General Sir John Inglis and Lady Inglis
(1814-1862 and 1833-1904)
28 March 1861

Volume 3, page 18, sittings number 2769 and 2770.

Born John Eardley Wilmot Inglis in Nova Scotia on 15 November 1814, his father was the Right Reverend John Inglis, Bishop of Nova Scotia. He entered the Army as an ensign of the 32nd Foot on 2 August 1833. He served in the Canadian rebellion of 1837 and in the Punjab campaign of 1848-1849, including the storming of Mooltan and the battle of Gujerat. By the time of his greatest hour, the Indian Mutiny of 1857, he had risen to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He succeeded Sir Henry Lawrence in command of the garrison at Lucknow and was created KCB on 21 January 1858 for his enduring fortitude and persevering gallantry in defence of the residency, for 87 days against an overwhelming force of the enemy.

In January 1862 he was appointed commander of the forces in Corfu, but he died at Bad Homburg on 27 September 1862, while convalescing from illness resulting from the Siege of Lucknow. He was buried there but there is a memorial to him in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral.

His wife was born Julia Selina Thesiger in 1833, the fourth daughter of the Right Honourable Frederick Thesiger, 1st Baron Chelmsford. She and Inglis were married on 19 July 1851. 

After her husband's death in 1862, a grateful nation granted his widow a £500 pension from the civil list. She also held the honourary position of 'Housekeeper' of the State Apartments at St James's Palace. In 1892 she published The Siege of Lucknow: A Diary. She died in 1904 and was buried at Lynton, Beckenham, where the family lived after the General's death.