The outstanding Indian campaign group of four to Colonel R. A. Yule, 9th Lancers, late 16th Lancers, who was killed in action at Delhi Ridge in June 1857

Ghuznee 1839 (Robert Abercromby Yule, Lieutenant, 16th Lancers) fitted with contemporary silver bar suspension; Sutlej 1845-46, for Aliwal 1846, 1 clasp, Sobraon (Lieut. R. A. Yule, 16th Lancers); Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Chilianwala, Goojerat (Capt. R. A. Yule, 9th Lnacers) second clasp loose on ribbon; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Delhi (Capt. & Bt. Lt. Col. R. A. Yule, 9th Lancers) the first three with contact marks and some pitting, otherwise nearly very fine, the last extremely fine (4) £4000-5000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Gordon Everson.

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Robert Abercromby Yule was born on 22 October 1816, son of Major William Yule, Bengal Army. He was educated at Bristol and Edinburgh, and entered the 16th Lancers as an Ensign on 3 July 1835. He embarked for Bengal in August 1836, landed at Calcutta in the following December, and soon afterwards proceeded to the Upper Provinces, joining his regiment at Meerut in the succeeding spring. On 26 May 1837 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. In the autumn of 1838 he marched with the regiment to Ferozepore and joined the Army of the Indus, and served with it throughout the campaign of 1838-39 in Afghanistan, including the capture of Ghuznee and the occupation of Cabul. Whilst en route to Ghuznee, on the 6th of April, a patrol of ten men under Lieutenant Yule was fired upon from a small mud tower. Halting the patrol, Yule and five men dismounted and advanced to storm the tower. In this they were successful, killing five and wounding the only remaining adversary.

On the conclusion of the campaign he returned with the regiment to Meerut, arriving there in February 1840, and in the spring of 1841 he went home on sick leave. In the following year he became a student at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he continued until the close of 1843. He returned to India in January 1844, and served with the regiment at Meerut until the outbreak of the first Sikh War in December 1845. Accompanying the regiment to the front to join the Army of the Sutlej, he took part in the action of Budhowal and the battles of Aliwal and Sobraon.

Returning to England with the regiment after the conclusion of the war, Yule was promoted to Captain on 2 July 1847. On the 16th of the same month he exchanged into the 9th Lancers, for the purpose of returning to India. Landing at Calcutta in January 1848, he soon afterwards joined his new regiment at Meerut, whence, in the autumn of the same year, on the outbreak of the second Sikh War, he accompanied the corps to the front, thereafter serving throughout the Punjab Campaign of 1848-49, taking part with the regiment in the passage of the Chenab and the battle of Chilianwala. On 19 January 1849 he was appointed Brigade-Major to the 2nd Brigade of Cavalry, in which capacity he fought at the battle of Goojerat. He was promoted to Major on 7 June 1849, and marched with the 9th Lancers to Wazirabad, and, in the winter of 1850-51, to Ambala, where he continued to serve for the next six years.

On 29 January 1857 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet, and was serving with the regiment at Ambala when the Mutiny broke out in May 1857. Accompanying it in the movement on Delhi, Yule took part in the action of Badli-ki-Serai and in the immediately following advance to and seizure of the Ridge on the 8th June. Of this action General Sir Hope Grant later noted: ‘The 9th Lancers behaved gallantly, charged into the midst of the enemy, captured a 9-pounder which the mutineers were endeavouring to withdraw, turned the gun upon a village where the enemy had taken refuge, and dislodged them from it. Colonel Yule killed three men with his own hand.’

Yule’s career, however, soon afterwards came to an untimely end; for, on the 19th June, when the enemy, in great force, attacked the rear of the British camp, he charged them with distinguished gallantry at the head of two squadrons of the regiment, but unfortunately lost his life in the conflict, having been shot in the leg and knocked off his horse, and then savagely hacked to death by the rebels. “Poor Yule’s body was not found till next morning. He had both thighs broken by musket balls, a ball through the head just over the eye, his throat cut, and his hands much gashed, besides other cuts on the head... Four of his men were lying dead beside him.” Colonel Yule is buried in the Rajpur Cemetery at Delhi Ridge.

Yule was the author of ‘Notes on the Employment of Cavalry and Horse Artillery with Instructions for the Evolutions of a Brigade’, Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta 1856. Surviving letters written by Yule during the Sikh Wars and the Indian Mutiny were published by the Army Historical Research Society of which bound copies accompany the group, together with a substantial quantity of research.