Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Commdt. Lieut. E. T. Walcott. 57th Regt. N.I.) small edge bruise, otherwise nearly extremely fine £350-450

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late Tim Ash.

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Edmund Yeamans Walcott (note error in second initial on medal) was born at Lanreath, Cornwall, on 26 July 1835, the son of Commander Charles Walcott, Royal Navy. In May 1852 he was passed for direct entry to the Bengal Infantry and was just 17 years old when he arrived in India as an Ensign in the 57th Bengal Native Infantry. By 1855 he had qualified as an interpreter and was appointed Interpreter and Quartermaster to his regiment, the inspection report of the 57th N.I. for 1856 noting, ‘He is very young and but recently appointed, but he promises well having good ability and heart for his work’.

Walcott served during the Mutiny as Commandant of Artillery with General Van Cortlandt’s Hurrianah Field Force and his unusual rank of Commandant Lieutenant is confirmed on the medal roll which gives his services as, ‘The action at Odah and the capture of Khyreykee in the Bhutee Territory, 17th and 19th June, the action at Jamalpore in the Hissar District, 13th September 1857, at all of which General Cortlandt, C.B., Commanded. The action at Narnoul, 16th November 1857.’

In 1858 Walcott suffered an accident causing a serious wound to the head and the loss of one eye. This wound, in the long term, may have damaged his intellect. In the short term, however, his career prospered and he acquitted himself well during the campaign in the Jyntia Hills of Assam in 1862, being rewarded with civil employment for his services and appointed as an Assistant Commissioner in Assam. In 1864 he was sent to England on medical certificate furlough, where he married. His new wife accompanied him to India where their first child was born at Dibrugar, Upper Assam in 1865. In 1871 the family returned to England for two years’ furlough, at the end of which Walcott returned to India alone, leaving behind his wife who was pregnant with twins. In the years following, Walcott filled various civil posts, all of a temporary nature. However, with the sight of his surviving eye deteriorating rapidly, Walcott sought a return to military duties. This was denied to him and he was effectively forced into compulsory retirement after a further two years’ furlough to England. The years following saw extended arguments with the authorities over his pension rights, the breakdown of his marriage and inevitable divorce, and the final ignominy of bankruptcy. Walcott followed an itinerant lifestyle in his later years, moving around Europe and the Mediterranean regions, and finally died at Madeira 29 January 1914, aged 78.

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