Hard times

Picture: Charles Dickens Museum
Text by Mathures Paul
Charles Dickens is the quintessential Victorian author who is best remembered for books like Pickwick Papers, Adventures of Oliver Twist, The Christmas Carol, Hard Times and Our Mutual Friend. But an ever pervasive gloom marks his work and as his career progressed, so did the note of desolation. Why is this so? The answer may lie in Kolkata.
The novelist had 10 children, of whom two died during his lifetime — ninth child Dora Annie died in 1851, aged 9 months and Walter Landor, his second son, died in Kolkata on 31 December, 1863, at the age of 23. He was buried at the Bhawanipore Cemetery but the headstone was shifted to the South Park Street Cemetery in 1987.
Little is known about Walter. Born in 1841, he was named after poet Walter Savage Landor who was an inspiration for his father.
Dickens was sure of the son having a bright future and did not stop him from travelling to India in 1857 as member of the 42nd Highlanders. He attained the rank of lieutenant in the East India Company.
Sadly, after his arrival everything fell apart and he soon found himself in debt. His health also started failing, and in a couple of months time he died of aneurysm, leaving many of the unpaid bills for his father to clear. News of his death did not reach England until Francis Jeffrey Dickens, the fifth child, arrived in India in 1864. When he found his brother dead, he joined the Bengal Mounted Police and returned to England in 1871, a year after the death of Charles Dickens.
Dickens separated from his wife in 1858 after the birth of their tenth child and was having a relationship with actress Ellen Ternan. The novelist passed away in 1870.
Ironically, Walter’s death is significant because his grandfather, John Dickens, was also under heavy debt and had to go to jail. The episode inspired the character of Mr Micawber in David Copperfield.