Lahore to Luknow

Had the camp been allowed to award one VC, the recipient of that honour would have been Arthur Lang, and that by universal acclamation... In September1857, an inexperienced young Engineer officer, was given what turned out to be a key role at the turning point of the Indian Mutiny. He had to decide weather the breaches at the Kashmere bastion were wide enough to allow for the attack, and had then lead the assault on himself. To those who saw him then, 'fighting like a paladin,' through the recapture of Delhi, and later through the relief and the final capture of Lucknow, Lang seemed to bear a charmed life. He was the only Engineer officer to fight in all those major back to building roads. He was awarded no VC, never published his own story. He left behind him a reputation for kindness and contentment- and a journal of his life. This book takes from that journal his story of the Mutiny It gives an intensively dramatic day-by-day account of how Lang and his easy-going friends were transformed into fierce and vengeful warriors, and why in the end he decided that they had done enough.