{{Short description|British military officer (1810–1857)}} {{Use British English|date=December 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = | name = James George Smith Neill | honorific_suffix = | image = General Neill. (BM 1919,0616.172).jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1810|05|27}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1857|09|25|1810|05|27}} | birth_place = [[Swindridgemuir House and estate|Swindridgemuir]], Scotland, United Kingdom | death_place = [[Lucknow]], [[Company rule in India|British India]] | nickname = | birth_name = | allegiance = [[File:Flag of the British East India Company (1801).svg|22x25px]] [[East India Company]] | branch = [[Madras Army]] | service_years = 1827–1857 | rank = [[Brigadier-General]] | unit = | commands = | battles = [[Second Burmese War]]<br />[[Crimean War]]<br />[[Indian Rebellion of 1857]] | battles_label = | awards = }}
'''James George Smith Neill''' (27 May 1810 – 25 September 1857)<ref name="ReferenceA">Dictionary of Indian Biography p314</ref> was a [[British people|British]] military officer of the [[East India Company]], who served during the [[Indian rebellion of 1857]].
==Early career== Neill was born at [[Swindridgemuir House and estate|Swindridgemuir]], near [[Dalry, North Ayrshire|Dalry]], Scotland. His father was Colonel Neill.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> He was educated at the [[University of Glasgow]]. Entering the service of the [[British East India Company]] in 1827, he received his lieutenant's commission a year later. From 1828 to 1852 he was mainly employed in duty with his regiment, the 1st [[Chennai|Madras]] Europeans (of which he wrote a Historical Record), but gained some experience on the general and the personal staffs as D.A.A.G. and as aide-de-camp. In 1850 he received his majority, and two years later set out for the [[Second Burmese War]] with the regiment. He served throughout the war with distinction, became second-in-command to Cheape, and took part in the minor operations which followed, receiving the brevet of lieutenant-colonel. In June 1854 he was appointed second-in-command to Sir Robert Vivian to organize the Turkish contingent for the [[Crimean War]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Neill, James George Smith|volume=19|page=350}}</ref>
[[File:Lucknow Residency. Graves of Neil, Lawrence etc in Cemetery - Prince of Wales Tour of India 1875-6 (vol.3) 1875-76 - RCIN 336569-1351853740.jpg|thumb|Lucknow Residency. Original graves of General Neill and others seen at the left, Sir [[Henry Montgomery Lawrence|Henry Lawrence's tomb]] is at the right.]]
==Indian Rebellion of 1857== Early in 1857, Neill returned to the [[Indian subcontinent]]. Six weeks after his arrival came the news that all northern India was aflame with revolt (see the [[Indian rebellion of 1857]]). Neill acted promptly; he left [[Chennai|Madras]] with his regiment at a moment's notice, and proceeded to [[Varanasi|Benares]].<ref name="EB1911"/> As soon as he arrived on 3 June, he preemptively disbanded the local [[sepoy]] regiment. A regiment of Sikhs stationed at Varanasi, normally considered 'loyal', revolted. They fled after Neill's commanders shot at them, but returned to duty later.<ref name="GeorgeBruce1891">{{cite book | author=George Bruce Malleson | title=The Indian Mutiny of 1857 | url=https://archive.org/details/indianmutinyof00malliala | accessdate=13 August 2013 | year=1891 | publisher=Seely and Company, Limited | pages=[https://archive.org/details/indianmutinyof00malliala/page/181 181]–184}}</ref>
On 9 June, Neill set out for Allahabad, where a handful of Europeans still held out in the fort against the rebels.<ref name="EB1911"/> Neill ordered hanging of those suspected of being the mutineers.<ref name="auto">{{cite book | author=Pramod K. Nayar | title=The Penguin 1857 Reader | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9rXdRwHd5UC&pg=PA13 | year=2007 | publisher=Penguin Books India | isbn=978-0-14-310199-4 | pages=13 }}</ref> According to one of his officers, he also allowed troops under his command to [[Summary execution|summarily]] execute non-combatants without due process and burn their houses.<ref>{{cite book | author=Heather Streets | title=Martial Races: The Military, Race and Masculinity in British Imperial Culture | year=2004 | publisher=Manchester University Press | isbn=978-0-7190-6962-8 | pages= 39}}</ref> His Sikh forces stationed at [[Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh|Jaunpur]] revolted upon seeing these atrocities.<ref name="GeorgeBruce1891"/> From 6 to 15 June his men forced their way under conditions of heat and of opposition.<ref name="auto"/>
[[Allahabad]] was soon made the concentration of [[Henry Havelock]]'s column. Neill then turned to the [[Siege of Cawnpore|besieged city of Cawnpore]]. In retaliation for the [[Bibighar massacre]] of European civilians at Cawnpore, Neill and his troops indulged in indiscriminate atrocities. He personally executed many prisoners of war. In one episode, he compelled randomly rounded up [[Brahmin]]s from Cawnpore, who had nothing to do with the massacre, to wash up the blood of the Bibighar victims from the floor, an act that presumably degraded them with loss of caste, while they were whipped until they collapsed with cat-o-nine-tails by young ensigns. They were then summarily executed by hanging.<ref>Illustrated London News, 26 September 1857. See C. Hibbert, The Great Mutiny: India 1857(London 1978) for further discussion,</ref>
Meanwhile, Havelock, in spite of a succession of victories, had been compelled to fall back for lack of men; Neill criticized his superior's action. A second expedition had the same fate, and Neill himself was now attacked, though by his own exertions and Havelock's victory at Bithor (16 August) the tension on the communications was ended. Havelock's men returned to Cawnpore, and cholera broke out there, whereupon Neill again committed himself to criticisms, this time addressed to the commander-in-chief and to Outram, who was on the way with reinforcements.<ref name="EB1911"/> [[File:Felice Beato (British, born Italy - (Lesser Court of the Residency Occupied by Cavalry) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|The place in which General Neil was killed in the Chinese Bazaar, [[Qaisar Bagh]], photograph by Felice Beato]] In spite of his acts of insubordination, Havelock gave his rival a brigade command in the final advance. The famous march from Cawnpore to [[Lucknow]] began on 18 September; on the 21st there was a sharp fight; on the 22nd incessant rain; on the 23rd intense heat. On the 23rd, the fighting opened with the assault on the Alum Bagh, Neill at the head of the leading brigade, exposing himself. The next day he was again heavily engaged, and on the 25th he led the attack on [[Lucknow]] itself.<ref name="EB1911"/> His men were entering the city when Neill was suddenly killed in action, shot in the head at Khas Bazaar.
==Memorials== [[File:Frith's Series. 3042 Cemetery, Lucknow. (Neill's Tomb) V&A 2008BW5349.jpg|thumb|Frith's Series. 3042 Cemetery, Lucknow. (Replacement, Neill's Tomb)]]
The rank and precedence of the wife of a [[K.C.B.]] was given to his widow, and memorials were erected in [[The Residency, Lucknow|Lucknow Cemetery]] and at the [[Ayr|Auld Kirk of Ayr]].<ref name="EB1911"/> The memorial at the Residency, Lucknow reads: "Sacred to the memory of Brigadier General J.G.S. Neill C.B. and A.D.C. to the Queen. Col J.L. Stephenson C.B. Major G.S.C. Renaud Lieut. W.T. Groom. Lieut N.B. Arnold. Lieut J.A. Richardson. Lieut J.A. Chisholm Lieut F. Dobbs 352 non-commissioned officers, drummers and rank and file of the First Madras Fusiliers who fell during the suppression of the rebellion in Bengal 1857-58." Identical statues by [[Matthew Noble]] were also erected in Ayr and [[Chennai|Madras]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Statues and memories of empire in post-imperial France and Britain |url=https://castinstone.exeter.ac.uk/database/s/en/item/2229#lg=1&slide=0 |website=Cast in Stone |publisher=University of Essex |access-date=5 August 2024}}</ref>
Neill was commemorated by having a cantonment in Lucknow named after him, "Neill Lines" (now known as Neil Lines). An island in the Andamans was named after him, as a mark of honour and now Neill Island (or [[Neil Island]]).{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}
==See also== *[[Neil Statue Satyagraha]]
==References== {{reflist|30em}} *[[J. W. Kaye]], ''Lives of Indian Officers'' (1889) *[[John Clark Marshman|J. C. Marshman]], [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006573735 ''Life of Havelock''] (1867).
== External links == * {{Commons category-inline|James George Smith Neill}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neill, James George Smith}} [[Category:1810 births]] [[Category:1857 deaths]] [[Category:British East India Company Army generals]] [[Category:British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Burmese War]] [[Category:British military personnel killed in the Indian Rebellion of 1857]] [[Category:British war criminals]] [[Category:Deaths by firearm in India]] [[Category:People from Ayr]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow]] [[Category:Military personnel from North Ayrshire]]