High up on the crest of the wild and rugged Margalla Pass, on the north-western frontier of India, stands a plain stone obelisk. It looks down on to the road that winds from Rawal Pindi to Hasan Abdal, the road where once only the Afghan camel-train passed on its way to and from Peshawur, but where now a railway marks the progress of modern India. Severely simple in its exterior, the obelisk is yet one of the most notable monuments to be seen in our great Eastern Empire, for it commemorates a soldier-hero of high fame. On its base is inscribed the name of John Nicholson.

This Margalla monument is not the only memorial to Nicholson in India: there is a tablet to his memory in a church at Bannu, the scene of his administrative work; and there is at Delhi, where he lies buried, a fine bronze statue of recent erection. But the stone obelisk in the frontier pass will stand for ever as the most striking tribute to the man who played so prominent a part in the saving of India. Its very position appeals strongly to the imagination. Here it was, in the district which he ruled so wisely and well, that Nicholson’s early reputation was made; and here it is that among the wild tribesmen whom he tamed to his will his memory is still fondly cherished.

Who was John Nicholson? The question may well rise to the lips of many, for the writers of history textbooks have hitherto done him scant justice. And yet the tale of the Great Mutiny cannot be properly told without due acknowledgment being made to his genius. Those who know how the fate of India trembled in the balance in those dark days of 1857, know what we owe to him among other strong men whom the occasion brought to the front. It is now fifty years since Nicholson fell in the hour of victory at Delhi; the present year is, therefore, a fitting time to retell the story of his short but glorious career.

Like his distinguished chief, Sir Henry Lawrence, John Nicholson was an Irishman. He was born, in December 1822, at Lisburn, near Belfast, where his father, Dr. Alexander Nicholson, had a flourishing practice. On the paternal side he came of a family which had been established in Ireland since the sixteenth century, while through his mother, who was a Miss Hogg, he was connected with a well-known Ulster family, of which the late Lord Magheramorne was a representative.

Of young John’s early life several stories have been preserved which give some indication of his character. According to Sir John Kaye, he was “a precocious boy almost from his cradle; thoughtful, studious, of an inquiring nature; and he had the ineffable benefit of good parental teaching of the best kind.” Both his father and mother were deeply religious people, and their children seven in all were brought up with an intimate knowledge of the Bible. One day, it is said, when John was three years old, Mrs. Nicholson found him alone in a room with a knotted handkerchief in his hand and striking furiously at some invisible object. On being asked what he was doing, John answered, “Oh, mamma dear, I am trying to get a blow at the devil! He is wanting me to be bad. If I could get him down, I’d kill him!”

The boy’s willingness to be taught enabled him to learn how to read and write at the early age of four. When, five years later, his father died, and the family removed to Delgany, in County Wicklow, he was sent to a school in that town. Thence he proceeded to the Royal School at Dungannon, where, although he did not greatly distinguish himself as a scholar, he made good progress. His chief characteristics were a fiery temper and a reputation for truthfulness and courage. A relative has placed on record her remembrance of having heard as a child that her cousin John was always leader in games, and was never known to tell a lie. “He was quite a hero from the first,” she says.

Another feature of the boy’s character was his very real love for his mother. With two girls and five boys to bring up on a slender income, Mrs. Nicholson was sometimes worried as to their future, and at these times John, as her eldest son, would do his best to smooth away the wrinkles from her forehead. “Don’t fret, mamma dear,” he would say; “when I’m a big man I’ll make plenty of money, and I’ll give it all to you.” The mother no doubt smiled her pleasure at these brave words, but she little guessed then how faithfully her son would keep his word in the years to come.

The only other anecdote recorded of John Nicholson as a boy tells of a serious accident, which came very near to putting an abrupt end to his career. While spending a holiday at home in Lisburn he was playing with gunpowder, when some of it unexpectedly exploded in his face. With his hands over his eyes he ran into the house calling out that he was blinded. Mrs. Nicholson on looking at his face saw that it was a blackened mass, the eyes being completely closed, and blood trickling down his cheeks.

“For ten days,” says Sir John Kaye, “during which he never murmured, or expressed any concern except for his mother, he lay in a state of total darkness; but when at the end of that time the bandages were removed, it was found that God in His mercy had spared the sight of the boy, and preserved him to do great things.”

By the time John was sixteen he was ready to leave the school at Dungannon. The question of a profession for him now presented itself, and at this juncture a good fairy stepped in in the person of his uncle, Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Weir Hogg. Mr. Hogg, who was a Member of Parliament and a Director of the East India Company, had had a remarkable career. Going out to the East as a mere youth, he had found fame and fortune at the Calcutta Bar. Having become a man of wealth, he had returned to England to enter public life. He felt now that he ought to do something for his sister and her large family, and offered to obtain for John a cadetship in the Bengal Infantry. To this Mrs. Nicholson gladly assented.

In the days of “John Company” the interest of influential persons was sufficient to procure entry into the service. Young Nicholson was therefore spared the ordeal of an examination or special course of training. In the New Year of 1839 he went up to London to meet his uncle and make final arrangements. An outfit was bought for him by Mr. Hogg, and, at a momentous interview with the “honourable Directors of the East India Company” at their office in Leadenhall Street, John took the necessary oath of allegiance.

A few weeks later he sailed for India in the Camden, with his uncle’s sage counsel to work hard and live carefully, and his mother’s last injunction, “Never forget to read your Bible, John,” treasured in his heart.