Olivey Memorial

This splendid memorial stands in the Roger Kay Hall. It was paid for from subscriptions made by the school friends of Second Lieutenant Walter Rice Olivey who was killed at the Battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan in 1879.

Walter Olivey was born in Sydney, New South Wales on March 19th 1860. His father was serving in Australia as a Major in the British Army Pay Department. The family returned to England and Walter attended Bury Grammar School from 1873 to 1878. He went on to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, from which he passed out ‘with great credit'. Days before his twentieth birthday he left England to join the 66th Regiment of Foot (later the Royal Berkshire Regiment) stationed in British-ruled India.

In the summer of 1879, the 66th was sent to reinforce a British expedition which had invaded Afghanistan. In the nineteenth century Afghanistan was a vital buffer-state separating British India from Russian territory. In 1878 the British ambassador and his staff were massacred while guests of the Emir in his capital, Kabul. A British army under General Frederick Roberts was sent in to exact revenge. Roberts quickly captured Kabul and forced the Emir to abdicate in favour of a pro-British ruler. The crisis was not over, as resistance continued in the south of the country, led by the Emir's brother, Ayub Khan. A 2,000-strong British force, including Walter Olivey and the 66th Foot was sent to stop him.

However, Ayub Khan lured them into an ambush at a place called Kushk-I-Nakud on the plain of Maiwand. The British found themselves outnumbered about five to one and were overwhelmed. Part of the 66th tried to make a stand in a walled garden. Here Walter Olivey held aloft the regimental colours as a rallying point for his men. He was killed, along with most of the men in the garden. At last there were only two junior officers and nine ordinary soldiers left. The ‘Last Eleven' charged out of the garden and were all cut down. The only survivor of this episode was Bobbie, a regimental pet dog. In all over 1,300 British and Indian soldiers were lost in the Maiwand disaster, including 308 of the 488 men of the 66th Foot.

The survivors retreated to the city of Kandahar, where they were rescued by a relief force led by General Roberts himself. Bobbie the dog became a national hero and after his death under the wheels of a hansom cab he was stuffed and can still be seen on display at the regimental museum, wearing his Afghan War medal. Maiwand was also the battle in which the 66th's (fictitious) Medical Officer, Doctor John Watson was wounded. Invalided out of the army, he returned to England and met Sherlock Holmes.

On the memorial Walter Olivey can be seen, revolver in hand, defiantly holding the flag aloft.