Talland Church Headstones

Headstone 168

~ Sandstone ~ Gothic top, indented sides and concave shoulders, centralised decorative flowers

John Fowler joined the Royal Navy and as a young lieutenant he was sent to the Far East as Second Master of HMS Pearl. In 1858 he volunteered to join a Naval Brigade which was sent to Upper India to act against the Sepoy rebels.

After taking part in some of the battles near Cawnpore, he was leading on a party of the Brigade against a force of 14,000 Sepoys on 5th March 1858 when, according to newspaper reports at the time, he was ‘struck down by a cannon ball in the moment of victory’ and killed. He was aged 22.

The sentiments and attitudes of the time are well summed up in a letter from John’s commanding officer, Captain E. S. Sotheby, to John’s mother in which he says:
“In avenging the atrocities committed on our
countrywomen and men in India, England has willingly
offered her best blood. And in carrying out such a
righteous war, how many of her sons have fallen; and tho’
painful it must be indeed for those who have been bereft
of their children, yet it must be consolatory to know in
what cause they have fallen.”

“Polperro and the Indian Mutiny’ – Polperro Family History Society J5