WD3767, P1021-1022, P1638

TAYLER, WILLIAM (1808-1892)

Born Elstree, Herts. ICS 1829-1859. Assistant Commissioner Cuttack 1830; Commissioner Patna 1855. His conduct before and during the 1857 uprising caused controversy and he was suspended from duty. Tayler declined a public enquiry into his behaviour and resigned in 1859. He considered he had been treated unfairly by the authorities and attempted to have his case reviewed, writing pamphlets defending his actions and appealing to successive Secretaries of State. After his resignation he set up a legal agency and practised law until his return to England in 1867. He died at St. Leonards.

His publications include ‘Brief narrative of events connected with the removal of W. Tayler from the Commissionership of Patna’, Calcutta, 1857; ‘Our crisis, or three months at Patna during the insurrection of 1857’, Calcutta, 1858; ‘Justice in excelsis’, London, 1870; ‘Thirty eight years in India’, 2 vols, London, 1878-81; ‘Justice in the nineteenth century’, London, 1885.

Tayler was a skilled artist and gained both friends and enemies by his ability in catching a likeness. Lithographs based on his drawings were published as ‘Sketches illustrating the manner and customs of the Indians and Anglo-Indians’, London, 1842.

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P1021-1022; P1638

Three lithographic prints after Tayler’s drawings.

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P1021-1022

Two coloured lithographs after the picture 'Defence of the Arrah House' by W. Tayler.

Note: The print was accompanied in publication by’: Indian Mutiny. Brief narrative of the defence of the Arrah garrison. Written by one of the besieged party. To accompany W. Tayler's picture of the attack.’ [Signed: R. V. B., i.e. R.V. Boyle.]

Publisher: W. Thacker & Co., London, 1858.