Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Sergeant W. Cullum, 9th Lancers

Sutlej 1845-46, for Sobraon 1846, no clasp (9th Lancers); Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Chilianwala, Goojerat (9th Lancers); Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 3 clasps, Delhi, Relief of Lucknow, Lucknow (9th Lancers); Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., small letter reverse (Corpl., 9th Lancers) the campaign awards with contact wear and edge bruising, otherwise generally about very fine, the last rather better (4) £2500-3000

William Cullum was born in Bow, London and attested for the 9th Lancers in June 1842, aged 18 years. He was subsequently present at all of the regiment’s actions in the Sutlej and Punjab campaigns, not least the battles of Sobraon, Chilianwala and Goojerat.

But it was the pre-eminent record of the 9th Lancers in the Indian Mutiny that would add another medal and three clasps to make up Cullum’s ‘full-house’ group. A vivid account of many of the actions fought by the regiment may be found in the published letters of Brevet Major O. H. S. G. Anson, including the enemy’s night atttack on their camp before Delhi on 19 June 1857, when Cullum was slightly wounded - ‘I cannot describe to you the confusion that ensued in the dark, and how grand it was to see the battle raging in the dark, when one could see the flash of every matchlock ...’ The regiment had already taken heavy casualties at Badli-ke-Serai on the 8th of the same month, and would continue to serve with distinction throughout the assorted Lucknow operations, finally leaving India in September 1859.

Cullum was advanced to Corporal in January 1864 and to Sergeant in January 1866. Finally discharged at Newbridge in June 1869, aged 45 years, he appears to have applied for admission to the Royal Hospital Chelsea in 1895, but died in April of the same year before his application could be processed.