WD4497-4503

TANDY, FRANCIS LATTER (1835-57)

Francis Latter Tandy, b. 6 March 1834, son of Edward Tandy of Crosthwaite Terrace, Kingstown. Nominated for a cadetship by W.J. Eastwick at the recommendation of Lieut.-Gen. Latter. Tandy was at the Military Seminary at Addiscombe from 6 February 1852 to 9 December 1853, and was awarded a rule case and a pencil case with silver plaques commending him for his skill in civil and military drawing (F1049-50). As a 2nd Lieut. he then entered the Engineering College at Chatham 1 February 1854, until 15 August 1855. He arrived at Calcutta on 20 March 1856, and was sent straight to Roorkee, the headquarters of the Sappers and Miners 3 May 1856, and of the engineers working on the Ganges Canal project under Richard Baird Smith. Passed a colloquial Hindustani exam in March 1857, placed at the disposal of the Public Works Dept. in April 1857, and on 4 May was posted to the Burdwan division of embankments. On 10 June (after the outbreak of the Mutiny) he was appointed Assistant Field Engineer with the Delhi Field Force. He was appointed to the column which undertook the blowing up of the Kashmir Gate on 14 September, and was killed in the attack. Richard Baird Smith, the Chief Engineer of the DFF, wrote that ‘in Lt. Tandy, the Corps has lost one of its most gallant and promising officers’ (Baird’s report of 17 September 1857, drafts at Mss Eur B214).

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WD4497-4503

Seven drawings recording the placements of the artillery on the Ridge outside Delhi, August 1857, with accompanying printed descriptions.

Pencil, pen-and-ink and water-colour; 225 by 280 mm.

Provenance: Tandy family by descent; purchased November 2002, along with (F1049-1050).with the assistance of the Friends of the British Library.

Note: From June-September 1857 the Delhi Field Force was staked out on the Ridge, first resisting almost daily assaults from the insurgents in the city, and then preparing for the final assault on Delhi on 14 September. He would have been engaged along with the other engineers in the force in the construction of these and other batteries, and the general engineering required to link and protect them. Tandy was one of the three engineers (along with Lieuts. Home and Salkeld) detailed to blow in the Kashmir Gate in the assault of the 3rd column – Salkeld also was killed. The drawings must have been accompanied by cover pages or a letter now lost, since it was no doubt his family which had the letterpress prepared which was inset underneath each of the framed drawings (the original frames have not survived). The family may have planned a publication, but proceeded no further when a series of lithographs based on the drawings of John Robertson Turnbull (‘Sketches of Delhi, taken during the siege’), with his descriptive text was published in London in 1858 - Turnbull was ADC to the Commander of the DFF, Sir A. Wilson.