Arthur Marcus Hill Cheek

Ensign Arthur Marcus Hill Cheek (31 July 1840 – 16 June 1857) was a Bengal Army officer known posthumously as "the young martyr of Allahabad." Cheek joined the Bengal army in February 1857, and on 28 April arrived in India, where he was posted to the 6th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry. On 6 June, the regiment mutinied as part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and Cheek was injured and captured by mutinous sepoys before dying of his injuries in captivity on 16 June. Cheek's fellow prisoners claimed that he had refused to renounce his Christian faith and convert to Islam while in captivity, thus transforming him into a martyr among Christian circles in Britain and India.

Early life

Arthur Marcus Hill Cheek, the fourth child of Oswald Cheek and Emma Ashwin, was born on 31 July 1840 in Evesham, Worcestershire. He was given the names "Arthur Marcus Hill" in honour of his godfather, Arthur Marcus Hill, who was the MP for Evesham at the time of his birth. He was baptised on 15 August 1840 at the All Saints Church, Evesham.

Military service and death

When Cheek was 16 his father obtained, with the help of Cheek's godfather, a commission in the East India Company's Presidency armies. He was not required to attend Addiscombe Military Seminary for the standard two years but was required to pass an examination, which he did on 3 February 1857. Cheek was subsequently commissioned as an ensign in the Bengal Army on 4 February 1857.

Account of "martyrdom"

An Indian Christian reverend, Gopenauth Nundy, claimed after Cheek's death that he was held captive with him in Allahabad Fort. Nundy alleged that attempts were made by their captors to convert them from Christianity to Islam by keeping them in stocks in the sun without water until they capitulated. He also claimed that Cheek said to him "Padre Sahib, hold onto your faith – don't give it up!" A fellow prisoner, a British woman named Mrs. Coleman, reported that Cheek told her to "be true to your faith and hope."

A memorial tablet, inscribed with the following, was placed on the Cheek family tomb in the graveyard next to the All Saints Church in Evesham: