Personal info
- Name: Robert KELLS
- D.O.B: 6th Apr, 1832
- D.O.A: 28th Sep, 1857
- D.O.D: 14th Apr, 1905
- Award: Victoria Cross
- Occupation at time of action: Lance Corporal, 9th (Queen’s Royal) Lancers
- Book: The Complete History - Volume 1
Bulandshahr, India 28 September 1857
28 September 1857
The Indian Mutiny 1857-59
After the recapture of Delhi, Colonel E H Greathed led a force into the Gangetic Doab, the area between the two Rivers Jumna and Ganges. On 28 September 1857 Greathed confronted the forces of Nawab Walidad Khan at Bulandshahr, fifty miles south-east of Delhi. One of the British columns was engaged by the enemy at a crossroads outside the town, while the other column, with two guns under Lieutenant G Cracklow, was engaged in heavy fighting within it. Once Bulandshahr was secured, Walidad Khan’s abandoned stronghold at Malagarh, five miles away, was also taken. This was destroyed on 1 October but Lieutenant D C Home VC, sole survivor of the group of engineers who had blown up the Kashmir Gate two weeks earlier, was accidentally killed in the process. Greathed’s column then advanced south to Agra.
Citation
For conspicuous bravery at Bolundshahur, on the 28th of September, 1857, in defending against a number of the enemy his commanding officer, Captain Drysdale, who was lying in a street with his collar-bone broken, his horse having been disabled by a shot, and remaining with him until out of danger. Despatch from Major-General Sir James Hope Grant, K.C.B., dated 8th April, 1858.