Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Defence of Lucknow (Capt. J. Ruggles, Offg. Sub-Asst. Comy. Genl.) fitted with silver ribbon buckle, two small holes at either side of clasp carriage, contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine £2000-2500

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

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John Ruggles was born at Lewisham, Kent, on 21 July 1827, the son of William Henry Ruggles, a local schoolmaster. He was educated at New Propriety School, Blackheath, and attended Addiscombe Military Seminary, August 1843 to June 1845. He landed in Calcutta in January 1846 where he was posted as Ensign to the 41st Bengal Native Infantry. He served in the expedition under General Wheeler against Kote Kangra in 1846, attached to the 2nd Bengal N.I.

During the Indian Mutiny he was present throughout the defence of the Residency at Lucknow, June to November 1857, as Officiating Sub-Assistant Commissary General (Medal and clasp). He joined the China expedition in 1860-61, as a volunteer with the 15th Loodhianah Sikhs (Medal). Ruggles transferred to the 19th Punjabis in 1862 and served as second-in-command of the regiment in the Bhootan campaign of 1865, including the assault and capture of the Bala Stockades (Medal and clasp; brevet of Major). Ruggles retired on 1 September 1876, as Honorary Major-General, and was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 19th Punjabis on 13 May 1904.

In 1906 Ruggles’ Indian Mutiny memoirs were published, to much acclaim, under the title Recollections of a Lucknow Veteran 1845-1876. This was published by Longmans, Green, & Co., not quite fifty years after the Indian Mutiny but near enough for the Madras Times to term it ‘The Mutiny Golden Jubilee Book’.

Major-General Ruggles, one of the last surviving original defenders at Lucknow, died on 26 July 1919, by which time he had become known as ‘Father of the Garrison’ - the senior of the little band that drinks the ‘Silent Toast’ each year’.

Note: It is apparent that Ruggles received two medals for the defence of Lucknow, one issued from the roll of the Original Garrison Residency of Lucknow, as Lieutenant in the 41st N.I., and a second medal on the roll of the Army Commissariat Department, as Captain and Officiating Sub-Assistant Commissary General. According to the regimental history, the former medal, together with those for China and Bhootan, is recorded as being in possession of the Officers’ Mess of the 1st Battalion 14th Punjab Regiment (late XIX Punjabis).

An original leather-bound copy of Recollections of a Lucknow Veteran, with the author’s dedication to ‘Nellie’ - Ellen Spohia, his second wife whom he married after his retirement from India - is included with the lot, together with six original commission documents and a parchment certificate of pension entitlement, and an exercise book containing numerous press reviews of his book and obituary notices, all contained in a matching leather-bound document case.