When the Nawab killed British Governor General's agent

The rule of Nawab Wazir Ali was the shortest in Awadh as he ascended the throne on Sep 21, 1797, and was dethroned by the British after four months on Jan 21, 1798.

He was shifted to Varanasi on Feb 8 on the promise by Governor General Sir John Shore that he would be paid Rs 6 lakh annually but later he was given only Rs 1,50,000.

Wazir Ali was convinced that all this was due to the manipulations of George Frederick Cherry, posted at Varanasi as an agent of the Governor General and First Judge to the Provincial Court of Appeal.

Wazir Ali decided to kill Cherry and chalked out a plan with Izzat Ali, Waris Ali, Bal Govind, Badal Khan, Bichak Singh, Kalib Ali Beg, Mir Aziz-ud-din, Noor Mohammad and others. A meeting was held at Cherry’s residence in the morning of Jan 14, 1799.

Once everyone sat for breakfast, an unsuspecting Cherry offered a cake to Wazir Ali which he refused and started speaking about his grievances. Suddenly, Wazir Ali stood up and caught Cherry. He took out his special sword and inflicted injury on Cherry’s head.

Others also took out their weapons. A man, Mir Hingan, charged at Cherry but he ran away pleading that he was only a servant. In this chaos, Cherry, with the help of his peon Shiv Dayal, managed to run away towards the garden. However, Noor Mohammad, Waris Ali, Rahim Ali, and others, chased and caught him in the garden.

Waris Ali hit him first and when he fell to the ground, all the conspirators killed Cherry.

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