WOMEN OF LUCKNOW

This lecture looks at the role played by elite women during the Uprising of 1857 at Lucknow. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones examines the role played by Begam Hazrat Mahal, one of deposed King Wajid Ali Shah's many wives, who emerged as de facto leader of the rebels. A woman of humble origins and extraordinary character, she devised military strategy and negotiated with different factions of soldiery, apparently immune to prejudice. Sam Goodman explores the experience of women on the other side. Besieged in the Lucknow Residency and under bombardment, British women who had previously enjoyed lives of ease contributed to the garrison's defence by acting as nurses, cooks, storekeepers and child-minders, and participating in night watches.

Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones MBE has written prolifically on colonial India. Her many books include Lucknow 1857, The Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah, A Fatal Friendship: The Nawabs, the British and the City of Lucknow and, most recently, Hazrat Mahal: The Rebel Begam of Awadh (2026). Dr Sam Goodman, Senior Tutor in Humanities at the University of Bristol, is the author of British Spy Fiction and the End of Empire and The Retrospective Raj: Medicine, Literature and History After Empire.

General Admission: £5.00

Please contact the organiser if you would like to attend the lecture but are experiencing financial hardship. Or if you have any queries.

This lecture is presented in association with the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.