A rare Kelat-i-Ghilzie group of six awarded to Havildar Moshurruff Khan, Regiment of Kelat-i-Ghilzie (12th Bengal Native Infantry), late 3rd Regiment of Infantry Shah Shuja’s Force

Ghuznee 1839, unnamed as issued, with replacement loop and straight bar suspension; Ghuznee Cabul 1842, unnamed as issued, with replacement ball mount and straight bar suspension; Defence of Kelat-i-Ghilzie 1842, unnamed as issued, with replacement ball mount and straight bar suspension; Maharajpoor Star 1843, erased naming, replacement straight bar suspension; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Northwest Frontier (Havr., Regt. of Kelat-i-Ghilzie); Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Havildar, Regt. of Kelat-i-Ghilzie) all with matching silver buckles on ribbon, earliest medals with edge bruising and heavy contact marks, fine and better (6) £5000-6000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to the Indian Army from the Collection of AM Shaw.

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This rare and unusual combination of medals was worn by a Havildar of the H.E.I.C. Army. The combination suggests that he served with the 3rd Regiment of Infantry Shah Shuja’s Force during the First Afghan War. For its good services in the war the unit was taken into the Bengal Army and renamed the ‘Regiment of Kelat-i-Ghilzie’. Although four of the medals are unnamed, they are consistent with medals that would have been awarded to a man of the unit; the mounting and degree of wear all suggest that the medals form part of one group. The regiment received battle honours for ‘Kelat-i-Ghilzie’, ‘Candahar 1842’; ‘Ghuznee 1842’; ‘Cabool 1842’ and ‘Maharajpoor’.

The unit was stationed along the North West Frontier during the period 1851-60, initally at Rawalpindi and later at Peshawar. There it served in two expeditions against dissident tribesmen - the Hassanzais during 1852-53 and Sitana during 1858. During the Indian Mutiny the Regiment was one of the few regiments of the Bengal Army to remain loyal. The regiment was split into detachments and was stationed at various frontier forts and engaged in rounding up deserters. Havildar Moshurruff is listed as being a member of the unit engaged in repelling an attack on the fort at Michnee by mutineers from the former 51st Regiment. The unit saw the mutiny out ‘employed as an escort to the Commander in Chief, Lord Clyde [formerly Sir Colin Campbell] during his tour of the Northwest Provinces, Oudh and the Punjab, thus showing through all that countryside a Bengal Regiment that had remained loyal’ (ref: History of the Bombay Pioneers, by Lieut-Col. W. B. P. Tugwell). With copied roll extract and other research.