A Diary

by Maria Germon, Mrs. R.C. Germon

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Genres: History

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1870

About the author

Mrs. Maria Vincent Germon, d.1898, was the wife of one of the commanders of the outpost at Lucknow during the Siege of Lucknow in 1857. She had married Col. Richard Charles Germon in 1851 whilst in Calcutta.

Mrs. R.C. Germon

Reviews

[Sonal Panse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but, unsurprisingly, not very introspective.

This woman says of Nana Sahib, "This Rajah is a Mahratta, a notedly treacherous race", but she is not insightful enough to wonder at her own presence in his country and come to the conclusion that she herself might be of the decidedly larcenous ilk.

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[Christiane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a first-hand account of the siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny in 1857.

For three months military personnel, women and children lived under ever more difficult conditions in the residency compound, surrounded by the mutineers and desperately awaiting reinforcements, all the while looking death in the face, either of starvation or because “everyone agrees that the only plan is to blow ourselves up, if the reinforcements do not come in time.”

While they were trying to hang on news reached them of atrocities committed in other parts of the country, worst of all the bloody Cawnpore massacre.

In an almost matter-of-fact way Mrs. Germon who surprised herself by her ability to cope, describes the overcrowded conditions, the ever growing shortage of food and the almost constant enemy fire they had to endure.
Trapped in the compound they suffered under the extreme heat, rats, mosquitoes, flies, centipedes and scorpions. They died of bullet wounds, sunstroke, smallpox, dysentery and cholera and were buried in mass graves.

The diary ends with the chaotic evacuation of the residency in Lucknow and the escape via Allahabad to Calcutta.

[Avis Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Available at Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47814