Edward Renwick

Role Major, Bengal Engineers Nationality British Status alive Age 34

Description

Thirty-four. Five years in Bengal, promoted to Major for civil works service. Lean, sunburned, ink-stained fingers. Practical, enthusiastic about his work in the way that bores most people at parties. Happier on a construction site than in a ballroom but duty requires both.

Background

Renwick’s father was Order of St. Aelfric. Renwick grew up with the knowledge. He’s not an active operative; he’s an engineer who went to India to build things. But he knows to watch for the unusual, and a letter from Harcourt is what tells him whom to trust with it. He is Harcourt’s only asset in Calcutta.

Overseeing an embankment reinforcement on the western bank opposite Baranagar, downstream of the temple: a cofferdam, earthworks, engineering equipment, a crew of Indian labourers and a handful of British sappers. The project has been running for eight months. He knows every current, depth, and channel in that stretch of the Hooghly.

Connections

• Lord Percival Harcourt — Harcourt’s only Calcutta asset
• James Hatcherly — Subordinate, demolitions specialist
• Charles Ashworth — Administrative authority over his construction site; wrote a letter of introduction to Colonel Blackwood on his behalf (Session 12)
• George Drury — introduced him to the party at the Government House ball

In Play

Chapter 4, Session 8 (8 October 1814) — sought, not yet found. Meg handed Freddy a letter of introduction written by Lord Harcourt at the Vienna departure and carried in the party’s baggage (Harcourt Letter to Renwick). The letter commends the party to Renwick’s confidence without reservation, alludes to his father and the value of duty, and refers to strange phenomena observed in the course of river engineering work that resist ordinary explanation — suggesting the bearers are people who would know where such observations belong.

Freddy has tasked Pratap Singh with locating him. No contact yet made.

Chapter 4, Session 9 (9 October 1814) — located, not met. Pratap Singh, on Freddy’s commission, walked into the Engineers Park at Fort William on his rank and read the records. Renwick is stationed eight miles north of Calcutta at Baranagar, supervising an embankment project on the Hooghly. He is not yet posted to the Gurkha fight, and will almost certainly be reassigned the moment the works are finished. See Renwick Located at Baranagar.

The party registered that Renwick’s post and the Mandir Mahakali temple stand in the same village. Freddy subsequently asked Marcus Hale how a Fort William posting might be influenced. Harcourt’s letter of introduction is still undelivered.

Chapter 4, Session 10 (9–10 October 1814) — his posting raised with the Magistrate; a visit fixed. Adrien asked Ashworth over the port about keeping the engineer at Baranagar out of the Nepal campaign. Ashworth said postings are the Fort’s business and undertook to arrange a dinner at the Fort William mess on Friday 14 October. The party has decided to travel to Baranagar together on Thursday 13 October (Compound Council 9 October), which puts them at the embankment works before the mess.

Appearances

Campaign Log

• Session 12 - The Governor’s Ball — Introduced to the party at the ball by Captain Drury; on reading Lord Harcourt’s letter of introduction (“Uncle Percy”), dismissed Drury by rank and agreed to breakfast at the Cavendish Compound the next morning, warning that his posting to Nepal could come at any time. At breakfast Wednesday he heard the investigators’ accounts and saw their scars, including Georgiana’s transforming hand, and said simply that he was in. Ashworth wrote a letter of introduction to Colonel Blackwood on his behalf that same day.
• Session 14 - A Morning of Manners and Monstrosities — off-screen. Colonel Blackwood struck him off the Nepal draft at Freddy’s request.
• Session 15 - The River of Rites and Ruin — met the upriver boat at his works, gave a brief tour of the earthworks, and served tea and unleavened bread at a camp table.