3-011-772 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Group of the Police Force newly organised in Bengal, 1864. Engraving from a photograph. 'The group consists of the district Superintendent, two Inspectors, a head constable, a constable, and a sowar. The central seated figure is Lieutenant Bowie, of the Madras Staff Corps, the officer commanding the force. At his right sits Inspector Harry Mullick, a pure Bengalee. He is a shrewd, intelligent, and active man. He reads and writes English fluently, and has a good knowledge of Persian and Hindoo. He is a good rider, a capital shot, and is, altogether, an excellent specimen of the "Young Bengal". Seated at the left hand of Lieutenant Bowie is Inspector Pandy, formerly a subadar in the 4th Oude Police Battalion. He is a particularly smart and intelligent man, is a first-rate drill, and has a great talent for command - qualifications which make him particularly useful in a semi-military force. Of the figures at the back, the one at the right of the spectator is an Afghan sowar, who is chiefly remarkable for his size and his long boots. The two others are Sikhs from Lahore, who did right good service during the mutiny'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.