William Rice Morland Holroyd

From 'A Branch of the Holroyd Family' by Thomas Holroyd, 1879:


Statement of Service of Major W.R.M. Holroyd, Bengal Staff Corps.

Service in the Field

Served in the Central India Field Force (under Sir Hugh Rose) with H.M.'s 86th Regiment during the campaign of 1857 -- 58. Present at the siege and capture of Chanderi, the siege and capture of Jhansi, the battle of the Betwa, the action at Koonch, the operations before Calpee and capture of that town.
Wounded dangerously at storming of Jhansi. Mutiny medal and class for Central India. Received complimentary letter, written by order of his Excellency Sir Hugh Rose, from Adjutant General, for "great gallantry" at the siege of Calpee -- (From Hart's Army List)

Nature of employment during service.
Arrived in India in January 1854
Joined the 23rd regiment N.I. the same year
Passed P.H. in January 1855. Interpreter's examination in July following. Obtained certificate of High Proficiency in Persian in April 1865. Served for several months previous to the mutiny of 1857, as Interpreter, 1st Light Cavalry.
After mutiny of 23rd N.I. at Mhow, attached to H.M. 86th Regiment from commencement of 1858 to fall of Calpee. Served for a short time as Interpreter to H.M. 88th Regiment. Appointed Assistant Field Engineer at Cawnpore in July 1858
Appointed Inspector of Schools, Ambalah Circle, August 1858.
Employed on special duty as a member of the Commission for revision of Hindustani test books for Military Officers.
Officiated as Director of Public Instruction, Punjab from January 1867 to April 1867, during absence in Europe of Major Fuller, Director of Public Instruction.

Major Fuller was drowned on the 20th August 1867, whilst crossing a stream near Rawl Pindi, on his way down to Murree. Captain Holroyd was thereupon ordered to take charge of the vacant office, in addition to his other duties, pending further instructions.
By a Government Order, dated 18 February 1868, Captain Holroyd, appointed Director of Public Instruction permanently, and has since held that appointment.

[This is followed by various short extracts from official documents praising him. Two are worth quoting because they describe his work]

Extract letter No 134 dated 16th March 1864, from Director P.I.P., to Secretary to Government, Punjab:

"Very great credit is, in my opinion, due to Lieutenant Holroyd as Inspector, for carrying out the scheme of Branch schools at Dehli so thoroughly, and for organising them on so efficient a basis, with the limited funds that I have from time to time being able to place at his disposal. When the Annual Statements of expenditure have been made up for each school, I feel convinced that in no city of India can education of the same standard be shown to be imparted at anything like the low average cost it bears in Dehli."

Extract from a letter No 10, dated 9th January 1865, to Colonel Norman, Secretary to the Government of India, from D. McLeod, Esq., Financial Commissioner.

" I deem it incumbent on me, in submitting the results of our proceedings, to point out how largely the Commissioner has been interested to Lieutenant Holroyd for the exceedingly effective date he has afforded them, whereby their labours have been very greatly lightened and expedited. Being the only Military member of the Commission, and that the same time presiding as an Officer in the Educational Department over an important circle, including within it the City of Delhi which may be regarded as the fountain head of the Hindustani language, he was most favourably circumstanced for the prosecution of inquiries such as those devolving on this Commission. And no sooner did he learn that he had been selected as a Member, than he proceeded to Delhi, and there, associating with himself some of the scholars of that place, who from their combining something of European enlightenment with an appreciation of the language and literature of Hindustani, appeared best suited for this purpose, commenced upon the preparation and collection of material for meeting the requirements of the Commission."

It seems though that he may have felt aggrieved at some point - at any rate he wrote a letter dated 27th June 1862 which led to a reply from the Adjutant General dated 24th September 1863 (No. 8045) which states inter alia "This board has recorded an opinion that you behaved with great gallantry in rescuing, with Private Pearson's assistance, a wounded soldier before Calpee, but that the act, however gallant, was not, under the circumstances, deserving of the high honour of the Victoria Cross.

A footnote by Thomas Holroyd adds: It must not be inferred from this that Lieutenant Holroyd applied for the Victoria Cross, he simply pointed out that in the General Order by which the V.C. was conferred on Private Pearson for his gallantry on two occasions, the whole credit of rescuing the wounded soldier before Calpee was assigned to him, whilst Lieutenant Holroyd's name was entirely omitted, although Private Pearson was, on that occasion, acting under his orders, and a promise had been made to Lieutenant Holroyd, without any solicitation on his part, that he should be mentioned in despatches.]