Victoria & Abdul (15 page)

The Home Secretary, Henry Matthews, got a rather more detailed note as the elderly Queen made her own suggestions on solving the crimes:

–
 
Have the cattle boats and passenger boats been examined?

–
 
Has any investigation been made as to the number of single men occupying rooms to themselves?

–
 
The murderer’s clothes must be saturated with blood and must be kept somewhere.

–
 
Is there sufficient surveillance at night?

These are some of the questions that occur to the Queen on reading the accounts of this horrible crime.
¹¹

The Queen wrote to Karim regularly while he was away and enquired about his family. Karim let her know that his father, Wuzeeruddin, was due to retire soon and the family could face some financial hardships. He said his father was hoping the British government would give him a pension. Karim also informed her that Dr John Tyler, superintendent of the Agra Jail, wanted a promotion.

The Queen needed little prompting. She immediately wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne, asking for a promotion for Tyler and a pension for Dr Mohammed Wuzeeruddin, the father of her ‘dear Munshi’. The Viceroy had barely taken up his new position from the outgoing Lord Dufferin and was still settling in when he was asked to make enquiries about Wuzeeruddin. He replied that he thought it advisable ‘not to take steps’ on the matter immediately upon his arrival, but suggested that he would do so when he visited Agra and ascertained the facts about both Tyler and Wuzeeruddin.

His answer did not satisfy the Queen, who was always impatient when she was on a mission. The Viceroy would soon learn that Queen Victoria could be very persistent when she needed something. Within days he received another telegram from her encouraging him to look at the matter urgently for Karim was returning to England on 25 February. The Queen wanted Karim to know that she had listened to his request and was trying to do something for his father while he was in India. She informed Lansdowne that while the Tyler matter could wait, he must attend to Wuzeeruddin’s request immediately.

On 22 February the Viceroy received another urgent telegram from the Queen at Windsor Castle:

It is much better to do nothing about Sir John Tyler till the Viceroy can see him himself. As regards Dr Wuzeeruddin, he wants nothing, the Queen believes, but a pension to live comfortably after
30
years’ service both as Military and Civil Doctor or rather Hospital Assistant.
¹²

Karim returned to Windsor in the spring of 1889 and the Queen was delighted to have him back, telling him how much she had missed him. The lessons were resumed and Karim watched over the boxes once again. The Royal entourage soon left for their European holiday, the Queen visiting Biarritz in France.

The Viceroy – given the job of enquiring after Tyler and Wuzeeruddin – decided to consult Sir Auckland Colvin, Governor of the North-West Provinces. After a lengthy conversation with Colvin, the insights he received into Tyler did not please him. He wrote to the Queen telling her what he had heard, that the jail superintendent was ‘somewhat tactless’. In recent times, Tyler had apparently not been ‘altogether reasonable in his tone’. He had even pressurised Colvin to dispossess the present Inspector General of Prisons in order to make room for him and when informed that it was not possible, threatened to resign.
¹³

As for Wuzeeruddin, the Viceroy informed the Queen that the Munshi’s father had recently met Sir Auckland Colvin who had told him that he ‘desired nothing but to express his supreme sense of absolute contentment’. Lord Lansdowne said he would make it his business to inquire about Wuzeeruddin’s claim to a pension.

The letters did not please the Queen, who was getting annoyed with the delay at granting a promotion to Tyler and the negative remarks she had heard about him. One morning, with Abdul standing patiently by her side, she wrote a long angry letter to the Viceroy defending John Tyler and saying he had been unfairly passed over for promotions as ‘jealousies and ill-disposed persons interfered and Lord Dufferin was induced not to let him have it’.

Lansdowne was soon to realise that the Queen was not a person to give up easily. Despite her advancing years, she would write lengthy letters and send telegrams even when she was travelling. These arrived regularly on his desk, her spidery handwriting covering the black-lined notepaper, which she had used ever since the death of Prince Albert.

The Queen was determined to get Tyler promoted. She had been pleased with the man who had helped arrange the Colonial Exhibition and sent her Abdul Karim. She did not hesitate to express her dissatisfaction with the previous Viceroy and to indulge in some gossip with Lansdowne.

The Queen must say she thinks it was wrong of Lord Dufferin not to fulfil his promise towards her, but she feels that the person who influenced Lord Dufferin most against him (and she says so in
strictest confidence
) is Lady Dufferin, as she does not favour the Female Medical Schools, or at least the manner in which they
are organised, and is very bitter against Sir John Tyler. The Viceroy should hear what his (Sir John Tyler’s) reasons are for
himself
.
¹⁴

The Queen had heard nothing about a pension for Wuzeeruddin and she now sent another urgent telegram to the Viceroy who was on tour in Umballa: ‘Wrote about Dr Tyler and Wuzeeruddin on 22nd. Latter wishes pension after more than 30 year’s service.’
¹⁵

In May she wrote again to the Viceroy. She had clearly had an update from Karim about what had transpired between his father and Colvin at the railway station. She now explained to the Viceroy that Wuzeeruddin had no time to speak to Colvin except a few minutes at the station and he would not have asked for anything, as he has a much easier place than before, ‘but he is getting old, and wd. gladly retire on a pension, to which he is fully entitled for his long and good services, and the Queen wd be glad if he cd. have a little more than the actual ordinary pension on account of his son’s confidential position about the Empress and his (Abdul Karim’s) very exemplary conduct’.
¹⁶

The Queen was eager to help Karim in what she thought was a very reasonable request for his father’s pension. She realised how much she had missed him over the four months that he was away and how happy she was to have him back at her side. Having returned from the Continent, Karim seemed to be picking up some French as well. She wrote to Ponsonby:

As for Abdul Karim, the Queen can never praise him enough. He is zealous, attentive and quiet and gentle, has such intelligence and good sense, and (as all the Indians are)
entirely
intent on his
duty
and always ready to obey the slightest
word
or hint given. He will soon be able to
copy
a good deal for the Queen – even in French – and is an excellent accountant. He is a
thorough
gentleman in feelings and manners.

The Indian servants were not too pleased at this lavish praise for Karim. One of them, Ahmed Husain, began to show signs of depression and the Queen sent Reid to find out the reason. Reid informed her that Husain had told him he was upset because of Karim’s high-handed and dictatorial behaviour. Never one to tolerate any criticism of Karim, the Queen accused Reid of listening to complaints from other servants and wrote another of
her lengthy letters to the doctor clarifying Karim’s stature in the Household.

The Queen wishes to repeat in strong terms her desire that Dr Reid should never allow Ahmed Husain to complain and speak against the Munshi Hafiz Abdul Karim who
is
the
first
, and from the position his family have always held, and his superior education holds a position
now
, and this he was
from the first
entitled to, which is equal to that of Clerk in her Privy Purse and with this addition that Karim is
Personal Indian Clerk to the Queen
.

Karim, she said, looked after the accounts of all the Indians, ordered them clothes, and was ‘
the
person’ who besides these duties also took care of the Queen’s boxes, letters and papers. The Queen also made clear her wish that the others should look to him for advice and help in every way.

Abdul has shown them every reason of pride in his promotion and has always wished to do what the others like and has objected to nothing. But he disapproves with right of any extravagance and likes the Queen’s
written
orders to be strictly
adhered to
. He knows Ahmed Hussain thoroughly and his wish to be the 1st or at least equal in every thing, which will
not
do. The Queen is greatly shocked at Ahmed’s conduct behind Abdul’s back and Dr Reid must on no account listen to or encourage his complaints which are extremely wrong. This is very wrong that he should behave as he does as she likes him personally.
¹⁷

With the Queen backing him at every stage, the Munshi was growing in self-importance. An incident at Sandringham House made the Royal Household realise just how demanding Abdul Karim was becoming. On 26 April 1889 the entire Royal entourage, including the Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales, arrived at Sandringham for a gala performance. The Ball Room had been converted into a theatre for the staging of
The Bells
by Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian. It was a melodrama translated from the original French
Le Juif Polonais
(
The Polish Jew
). Starring the magic pair, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, along with a cast of sixty and a live orchestra, the play had already had a successful run at the Lyceum Theatre in London.
The Queen arrived at 10 p.m. to find there were nearly 300 people in the room including neighbours, tenants and servants. She sat in the front row between Bertie and Alix. The stage had been arranged on a lavish scale with many scene changes. The Queen described the piece as ‘very thrilling’ and thoroughly enjoyed the performance, thinking Henry Irving had acted ‘wonderfully’. Ellen Terry played Portia at the end of the evening, winning a huge round of applause for her ‘quality of mercy’ speech.

But there was one member of the audience who was not pleased. It was the Munshi. He found that he had been seated with the servants. Taking it as a deep personal insult, the Munshi stalked out and spent the rest of the evening sulking in his room. The next morning he told the Queen about it. Immediately she came to his defence and declared that Abdul Karim should always be seated with the Royal Household. The Munshi had climbed his first step on the social ladder.

The following year, at the Braemar Games, the Munshi was seen fraternising with the gentry. When an amazed Duke of Connaught saw the Munshi’s turban bobbing among the top hats in the pavilion, he sent for Henry Ponsonby and asked him how the Munshi had come to be seated with the gentlemen. An equally exasperated Ponsonby replied that Abdul stood where he was ‘by the Queen’s order’ and that if it was wrong, as he did not ‘understand Indian etiquette and HRH did, would it not be better for him to mention it to the Queen’. Ponsonby wrote to his wife that ‘This entirely shut him [the Duke of Connaught] up’.

That summer, another episode at Balmoral connected with the Munshi convinced the Household that they risked saying anything adverse to the Queen about him at their own peril. She would not tolerate any negative remarks about her favourite Munshi.

One afternoon in June, the Queen had driven to the Summer Cottage wearing a brooch that had been presented to her by the Grand Duke of Hesse. As she was getting into her carriage on her way back, she missed the brooch. It had been pinned to her shawl by her dresser, Mrs Tuck, when she was leaving for the Cottage. The Queen thought Mrs Tuck had forgotten to pin the brooch and was very angry with her, but the dresser assured her that she had done so. A search was made at the Cottage and all the gravel outside turned over, but the brooch was not found.

Rankin, the footman on duty that day, privately thought the brooch had been stolen by Hourmet Ali, one of the Queen’s servants, who was Abdul Karim’s brother-in-law, as he had seen the former hanging around the Cottage after serving the Queen’s tea. Since nobody could suggest this to the Queen, the brooch was given up as lost and the dresser was frequently scolded about it.

A month after the incident, on the way back from the Earl of Fife’s wedding at Osborne, another Indian servant, Mahomet, told the dressers Mrs Tuck and Mrs MacDonald, on board the
Alberta
, that Hourmet Ali had sold the brooch to Wagland, the jeweller in Windsor for 6
s
. He said he did not know where Hourmet had got the brooch, but he did not think it belonged to him.

The next day, Mrs Tuck wrote to Wagland asking for the brooch that he had bought from an Indian servant to be sent back. The brooch was immediately returned by Wagland with a note confirming that it had indeed been sold to them by an Indian servant who had claimed it as his own property. In fact, Wagland informed them that the Indian had come to the shop several times and he had finally bought it off him to ‘save himself further annoyance’.
¹⁸

Mrs Tuck took the brooch and the note to the Queen who was first surprised and then annoyed with both Mrs Tuck and Wagland for insinuating that Hourmet Ali had stolen the brooch. ‘That is what you English call justice,’ she shouted at Mrs Tuck, who informed Reid that the Queen ‘was dreadfully angry’.

The Queen discussed the matter with Abdul Karim and then told Mrs Tuck that she was not to mention ‘a word of it’ to Rankin, Miss Dittweiler, the housekeeper at Balmoral, or a single soul; Hourmet was a model of honesty and uprightness and would ‘never dream of stealing anything’. Abdul had said Hourmet Ali had picked it up and that it was an Indian custom ‘to keep anything one found and say nothing about it’ and that he was only acting up to the customs of his country, the Queen told Mrs Tuck.

Abdul had apparently said that Hourmet had picked up the brooch at the policeman’s box, but Reid noted that on the day it was lost, the Queen had not been in that direction at all.