Assassination of Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo

Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, was assassinated on 8 February 1872 by Sher Ali Afridi, a disgruntled Indian soldier of Afghan Muslim background, who had been convicted of murder and condemned to penal servitude.

Arriving with a large entourage,[2] Lord Mayo was involved in drafting the regulations of the penal settlement at Port Blair.

[1] Indignant and claiming innocence, he elected to kill two Government officials, the Superintendent and the Viceroy, as revenge for his sentence, which he thought more severe than he deserved.

[4] Sher Ali waited for a full day to commit the assassination; it was not until the evening that he found an opportunity to kill the Viceroy.

Like the rest of his tribe he was constantly involved in blood feuds..."[5]At 7:00 PM on 8 February, when the Viceroy had almost completed his inspection of the penal settlement at Port Blair and was returning to his boat, where Lady Mayo was also waiting, Sher Ali Afridi appeared from the dark and stabbed him in the neck, causing Mayo to bleed to death and die at the scene.

Sher Ali was immediately arrested by twelve security personnel, whose gross failure to detect and defer the assassin was soon evident.