Meeanee 1843 (Wm. Costello. 22nd. Regt.) officially engraved naming, fitted with original steel clip and straight bar suspension, nearly very fine £600-£800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals - The Property of a Gentleman.

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Collection

Colonel Murray Collection, Glendining’s, May 1926.

William Costello was born in the town of Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland, in March 1819. An illiterate labourer, he enlisted for the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment of Foot on 22 March 1838 for a bounty of £3. Posted to India and placed under the command of General Sir James Napier, G.C.B., Costello fought at the battle of Meeanee against the Baloch Army of the Talpurs of Sindh on 17 February 1843; a resounding victory for the Bombay Army of the East India Company, the Imperial Gazetteer of India later reported five thousand Balochs killed or wounded on the battlefield. A British journal said of the captive Sindhi Amirs:

‘The Amirs as being the prisoners of the state are maintained in strict seclusion; they are described as broken-hearted and miserable men, maintaining much of the dignity of fallen greatness, and without any querulous or angry complainings at this unallevable source of sorrow, refusing to be comforted.’

Awarded the battle honour ‘Meeanee’ the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment remained in India and later fought at Hyderabad - an action which resulted in the Amirs of that place being exiled to the Andaman Islands upon the conclusion of the conflict. Briefly consigned as prisoner from 7 to 19 April 1848, reason unknown, Costello was discharged at Karachi on 15 November 1849, unfit for further service. His Army Service Record notes ‘impaired vision, deafness and general bad health’ caused by climate and scrophulous diathesis not aggravated by vice or misconduct. Frequently in hospital in Bombay from November 1848, Costello returned to England and spent a further 34 days under army medical supervision at Chatham.

Sold with copied service record and private research.