It was not unusual in the army of the East India Company and its successor for two or more brothers serving around the same time. The most famous were the four Battye brothers who served in the Guides in the late 1800. Lieutenants Richard and Henry Creed, twin brother who were adjutants respectively of two battalions of the Bombay Artillery. One was killed while storming a fort near Sibbi. William and John, the two sons of Alexander and Christian Anderson of London, served in the Bengal Artillery during the hard fought campaigns before 1857.
In 1838, when Lord Auckland, Governor General of India, decided on the fatal experiment of dethroning Amir Dost Muhammad and restoring Shah Shuja as sovereign of Kabul, part of the army was a contingent called, “Shah Shuja ‘s own troops”. According to the History of the Bengal Artillery by Francis Stubbs, Capt William Anderson who was the elder of the two was assigned to raise two troops of Native Horse Artillery at Delhi and Meerut for this contingent. However, another source states that William had transferred from the infantry to the cavalry and was 2iC of the 2nd (Gardener’s) Local horse until 1838 when he was promoted and raised the 2nd Irregular Cavalry, Shah Shuja’s Contingent, referred to as ‘Anderson’s Horse’. Whatever be fact, he distinguished himself in the advance from Kandahar to Kabul and during a Grand Durbar held by Shah Shuja after gaining the throne, William and others were awarded a new order of chivalry, that of Dur-i-Durani i.e. Pearl of the Durani Empire.
Prior to the departure of main army back to India via Kandahar, the Ghilzais were giving trouble and Major General Nott sent for William to ask him if he could march the following morning. William replied that the artillery was always ready and left with a regiment of foot, 300 horsemen and four guns. Two days later, they encountered a force of 2,500 men near Tazi. The Ghilzais charged twice but were repulsed and routed by two detachments that fell upon them from the flanks as they retreated.
John Anderson returned back to India with General Nott’s army but William remained with the garrison at Kabul where his family joined him during the summer of 1841. However, in a very ill-considered move from the strong citadel of the Bala Hissar to a cantonment outside Kabul, General Elphinstone’s troops were badly exposed and ultimately came under attack when the Afghans rose in revolt. Two great actions were fought on 10 and 13 November 1841 when the troops sallied out from the cantonment and in both, the guns of the Shah Shuja/s Artillery under William saved the day.
In early 1842, Elphinstone was compelled to withdraw from Kabul with 4,500 military personnel and 12,000 family and local supporters. However, two days after the retreat started on 6 January 1842, William’s eldest daughter went missing and his wife and children, along with others, were given as hostages. Four days later, under orders from Elphinstone, Anderson gave himself to the protection of Muhammad Akbar Khan. They remained prisoners until their release eight months later.
When preparations for the retreat were being discussed as early as December 1841, Lady Sale recalls in her journal entry of 24 December, that when the subject arose of giving married men and their families as hostages to the Afghans, Capt Anderson was quoted as saying he would rather put a pistol to his wife’s head and shoot her. However, becoming hostages saved their lives because the column was annihilated at Gandamak. It was regarded as the worst British military disaster until the fall of Singapore exactly a century later. Anderson was promoted major in 1853 and served as 2iC of the Jodhpur Legion which mutinied in 1857. He was made a Companion of the Bath, retired a lt col and died at Mount Abu, in Rajputana, on the 21st August 1858, aged 55 years.
There is no evidence that his younger brother John Anderson accompanied the Army of Retribution when it retook Kabul, however, during the First Anglo-Sikh War of December 1845 to March 1846, he served in the 2nd Brigade of Horse Artillery in the savagely fought battle of Sobraon. When the British decided to lay siege to Multan following the murder of two of their officers, John was in command of a troop of horse artillery in the army that assembled at Ferozepur under General Whish. He distinguished himself in one of the preliminary actions by Brig Markham’s brigade to secure a canal near the Multan Fort and was mentioned in dispatches. During the assault on the citadel, he commanded the 4th Troop Horse Artillery of the 3rd Brigade consisting of 4 guns.
After the fall of Multan, the army of General Whish moved north to join up with the forces of General Gough for the last battle of Second Anglo-Sikh War at Gujrat. It was advancing 30 km per day on the average but to hasten the linkup, Captain Anderson’s troop of horse artillery accomplished a march of 64 km in 24 hours. He made 32 km in the morning, rested during the day, went on at night, chiefly at a trot, reaching Ramnagar before morning. Little did he know that he was rushing to his death.
