1850s photographs of Manaton Collingwood Ommanney and family

The Lucknow Album, held in the British Library, is a photographic record of prominent residents of Lucknow, both European and Indian, directly before the siege of 1857.  The album was formerly owned by The Times' war correspondent William H. Russell, who was presented with it by Captain Trevor Wheler. The bookplate has the inscription: 'HeadQuarters Camp Dilkoosha Lucknow March 15th 1858. Presented to me by Trevor Wheler [signed] W.H.Russell.' The album was compiled before the Siege of Lucknow (May 1857) and features the work of a local photographer, Ahmad Ali Khan, from 1856 and early 1857. Many of the prints are annotated by hand, presumably by Wheler and Russell, giving the names of the sitters, and sometimes their fate in the siege.

The British Library has just changed its policy on readers taking photographs of material in the Asian and African reading room (March 2015), which enables me to include the following pictures of Manaton Collingwood Ommanney, Judicial Commissioner of Oude, with members of his family and circle of friends.

Manaton Collingwood Ommanney, with his wife Louisa Costley (seated, centre) and two daughters (standing, left and right). Salt Paper print, 97x85mm. Miss White is at back centre and Mrs Kirk front right. The photograph is annotated 'How many? Oh, mercy!'








Manaton Collingwood Ommanney was born on 19 March 1813. His father was Sir Francis Ommanney, Navy Agent and MP for Barnstaple, and his siblings included Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney, Major Octavius Ommanney, and Captain Walter Stirling Ommanney, all of whom feature elsewhere in this blog. He was to spend 26 years in the Bengal Civil Service between 1831 and his death at the siege of Lucknow in 1857. He had by that time risen to become Civil Service Judicial Commissioner at Oude.

He married Louisa Engleheat Costley on 1 November 1834 at Jubulpoor, and they had six children, including Georgiana Ouseley Ommanney (born 1837); Agnes Elizabeth Ommanney (born 1845); Manaton Francis Ommanney (1847-1861), and Ralph Thomason Ommanney (1852-1872).

Louisa Ommanney, nee Costley. By the time of the siege she was reportedly an invalid. 
















The following details of Manaton's dramatic death are taken from the Perlustration of Great Yarmouth by Charles John Palmer, (1872); A Widow’s Reminiscences of the Siege of Lucknow (London, James Nisbet & Co, 1858); A Personal Narrative of the Siege of Lucknow by L.E. Ruutz Rees (1858); and The Siege of Lucknow – a Diary by the Hon. Lady Inglis (James R Osgood, London, 1892).

On 4 July 1857 Ommanney was sitting in his room, soon after the commencement of the siege, with Sergeant-Major Watson. The double-storied house was only lightly defended, surrounded by a deep ditch and a hedge of cactus. Additionally, it had two guns to sweep the road between Gubbin’s Post and the Sikh Square, in case Gubbin’s was overrun. It was considered safe enough – Brigadier Inglis made his headquarters there after the death of Sir Henry Lawrence, and later Henry Havelock and his staff made it their residence.

As he sat there, Ommanney was struck on the head by a cannon ball, which 'scattered a portion of his brains'. Although he did not die immediately, there was no expectation that he would recover. The sergeant-major died almost at once, although it did not appear that the ball had touched him. Ommanney died four days later. 'Ommanney's House' (or the remnants of it) is still so named.

The two daughters who were present at the siege, and who feature in these photographs, were engaged to the Cunliffe brothers; the first, Mr. Cunliffe of the artillery, died in the siege; the second, a civilian, died at Byram Ghat.

The Misses Ommanney, with an unidentified companion. One of these could presumably be Georgiana, who would have been in her late teens. Could their companion be one of the Mr Cunliffes?








At first, the rumour spread abroad that all the whole family had been killed:

Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, Saturday 21 November 1857
Mr Ommanney, the civil superintendant of Oude, with his wife and two daughters, have perished at Lucknow. Mr Ommanney is brother to the Rev. Prebendary Ommanney, of Chew Magna, near Bristol.

This was incorrect. Louisa Ommanney and the two girls arrived at Southampton in the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s steamer Pera on 22 April 1858, as recorded in the Bath Chronicle of that date.

Lady Inglis in her diary of the siege wrote that:

Steady rain all day. Several desertions took place from the garrison; one could hardly wonder at it. Mr. Cunliffe, artillery, died of fever; he was engaged to one of the Miss Ommanneys; and his brother, a civilian, who had been killed in the district, had been engaged to the other. Poor girls! their father had died during the siege, and their mother was a confirmed invalid and required all their attention. I did not know them, but heard that their conduct was most praiseworthy, and that they bore their troubles nobly. (Entry for 22 September 1857)

The 'poor girls' (centre and right), with Miss White (in black).














The inscription on Ommanney's memorial, which still stands at Lucknow, reads:

Sacred to the memory of
Manaton Collingwood Ommanney Esq
For 26 Years in the Bengal Civil Service
The sixth son of Sir F. M Ommanney Bt
and Georgina Frances his wife
He was born March 19th 1816 and died July 8th 1857 
From the effects of a round of shot during the memorable defence of Lucknow in the province
of Oudh of which he was the Judicial Commissioner
Leaving a widow and six children to sorrow
Not without hope for one thus suddenly cut off in his career of Christian integrity, benevolence and usefulness beloved by themselves
and esteemed by all who knew him
The righteous is taken away from the evil to come 
Isaiah 57th Ch (16) Verse

Miss Ommanney (most likely Georgiana)



The Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette of 24 May 1924 recounts a talk by a survivor of the siege of Lucknow, a Mrs Huxham, in which she refers to Ommanney as ‘one of the best and most able leaders of the garrison.’ She also referred to a letter in the possession of Brigadier-General Albert Edward Ommanney, written by Manaton during the siege. It was addressed to Sir Albert de H. Larpent at Calcutta, and had been enclosed in a quill and smuggled out of Lucknow by a native Indian. It included the following passage: “No rain here, and cholera prevalent. Plague, pestilence, famine and sword impend, but all females and males are in good health and spirits.”

Louise and three of the children (Agnes, Manaton and Ralph) made it out, and can be found in the 1861 census back in England.  Manaton (younger) died a few weeks after the census; Ralph died at 19 years old in 1872, an Ensign in the 107th Regiment.


Louisa (of 35 Kildare Terrace, London) died on 18 January 1892.