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BREAKING THE SQUARE: THE 16TH LANCERS AT ALIWAL, A HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPH AFTER HENRY YULE

A striking lithographic view of the celebrated cavalry charge by Her Majesty’s 16th (Queen’s) Lancers at the Battle of Aliwal, a defining engagement of the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–46). Rendered after an original sketch by Henry Yule of the Bengal Engineers, this composition commemorates the moment on 28 January 1846 when the 16th... BREAKING THE SQUARE: THE 16TH LANCERS AT ALIWAL, A HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPH AFTER HENRY YULE

A striking lithographic view of the celebrated cavalry charge by Her Majesty’s 16th (Queen’s) Lancers at the Battle of Aliwal, a defining engagement of the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–46). Rendered after an original sketch by Henry Yule of the Bengal Engineers, this composition commemorates the moment on 28 January 1846 when the 16th Lancers, in a series of audacious attacks, broke through disciplined Sikh infantry squares and overran enemy artillery, securing a complete British victory under General Sir Harry Smith. The boldness of the charge and the heavy casualties borne by the Lancers – over 140 men from a force of 300 – made it one of the most storied cavalry actions in Victorian military history.

The First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–46) was precipitated by a period of acute instability following the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839. Under his charismatic and centralised leadership, the Sikh Empire had emerged as a powerful and modernised state, with a well-trained standing army—the Khalsa—equipped and organised along European lines. However, after his death, the empire was beset by a succession of weak rulers, palace intrigues, and internecine conflict among court factions and military leaders. The once-cohesive command of the Khalsa fragmented, and real power increasingly fell into the hands of the army itself, which acted as a political actor in its own right.

As tensions escalated between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company—especially along the poorly demarcated Sutlej frontier—matters came to a head in late 1845 when the Khalsa crossed the river into British-controlled territory. This incursion triggered a series of major engagements: Mudki, Ferozeshah, Aliwal, and finally Sobraon, all fought with remarkable intensity. While the British forces ultimately prevailed, the campaign exposed the formidable discipline and resistance of the Sikh army. The victory at Aliwal, in particular, allowed British forces to consolidate ahead of the decisive Battle of Sobraon, after which the Treaty of Lahore formally concluded the war in March 1846.

Henry Yule, though not present at the engagement, based this composition on detailed accounts from his elder brother, Major Robert Yule, who rode with the 16th Lancers that day. First-hand recollections informed the realism and intensity of the scene, which was lithographed and published in London by the eminent printseller Thomas McLean. The work exemplifies the patriotic martial imagery popular in mid-19th-century Britain, combining eyewitness testimony, artistic embellishment, and hand-applied colour to convey both narrative clarity and a dramatic effect.

This lithograph is of considerable interest both as a visual document of colonial warfare and as an early example of Henry Yule’s artistic and interpretive talent—predating his later renown as a scholar and Orientalist. Impressions of this lithograph are held in the collections of the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University and the Royal United Services Institute, London.

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