A noted leader during the Indian Mutiny; joined the Indian Army in 1845, fought through the first Sikh War, and subsequently held a civil post in the Punjab; on the outbreak of the Mutiny he became head of the Intelligence Department, and won celebrity as the daring but wild leader of an irregular cavalry regiment known as Hodson's Horse; he took part in the sieges of Delhi, and at Lucknow captured the Mogul Emperor; shot down with his own hand the young princes, and a few months later fell himself while storming a palace in the city (1821-1858).