Napoleon Bonaparte did die of cancer, shows 1821 mail to Madras from St Helena – Times of India

CHENNAI: Does the city have any connect with French statesman and military leader Napoleon Bonaparte? It may not have a direct association but delve into the archives and historical research department of the state government in Chennai, and you will find a document that dates back to 1821, written from St Helena where Napoleon breathed his last in exile, which proves that he died of cancer.
The letter was addressed to Major General Sir Thomas Munro, then Governor of Madras, to confirm his demise as the French were attempting to establish their supremacy over India from Puducherry and four other enclaves spread across the sub-continent. The war between the British and the French during the 18th and 19th centuries had ramifications on their colonies across the world.
The year 2021 will mark the 200th death anniversary of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Interestingly, the historical letter relating to his death has been conserved and preserved at the Commissionerate of Archives and Historical Research, Egmore, and exhibited to the public only once in 2005. The British East India Company had maintained a separate volume for Napoleon Bonaparte at Fort St George in Chennai, closely monitoring international developments relating to the emperor as he was emerging as a threat for the British in its colonies.
The letter dated May 10, 1821, signed by H Lowe of the government of St Helena states that Napoleon Bonaparte expired on the 5th of May at about 10 minutes before six o’clock in the evening after an illness, which had confined him to his apartment since March 17 of that year. He was attended during the early part of his indisposition by his own medical assistant professor Antomarchi.According to the document, Napoleon’s body was opened with the concurrence of the members of his family the day after his death, in the presence of five principal medical gentlemen on the island. Professor Antomorchi also attended the post-mortem and was the principal surgeon.
“The stomach was discovered to be seat of extensive deseeds, there being a sehirred and cancer near the pylorus, which had penetrated the coats of the stomach the internal surface of which to nearly its whole extent was represented to be a mass of cancerous disease or of Sohirrud portions advancing to cancer,” says the document. According to Napoleon’s relatives, his father had died at an early age due to the same disease. His body was interred with the honors due to a general officer of the highest rank, the letter concludes.
Napoleon Bonaparte is also linked to Arthur Wellesley, who defeated him and Tipu Sultan, according to historians. Chennai also has a building constructed in 1798, which was named after Wellesley. It is located a few feet away from Clive’s House, the headquarters of the Archaeological Survey of India’s Chennai Circle, at Fort St George.
P Jagadeesan, former history professor and ex-vice chancellor of Bharathidasan University says that Arthur Wellesley defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo in 1815. “Arthur Wellesley was the younger brother of Lord Wellesley, then governor of Madras. Arthur Wellesley came to Chennai as general of army under his brother’s administration,” says Jagadeesan.
S Kuppusamy, professor, department of Indian history at the University of Madras, says that the British East India Company, the French, Tipu Sultan, Nawab of Arcot and the Marathas were competing with each other to prove their supremacy in south India and the Battle of Adyar was a fallout of it. “Napoleon Bonaparte even offered to send his troops to help Tipu Sultan fight against the British,” he says.