Captain C. H. Mecham

Mecham was a British soldier who served as a lieutenant in the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. During the siege of Lucknow, he was part of the prolonged defense of the Residency and later the fighting at Alamgarh. A man with artistic interest, he had a coloured book of lithographs published in 1858 titled Sketches and incidents of the Siege of Lucknow detailing his observations. It was a brutal act of rebellion that left the British shaking, the severe effect of war leaving gruesome deaths and many severely injured on both sides.

He drew these sketches primarily as a way to note not only his personal experience but also to give a first-hand account of the devastating aftereffects of war and the high emotions that surges through people in such a time. The captain also had musical talents and often played the flute, perhaps transiting this melancholic effect onto his work where we see people move on with life as usual. Soon after the Mutiny, he moved to Peshawar taking command of the 9th Regiment in Cawnpore. He died on 12th September, 1865 leaving for posterity a collection of beautiful works of art serving as a visual book of records.