John Nicholson (East India Company Officer) - Legacy

Legacy

He became the Victorian "Hero of Delhi" inspiring books, ballads and generations of young boys to join the army. Nicholson is referenced in numerous literary works, including Rudyard Kipling's Kim, in which the protagonist, Kim, traveling with his companion the Buddhist Lama, meets an aged Risaldar-Major (a native NCO of Cavalry). The man turns out to be a veteran of the Great Uprising of 1857, and while sujourning on the road, he sings the old "song of Nikal Seyn before Delhi".

Nicholson features in a number of novels about this period in history. He is mentioned by George MacDonald Frazier in his book Flashman and the Great Game, in it Flashman meets Nicholson on the road between Bombay and Jansi just before the mutiny, he describes Nicholson as "The downiest bird in all India and could be trusted with anything, money even." This from Flashman is a rare compliment. He also appears as one of the main characters in James Leasor's novel about the Indian Mutiny, Follow the Drum, which describes his death in some detail. and features heavily in the same author's history of the siege, 'The Red Fort'.

Brigadier-General John Nicholson's tombstone, made from a white marble slab near Delhi’s Kashmir gate, was a former garden seat of the Mughals. His gallant service and untimely death are commemorated on a white marble memorial plaque at the Mutiny Memorial, on the Ridge in New Delhi. A large statue of Nicholson showing him with a naked sword in hand and surrounded by mortars was erected in his honor in Delhi, but was taken down when India became independent and later removed to the Royal School Dungannon, his old school.

A granite obelisk (Nicholson's obelisk or memorial), and a small fountain below, were erected in 1868 in the Margalla hills near Taxila as a monument to pay tribute to his valour.

A tablet in the church at Bannu where Nicholson served as Deputy Commissioner from 1852-1854 carries the following inscription: “Gifted in mind and body, he was as brilliant in government as in arms. The snows of Ghazni attest his youthful fortitude; the songs of the Punjab his manly deeds; the peace of this frontier his strong rule. The enemies of his country know how terrible he was in battle, and we his friends have to recall how gentle, generous, and true he was.”

One of the four Houses of the Royal School Dungannon is named after him, having yellow as its colours. It is the youngest House at the school.