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Synopsis This book is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the Eastern Command of the Indian Army and a team of three professional researchers. Designed to acquaint the readers with an authoritative history of Fort William, it has tried to steer a middle course in the face of two methodological opposites; a coffee table publication and a research monograph. There has been an attempt to weave a historical narrative in a form that would appeal to academics, defence personnel and the general public alike. The task has not been an easy one. The Fort William occupies a pride of place in the history of the Bengal, nay Indian psyche, and the present volume seeks to capture its story through a historical continuum. The project, conceived in 1990, aimed at unfolding the history of the Fort in two parts; the first, encompassing the period between the days of the Old Fort and 15 August 1947; and the second, covering the post independence years. This aim has to be modified as even though there are rich archival records of the Company's heyday, when the Fort constituted the cornerstone of British military power and glory, the document base is exceedingly narrow for the post 1858 British period, when the Fort lost its military importance and merely retained a symbolic value for imperial authority.