Hugh Wheeler (East India Company officer)

Sir Hugh Wheeler, KCB
Wheeler at Cawnpore, c.1857
Born30 June 1789
County Tipperary, Ireland
Died27 June 1857 (aged 67)
Cawnpore, India
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
East India Company
Service / branchBengal Army
Years of service1803–1857
RankMajor General
Battles / warsFirst Anglo-Afghan War
First Anglo-Sikh War
Second Anglo-Sikh War
Indian Rebellion of 1857
AwardsOrder of the Durrani Empire
KCB

Sir Hugh Massy Wheeler KCB (30 June 1789 – 27 June 1857) was an Irish-born officer in the army of the East India Company. He commanded troops in the First Anglo-Afghan War, and the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars, and in 1856 was appointed commander of the garrison at Cawnpore (now Kanpur). He is chiefly remembered for the disastrous end to a long and successful military career, when his defence of Wheeler's entrenchment and surrender to Nana Sahib during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 led to the annihilation of almost all the European, Eurasian and Christian Indian population of Cawnpore, himself and several members of his family included.