The Tirah campaign medal to Lieutenant Alexander Lamont, Gordon Highlanders, the only officer killed in the legendary storming of the heights of Dargai by the Highlanders on 20 October 1897

India General Service 1895-1902, 2 clasps, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Tirah 1897-98 (Lieutt. A. Lamont, 1st Bn. Gord. Hrs.) extremely fine £2000-2500

The battle of Dargai stands out clearly as the crowning incident of the Tirah campaign. The Dargai heights had been successfully captured and cleared of the enemy on the 18th October but, for reasons that still remain unclear today, a decision was taken to abandon the commanding position later that day. Several casualties occurred during the retirement, including Major R. D. Jennings-Bramley, of the Gordons, killed. The order of the retirement of General Kempster’s Brigade was as follows: Gurkhas first, and then the Gordons, the whole to be covered by the 15th Sikhs and the Gurkha Scouts. On the Gurkhas leaving their position on the high hill, it was immediately occupied by the enemy in great numbers. As the Gurkhas and Gordons were moving off the Dargai Ridge, the enemy, emboldened by the retirement, were creeping up and surrounding the troops on the ridge, on whom they were firing from three sides. The retirement was conducted with admirable steadiness under the most trying conditions, for as soon as the ridge was abandoned it was occupied by the enemy, who poured a destructive fire on them at a range of under 300 yards. Here it was that the casualties occurred, Major Jennings-Bramley and one private being killed and eight men wounded in the space of ten minutes. In the meantime darkness had closed in and to the surprise of everyone the enemy ceased to follow up.

General Sir William Lockhart knew on the 19th that the enemy in their thousands were in possession of Dargai, and preparations for the advance the next day went on apace. The fact that the crest was so well sangared, with loopholes selected with every view to converging fire in any direction desired on the exposed distance, showed that the tribesmen had every intention of making a stubborn resistance at this point. Lockhart, however, was of the opinion that the enemy would probably retire as soon as troops had been pushed on to the point where the Narik Darra joined the Chagru defile, as their rear would thus be threatened. At 4 a.m. on the 20th, the troops of the 2nd Division, under General Yeatman-Biggs, moved out, being joined by further troops from the 1st Division, including the Derbys and 3rd Sikhs.

The 1st Battalion 2nd Gurkhas led the attack, with the Dorsets supporting and the Derbys in reserve. The Gordons covered the advance with their Maxim and with long range volleys from a spur about 2,000 yards from Dargai height, but were otherwise held in reserve. The rush of the Gurkhas was watched with deadly interest, and when the dust had cleared away it was seen that many had fallen, and dead and wounded to the number of twenty or more were lying on the fatal open space. The Dorsets then moved forward to the support of the Gurkhas, but they too suffered severely in the open ground. The attack having now lasted nearly four hours, the officer commanding the Dorsets, realizing the absolute hopelessness of attack under the present conditions, helio’d back that the position was impregnable, and that a further attempt to take it would be a useless waste of life. Now the order came for the Derbyshires and the 3rd Sikhs to reinforce the attack, but the fire of the enemy seemed stronger than ever, and its effect was paralysing. Hundreds of officers and men were now helplessly pinned down by an enemy who had their range absolutely.

What appeared to an observer was an inaccessible cliff whose top rose five hundred yards away in front. The path across was thirty or forty yards wide, with a little spur about eighty yards from them, behind which the Gurkhas were crouching. The enemy had constructed tiers of stone galleries, some of them four feet thick and proof against the seven-pounder shells from the mountain batteries. On any advance being attempted the whole side of the cliff for a width of three hundred yards smoked and vomited forth a terrific storm of bullets. The afternoon was far advanced, and a retirement was not an unlooked for contingency. To all appearance there was no chance of the position being taken.

Then the Gordon Highlanders were called up from their position on the lower spur, where they had remained originally covering the advance. It was a stiff half hour’s climb to the cup in which the bulk of the troops were lying more or less under cover. Colonel Mathias, after ordering the regiment to charge their magazines and fix their bayonets, addressed his troops:- “Men of the Gordon Highlanders, listen to me. The General says this position must be taken at all hazards, and we will take it in front of the whole Division; let every man follow his own officers and section leaders, and don’t stop.”

Then the Pipers skirled forth the regimental war song, “and with the lilt of a big parade” the gay Gordons stepped forth. The gallant Colonel led his troops, offering the first mark to the enemy. On, up the corpse-strewn steep, the Highlanders charged, whilst from the heights above the enemy poured forth a blighting fire. It was steep, and rugged, and bullet-swept. The enemy crumpled up the head of the upper column before it had scarce got on its way, but on came more kilted warriors to fill up the breach. Wave upon wave surged into the bloody arena, and new courage filled the numerous gaps.

On swept the undaunted band. Loud screeched the pipes and the strains of “Cock o’ the North” and the Haughs o’ Cromdale”, the charging tune of the Gordons, further infused the mad spirit of heroism into the storming party. The men saw their officers fall on all sides. The Colonel at their head was shot; Lieutenant Lamont received his death wound; and Major Forbes MacBean was shot in the abdomen, but even whilst lying on the ground cheered on his men to the assault. But the Gordons were not alone in their wild exultant charge. The bearded Sikhs, and the Derbys and Dorsets, and the little Gurkhas, all rushed madly into the open and joined in the assault. When the party under the rocks had been considerably swelled, Colonel Mathias went back into the open and, waving his helmet, called on the Gordon Highlanders again. The effect was magical: as if by resurrection the whole space seemed alive, and a great wave of men - Highlanders, Gurkhas, Dorsets, Sikhs and Derbyshires - came headlong over the crest. From this moment the fire of the enemy, which had been intense, slackened, and as the leading party neared the crest it dropped to a few shots.

Two Victoria Crosses were won at Dargai, both honours going to the Gordons - Piper George Findlater and Private Edward Lawson being the recipients. On the fatal plateau of Dargai fell 4 officers killed and 14 wounded, one mortally, besides 182 of the rank and file of five regiments killed and wounded. Of the Gordons, Lieutenant Lamont was killed, whilst Colonel Mathias, Major MacBean, Captain Uniacke, and three Lieutenants were wounded.

Alexander Lamont was born on 24 August 1872, second son of James Lamont (later Sir James Lamont, Bart.), of Knockdow, Co. Argyll. He entered the Army on 4 February 1891, as a Second Lieutenant in the Argyll and Bute Artillery Militia, in which he was promoted Lieutenant on 16 July 1892. In June 1894 he was brought into the regular forces as a Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders, which he joined at Glasgow. In June 1896 he transferred to the 1st Battalion, and proceeding to India, he joined that corps at Gharial, in the Murree Hills, in the following October. In the course of the same month he accompanied the regiment to Rawalpindi, and on 17 February 1897 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. In the succeeding April he marched with the battalion to Kuldana, and on the outbreak of the Frontier War in the following summer he moved with it to the front. In October he accompanied the corps in service on the Tirah expedition, and after taking part in the first action of Dargai on the 18th, he fell in the storming of the Dargai Heights on the 20th October 1897, killed by a gun shot in the head.