Captain George Lawrence, 11th Light Cavalry, attached to the Political Service, 1842 (colour litho)

Captain George Lawrence, 11th Light Cavalry, attached to the Political Service, 1842. Coloured lithograph after Lieutenant Vincent Eyre, Bengal Artillery, 1842 (c). George St. Patrick Lawrence (1804-1884) was elder brother of Sir Henry Lawrence and John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence. In 1822 he joined the 2nd Bengal Light Cavalry, and in 1825 was made adjutant of his regiment, a post which he held until September 1834. During the 1st Afghan War (1839-1842), he was present at the storming of Ghazni on 23 July 1839, and in the attempt to capture Dost Mohammad in August. On reaching Kabul he was appointed political assistant to Sir William Hay Macnaghten. Following the uprising against Shah Shuja and the British he took part in the ill-fated retreat from Kabul. Lawrence had charge of the women and children until 8 January 1842, when he was given up to Akbar Khan as a hostage. He was finally released on 17 September 1842 by Major-General Sir George Pollock’s force. Promoted to captain in 1844, in October 1846 he was appointed assistant political agent in the Punjab with control of the Rajputana district. During the 2nd Sikh War (1848-1849, Lawrence's influence and popularity initially kept his soldiers loyal, but they eventually mutinied, and in October 1848 he was again taken hostage, this time by Chutter Singh. After the war he received the thanks of both houses of parliament and of the governor-general for remaining at his post. In 1849 he was promoted to brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, and appointed Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar. Lawrence later commanded a militia force that accompanied Sir Charles Napier’s expedition through the Kohat Pass. Between 1850 and 1857 he served as political agent at Mewar before succeeding his brother Henry Lawrence as chief agent for the governor-general in Rajputana. During the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859) he served as a brigadier-general in Rajputana where he did much to keep the native rulers faithful. In 1860 he was created a civil Companion of the Bath and the following year was gazetted major-general. In 1866 Lawrence was created a Knight Commander of the Star of India and retired from the service after four decades in India. From ‘Portraits of the Kabul Prisoners’, a set of pre-publication coloured lithographs later published by John Murray in 1843. The artist’s original drawings were made during his captivity in Afghanistan after the Retreat from Kabul during the 1st Afghan War (1838-1842).