Remembering Hodson’s Horse: Commemoration and the Indian Uprising of 1857–58

Abstract This article presents analysis of the memorial to William Hodson in Lichfield Cathedral, designed by George Edmund Street between 1859 and 1862, focusing on iconography monument way that it was influenced Muscular Christianity ecclesiology. The attitude his brother Hodson, who commissioned monument, is examined through publication presented Hodson’s career Victorian public: Twelve Years a Soldier’s Life India (1859). raises urgent questions about future cultural heritage as demonstrably misrepresents highly symbolic event within British imperial history. represented hero ecclesiologists but now seen many an unscrupulous ruthless imperialist. paper will demonstrate extraordinary form tomb determined alteration design: inclusion sculptural panel representing ‘Surrender King Delhi’. change instigated committee Ecclesiological Society headed A. J. Beresford Hope. turns relatively peripheral into tableau: surrender Indian Islam Christianity, distortion typical culture aftermath Uprising 1857–1858. historiography shows has acted focus for those wishing perpetuate conservative interpretation career.