 Haymarket, London, 1861, p4, no.7

The British and Continental Pictures and Prints Auction takes place on 17th April at 11am. The present work by Crealock is accompanied by a strong and varied selection of 19th Century topographical paintings, with depictions of China (including works by George Chinnery) and India alongside a number of continental views. The sale is also particularly strong in modern British pictures with works by exponents in the field including Augustus John, John Bratby, Anne Redpath and a group of works by Dame Laura Knight. Works also for sale by lesser known figures such as Harry Epworth Allen and Sir Thomas Monnington P.R.A. nonetheless have a dedicated following.