The Assassination and Apotheosis of the Earl of Mayo

Abstract

On the evening of 8 February 1872, as the sun set over the Bay of Bengal, a party that included Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo and Viceroy and Governor General of India, was finishing a tour of the prison camp at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. Having seen the main part of the camp, which spread over several sites along the central bays of South Andaman Island, Mayo insisted unexpectedly on climbing Mount Harriet above the village of Hope Town, on an island set aside for prisoners with records of good behavior. While most of the party remained aboard his flagship, the H.M.S. Glasgow, he and a smaller group headed to Hope Town for this closing excursion. Taking a good stretch of the legs was entirely characteristic of Bourke. Physical labors had endeared him to Anglo-Indians and native peoples alike: a keen sportsman, he became an avid pig hunter after arriving in India in 1869.¹ But in this instance, the exertion also enabled the viceroy to gain a more complete appreciation of the facility that served as the primary site for transportation of South Asians convicted within the Raj for committing heinous crimes.