Single Campaign Medals 290
Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue (2) (Chas. Dargan - 39th. Regt.) contemporarily engraved naming; another, unnamed as issued, both pierced as issued with ring suspension, heavy edge bruising and abrasive acid corrosion (?) to first, this nearly fine, the second better (2) £70-£90
x 291
India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (Sepoy Susseedhur Khuttree 1st. Goorkha Regt.); India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1930-31 (10389 Sep. Bostan Khan, 4-10 Baluch R.) minor edge bruising, nearly very fine (2) £120-£160
292
India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Burma 1885-7 (14 Pte. J. Quirk 2d. Bn. R. Sco. Fus.) suspension claw slightly loose, otherwise very fine £140-£180 Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, December 2003. Sold with copied medal roll extract.
x 293
The India General Service Medal awarded to Lieutenant R. A. T. Dury, 11th Bengal Infantry, who was the first officer to be killed during the Third Burma War, at Minhla on 17 November 1885, and was the inspiration for Kipling’s poem Arithmetic on the Frontier India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Burma 1885-7 (Lieutt. R. A. T. Dury 11th. Bl. Infy.) extremely fine £300-£400 Robert Ashton Theodore Dury was born on 7 July 1863 and was educated at the United Services College, Westward Ho! Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the South Wales Borderers on 25 August 1883, he transferred to the Indian Army on 28 April 1885, and was ‘with the 11th Bengal Infantry in Burma in 1885; landed with General Norman’s 3rd Brigade and advanced on Minhla Fort. The advance was stopped by a heavy fire from a prepared position in the middle of dense bush; it took some sharp fighting and more than one bayonet charge before the Burmans were driven back upon Minhla by the 11th Bengal Infantry and the 12th Madras Infantry. Lieutenant Dury was killed in the jungle; total casualties were 1 officer and 4 men killed, and 4 officers and 27 men wounded.’ Dury was the first officer killed during the Third Burma War, on 17 November 1885, 11 days after the declaration of War. The poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the editor of the Civil and Military Gazette to send him to Burma to cover the campaign as a journalist, and upon reading the casualty list he remembered that Dury had been a contemporary of his at the United Services College. In a letter to Lionel Dunsterville, Kipling wrote: ‘I tried to go to Burma for the paper but I couldn’t be spared. By the way, did you see that poor Durey [sic] was killed by those swine? There’s £1,800 worth of education gone to smash and a good fellow with it.’ The following year, Kipling would write ‘Arithmetic on the Frontier’, with the third stanza presumably inspired by Dury’s death: ‘A scrimmage in a Border Station A canter down some dark defile Two thousand pounds of education Drops to a ten-rupee jezail. The Crammer’s boast, the Squadron’s pride, Shot like a rabbit in a ride!’ Sold with copied research including an engraved image of the recipient.
294
India General Service 1854-95, 2 clasps, Burma 1887-89, Burma 1885-7, clasp re-affixed in this order, as usual 1597 Pte. W. Meade 2nd. Bn. R.W. Kent R.) suspension post slightly bent, toned, good very fine £140-£180
295
Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Lieut. H. E. Glass, 37th. Regt.) edge bruising, nearly very fine
£240-£280
Henry Edward Glass was born on 17 August 1834 and was commissioned Ensign in the 91st Regiment of Foot, by Purchase, on 17 March 1855. He was promoted Lieutenant by purchase on 7 September 1855, and transferred to the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot on 29 April 1856. He served in India during the Great Sepoy Mutiny from 5 June 1857 to 4 March 1861, and was promoted Captain on 31 May 1864; Major on 4 December 1867; and Lieutenant-Colonel on 21 April 1877.
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