OUTRAM, SIR JAMES (1803-1863), English general, and one of the heroes of the Indian Mutiny, was the son of Benjamin Outram of Butterley Hall, Derbyshire, civil engineer, and was born on Jan. 29, 1803. His father died in 18o5, and his mother, a daughter of Dr. James Anderson, the Scottish writer on agri culture, removed in 1810 to Aberdeenshire. From Udny school the boy went in 1818 to the Marischal College, Aberdeen; and in 1819 an Indian cadetship was given him. Soon after his arrival at Bombay his remarkable energy attracted notice, and in July 1820 he became acting adjutant to the first battalion of the 12th regiment on its embodiment at Poona. In 1825 he was sent to Khandesh, where he trained a light infantry corps, formed of the wild robber Bhils, gaining over them a marvellous personal in fluence, and employing them with great success in checking out rages and plunder. Their loyalty to him had its principal source in their boundless admiration of his hunting achievements. For some time he was political agent in the Mahi Kantha district of Gujarat. In the first Afghan War in 1838 he was extra aide-de camp on the staff of Sir John Keane. After conducting various raids against Afghan tribes, he was in 1839 promoted major, and appointed political agent in Lower Sind, and later in Upper Sind. He opposed the policy of his superior, Sir Charles Napier, which led to the annexation of Sind. When war broke out he heroically defended the residency at Hyderabad against 8,0oo Baluchis: and it was Napier who then described him as "the Bayard of India." On his return from a short visit to England in 1843, he was, with the rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel, appointed to a com mand in the Mahratta country, and in 1847 he was transferred from Satara to Baroda, where he incurred the resentment of the Bombay government by his fearless exposure of corruption. In 1854 he was appointed resident at Lucknow, in which capacity two years later he carried out the annexation of Oudh and be came the first chief commissioner of that province. Appointed in
1857, with the rank of lieutenant-general, to command an expedi tion against Persia, he defeated the enemy with great slaughter at Khushab, and brought the campaign to a rapid conclusion.
From Persia he was summoned in June to India, with the brief explanation—"We want all our best men here." It was said of him at this time that "a fox is a fool and a lion a coward by the side of Sir J. Outram." Immediately on his arrival in Calcutta he was appointed to command the two divisions of the Bengal army occupying the country from Calcutta to Cawnpore; and to the military control was also joined the commissionership of Oudh. Already the mutiny had assumed such proportions as to compel Havelock to fall back on Cawnpore, which he only held with difficulty, although a speedy advance was necessary to save the garrison at Lucknow. On arriving at Cawnpore with rein forcements, Outram, "in admiration of the brilliant deeds of General Havelock," conceded to him the glory of relieving Luck now, and, waiving his rank, tendered his services to him as a volunteer.
Resuming supreme command, he then held the town till the arrival of Sir Colin Campbell, after which he conducted the evacuation of the residency so as completely to deceive the en emy. In the second capture of Lucknow, on the commander-in chief's return, Outram was entrusted with the attack on the side of the Gumti, and afterwards, having recrossed the river, he ad vanced "through the Chattar Manzil to take the residency," thus, in the words of Sir Colin Campbell, "putting the finishing stroke on the enemy." After the capture of Lucknow he was gazetted lieutenant-general. In February 1858 he received the special thanks of both houses of parliament, and in the same year the dignity of baronet with an annuity of I1,000. Shattered in health he returned finally to England in 186o. He died on March II, 1863.
See Sir F. J. Goldsmid, James Outram, a Biography (2 vols., 188o), and L. J. Trotter, The Bayard of India (1903).