Assorted rogues - Person Sheet
Assorted rogues - Person Sheet
NameFanny Elizabeth Knyvett 
29
29Spouses
FatherGeorge Wilson (i) Boileau (1793-1876)
MotherAnna Rebecca Phipps (-1866)
Marriage185029
Notes for Fanny Elizabeth Knyvett
From BBB:15
After the defeat at Chhinhut, Sir Henry Lawrence accepted the necessity of a siege, and he fortified the Residency at Lucknow and brought into the defended area all the Europeans, men, women and children. Of the Boileau family these included Thomas Theo _, his wife Jessie and their three children, and Fanny, wife of George Wilson ii _, and her four children.
On arriving at the Residency, Fanny and the rest of the party were put into a large room with a bare floor and no furniture. She was in despair until a friend, Mrs Fayrer, wife of a doctor attached to the Residency,came and invited her to their home, known as Fayrer's house, a large one with a flat roof protected by sandbags all round, and defended by sepoy pensioners. It was much exposed to enemy fire and there was an underground room, called a tykhana, which served as a shelter for those living in the house. However, it is interesting to observe in Fanny's diary the gradual change from alarm to indifference at any firing. By the 17th July she wrote: 'Four rounds shot, the first of a series, into the ladies' room next to mine', without further comment. On the 20th July there were eight rounds shot into the house. On the 16th August, 'an eight-inch shell burst in the verandah of the room where Mrs Fayrer was lying ill. I was bathing her. The shell burst within three yards of me, and had I not thrown myself flat on the bed I must have been killed.' From that date to the 26th she records that no event of any importance occurred, the firing continuing as usual, sometimes more, sometimes less. 'Third rations today, children half.' On 1st September her youngest child, Georgina (Ina) was sick with ulcerated sores and diarrhoea. She lingered on wretchedly until the 13th, when she died, about three months old, and was buried in the Residency Cemetery.
Fanny's other children kept well and in good spirits - indeed four-years old George was rather a mischievous nuisance. Anna was highly pleased with a little writing desk her mother gave her for her seventh birthday present. On the 25th September General Outram entered the Residency with a relief force. but it was not strong enough to raise the siege. The General took up quarters in Fayrer's house, and Fanny says the tea-table was soon beset by officers and ourselves, asking and answering questions, one of the first being whether Queen Victoria 'was still alive or not'. Next day she says that 'in one of the sorties today two fowls and a pigeon were brought in as loot and hailed with great joy'.
On October 9th 'news reached of the fall of Delhi, 6000 men making Lucknow-wards'. November 12th. The relief force, under Sir Colin Campbell, had reached the neighbourhood of Lucknow. Some sort of signalling apparatus had been arranged, which Fanny called the 'electric telegraph' but which seems to have been a semaphore for communication with the relief force. In a real sporting spirit she says that the enemy made two splendid shots at our telegraph on the Residency, one striking the tower within a yard of the post, the other bursting directly over the tower.
The second relief force came in on the 18th November and Sir Colin ordered the immediate evacuation of the non-combatants, to begin next morning. But strangely there were no arrangements made for the transport of the women and children. Fanny was anticipating an 8 mile walk with her children in a burning sun but was lucky enough to meet a friend of George's who found her a carriage and a horse, and she drove off. At the General's headquarters they all enjoyed their first proper breakfast for months, to the children's intense delight - fresh bread and butter, tea with milk and sugar, cold beef. They went on in dhoolies at 10 pm, reaching the Dilkhoosha at 1 am. Here she wandered about for at least two hours hopelessly looking for accommodation, until at last an officer found her and her children a place in someone's tent.
After five days there they all left at noon and a fearful march ensued - the greatest confusion - ladies' carriages, bazaar hackberries and lame camels, all in one moving mass.
They reached Alumbagh at 7 pm and here, once again, Fanny was in luck, for Captain Roberts (afterwards Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar) came to her rescue and put them in his own tent, himself turning out of it. In the next few days they moved to Cawnpore. The enemy were in the vicinity and the refugees were near enough to come under artillery fire. Roberts took Fanny along with the artillery and cleared the way for her, so that she accomplished the journey in half an hour, while the other ladies took eight hours.
This was the end of her trials. The expected child, Charles iv, was born seven weeks later, but died in September 1859, before he was two years old.
After the defeat at Chhinhut, Sir Henry Lawrence accepted the necessity of a siege, and he fortified the Residency at Lucknow and brought into the defended area all the Europeans, men, women and children. Of the Boileau family these included Thomas Theo _, his wife Jessie and their three children, and Fanny, wife of George Wilson ii _, and her four children.
On arriving at the Residency, Fanny and the rest of the party were put into a large room with a bare floor and no furniture. She was in despair until a friend, Mrs Fayrer, wife of a doctor attached to the Residency,came and invited her to their home, known as Fayrer's house, a large one with a flat roof protected by sandbags all round, and defended by sepoy pensioners. It was much exposed to enemy fire and there was an underground room, called a tykhana, which served as a shelter for those living in the house. However, it is interesting to observe in Fanny's diary the gradual change from alarm to indifference at any firing. By the 17th July she wrote: 'Four rounds shot, the first of a series, into the ladies' room next to mine', without further comment. On the 20th July there were eight rounds shot into the house. On the 16th August, 'an eight-inch shell burst in the verandah of the room where Mrs Fayrer was lying ill. I was bathing her. The shell burst within three yards of me, and had I not thrown myself flat on the bed I must have been killed.' From that date to the 26th she records that no event of any importance occurred, the firing continuing as usual, sometimes more, sometimes less. 'Third rations today, children half.' On 1st September her youngest child, Georgina (Ina) was sick with ulcerated sores and diarrhoea. She lingered on wretchedly until the 13th, when she died, about three months old, and was buried in the Residency Cemetery.
Fanny's other children kept well and in good spirits - indeed four-years old George was rather a mischievous nuisance. Anna was highly pleased with a little writing desk her mother gave her for her seventh birthday present. On the 25th September General Outram entered the Residency with a relief force. but it was not strong enough to raise the siege. The General took up quarters in Fayrer's house, and Fanny says the tea-table was soon beset by officers and ourselves, asking and answering questions, one of the first being whether Queen Victoria 'was still alive or not'. Next day she says that 'in one of the sorties today two fowls and a pigeon were brought in as loot and hailed with great joy'.
On October 9th 'news reached of the fall of Delhi, 6000 men making Lucknow-wards'. November 12th. The relief force, under Sir Colin Campbell, had reached the neighbourhood of Lucknow. Some sort of signalling apparatus had been arranged, which Fanny called the 'electric telegraph' but which seems to have been a semaphore for communication with the relief force. In a real sporting spirit she says that the enemy made two splendid shots at our telegraph on the Residency, one striking the tower within a yard of the post, the other bursting directly over the tower.
The second relief force came in on the 18th November and Sir Colin ordered the immediate evacuation of the non-combatants, to begin next morning. But strangely there were no arrangements made for the transport of the women and children. Fanny was anticipating an 8 mile walk with her children in a burning sun but was lucky enough to meet a friend of George's who found her a carriage and a horse, and she drove off. At the General's headquarters they all enjoyed their first proper breakfast for months, to the children's intense delight - fresh bread and butter, tea with milk and sugar, cold beef. They went on in dhoolies at 10 pm, reaching the Dilkhoosha at 1 am. Here she wandered about for at least two hours hopelessly looking for accommodation, until at last an officer found her and her children a place in someone's tent.
After five days there they all left at noon and a fearful march ensued - the greatest confusion - ladies' carriages, bazaar hackberries and lame camels, all in one moving mass.
They reached Alumbagh at 7 pm and here, once again, Fanny was in luck, for Captain Roberts (afterwards Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar) came to her rescue and put them in his own tent, himself turning out of it. In the next few days they moved to Cawnpore. The enemy were in the vicinity and the refugees were near enough to come under artillery fire. Roberts took Fanny along with the artillery and cleared the way for her, so that she accomplished the journey in half an hour, while the other ladies took eight hours.
This was the end of her trials. The expected child, Charles iv, was born seven weeks later, but died in September 1859, before he was two years old.
Notes for George Wilson (ii) (Spouse 1)
From BBB:15
b probably in Dublin 1821. Cadet Addiscombe Military Seminary 1938-39. 2nd Lt 34th Bengal Native Infantry 1839. 2nd Oudh Irregular Infantry Adjt 1846; 2ic 1849, Comdt 1856. Capt 1854. Bvt Major 1858. Retd, with rank of Lt Col 1862.
Actively engaged on several occasions in the province of Oudh 1850-57. In 1850 commanded a wing of the regiment when, with other troops, it was employed in putting down a rebellion about 20 miles from Lucknow, when an attempt was made to take the fort of Bihta by storm. The attempt was signally repulsed, and 2nd Oudh Infantry lost 7 men killed and 20 wounded, while the other regt engaged had 40 casualties. But the fort was evacuated the same night.
In March 1857 he commanded a mixed force of cavalry and infantry in pursuit of the outlaw Fazl Ali, who had killed Charles Boileau earlier that month. Fazl Ali was defeated and killed. George received the thanks and commendation of Sir Henry Lawrence, Chief Commissioner of Oudh. For his services in the campaign he received the thanks of the Governor-General-in-Council on several occasions, the brevet rank of major and the Indian Mutiny medal.
He then joined the Oudh Military Police and took the field in August 1858 in command of a regiment of cavalry and three regiments of infantry. They were engaged in the assault and capture of the fort of Boirwah, which was described as a difficult undertaking, and George was mentioned in despatches and again thanked by the Governor General. At the conclusion of the campaign, he received the approbation of the Queen in a letter addressed to him by the Secretary of State.
Meanwhile his wife Fanny, and their children, had sustained the whole of the siege of the Residency in Lucknow. a résumé of her experiences as she recorded them in a diary is to be found in the Chronicles.
George retd in 1862 and after a period in Ireland he settled in Norfolk at Hethel Hall, which was one of John Peter's possessions. He was Lt Col commanding the 1st Norfolk Rifle Volunteers 1869-83, then Hon Col, and was awarded the Volunteer Decoration. He was a JP and DL, Norfolk.
m 1850 Fanny Elizabeth, dau of General W. Knyvett. She d in 1895 having had 14 children, as follows : Anna, Brandram Theophilus, George William Knyvett, Georgina Emma, Charles iv, Archibald, Henry Willock, Colin Campbell, Blanche Etiennette, Madelaine Harriette, Mary Theresa, Knyvett, Lucy Frances, Muriel Knyvett and Edmund Knyvett.
He had had a great reputation in India as a tiger hunter. He d in 1902.
b probably in Dublin 1821. Cadet Addiscombe Military Seminary 1938-39. 2nd Lt 34th Bengal Native Infantry 1839. 2nd Oudh Irregular Infantry Adjt 1846; 2ic 1849, Comdt 1856. Capt 1854. Bvt Major 1858. Retd, with rank of Lt Col 1862.
Actively engaged on several occasions in the province of Oudh 1850-57. In 1850 commanded a wing of the regiment when, with other troops, it was employed in putting down a rebellion about 20 miles from Lucknow, when an attempt was made to take the fort of Bihta by storm. The attempt was signally repulsed, and 2nd Oudh Infantry lost 7 men killed and 20 wounded, while the other regt engaged had 40 casualties. But the fort was evacuated the same night.
In March 1857 he commanded a mixed force of cavalry and infantry in pursuit of the outlaw Fazl Ali, who had killed Charles Boileau earlier that month. Fazl Ali was defeated and killed. George received the thanks and commendation of Sir Henry Lawrence, Chief Commissioner of Oudh. For his services in the campaign he received the thanks of the Governor-General-in-Council on several occasions, the brevet rank of major and the Indian Mutiny medal.
He then joined the Oudh Military Police and took the field in August 1858 in command of a regiment of cavalry and three regiments of infantry. They were engaged in the assault and capture of the fort of Boirwah, which was described as a difficult undertaking, and George was mentioned in despatches and again thanked by the Governor General. At the conclusion of the campaign, he received the approbation of the Queen in a letter addressed to him by the Secretary of State.
Meanwhile his wife Fanny, and their children, had sustained the whole of the siege of the Residency in Lucknow. a résumé of her experiences as she recorded them in a diary is to be found in the Chronicles.
George retd in 1862 and after a period in Ireland he settled in Norfolk at Hethel Hall, which was one of John Peter's possessions. He was Lt Col commanding the 1st Norfolk Rifle Volunteers 1869-83, then Hon Col, and was awarded the Volunteer Decoration. He was a JP and DL, Norfolk.
m 1850 Fanny Elizabeth, dau of General W. Knyvett. She d in 1895 having had 14 children, as follows : Anna, Brandram Theophilus, George William Knyvett, Georgina Emma, Charles iv, Archibald, Henry Willock, Colin Campbell, Blanche Etiennette, Madelaine Harriette, Mary Theresa, Knyvett, Lucy Frances, Muriel Knyvett and Edmund Knyvett.
He had had a great reputation in India as a tiger hunter. He d in 1902.