Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second Afghan War C.B. group of four awarded to Major-General Henry Tyndall, 2nd Punjab Infantry, afterwards the first Commandant of the Gordon Boy’s Home and Colonel of the 56th Punjabis

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge, 18 carat gold and enamel, hallmarked London 1881, complete with gold riband buckle; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Lieutenant H. Tyndall 61st N.I.) naming officially engraved in fine running script; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (Lieut. H. Tyndall, 3rd Punjab Infy.); Afghanistan 1878-80, 1 clasp, Peiwar Kotal (Lt.-Col. H. Tyndall. C.B., 2nd Pun. I.) nearly extremely fine (4) £2,600-£3,000

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

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Henry Tyndall was born in Neuburg, in the Limburg province of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, on 9 April 1833, son of William Tyndall, formerly of the 2nd Dragoon Guards, residing in Dusseldorf. He was educated at the Real Schule, Dusseldorf, and with C. Howard Esope B.A. of St John’s Wood, London. Having applied for a Cadetship in the Bengal Infantry, Tyndall passed his examination on 2 June 1852, and arrived in India on 29 September 1852. He did duty with the 42nd N.I. and subsequently with the 33rd N.I. at Barrackpore until March 1853, when he was posted to the 61st N.I. as 5th Ensign and joined that regiment at Lucknow in May 1853. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 12 April 1854, and marched with the 61st N.I. ‘in course of relief’ to Jullundur from Lucknow in November 1854. He was present with the 61st N.I. at the mutiny of that regiment at Jullundur on 7 June 1857. He afterwards served in the column pursuing the mutineers, and later, as Adjutant of the 21st Punjab Infantry, against the rebels in the Gogaira and Multan district, 1857-58 (Medal).

Tyndall joined the 3rd Punjab Infantry as a volunteer and served with that regiment as officiating Adjutant in the expedition against the Mahsud Waziris in 1860, and was present at the forcing of the Berara Pass (Medal with clasp). He was appointed Adjutant and officiating 2nd in command of the 2nd Punjab Infantry in May 1860, officiated as temporary Commandant of the 6th Punjab Infantry in November 1860, and as 2nd in Command of the 1st Sikh Infantry for a short period in 1861. Appointed 2nd in command of the 12nd Punjab Infantry in May 1861, he was promoted to Captain in the Bengal Staff Corps in August 1864, and marched with the 2nd Punjab Infantry in course of relief to Abbottabad in 1865 and against the Ootman Kheyl Tribe at Hoti Mardan, before returning to Abbottabad the following year. Appointed officiating Commandant in June 1866, he commanded the 2nd Punjab Infantry during the operations in the Agror Valley and Black Mountains in 1868, for which his conduct was brought to notice in Despatches. He also commanded the regiment in the attack on the Bezoti settlement, near Kohat, in February 1869, and was appointed Commandant of the 2nd Punjab Infantry on 15 July 1869.

Tyndall was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 20 August 1878, and commanded the 2nd Punjab Infantry throughout the period it was employed during the first campaign in Afghanistan 1878-79. He was present in command of the battalion during the operations on the Peiwar Kotal, November to December 1878, and for these services was mentioned in despatches by Brigadier-General Thelwell (London Gazette 7 November 1879), and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (London Gazette 19 November 1879), one of 38 such awards to the Indian Army for the Second Afghan War. He left the 2nd Punjab Infantry in November 1881, on two years’ leave and during this time was promoted to Colonel the following August. Tyndall tendered his resignation as Commanding Officer of the regiment on 1 April 1883, and retired from the Indian Army with the honorary rank of Major-General on 8 December 1884. His last military promotion came in May 1904 when he was appointed Colonel of his old regiment, by then known as the 56th Punjab Rifles.

In September 1885, Tyndall was appointed Commandant of the Gordon Boy’s Home, newly established as a national memorial to General Gordon following his death at Khartoum in 1885, and in continuance of his charitable work with orphans. He held this appointment until 1892, after which he took up residence in Horsham where he was an active participant in local affairs. Major-General Henry Tyndall died at Horsham on 21 March 1912, aged 78.

Many of Tyndall’s original documents and letters are held by the National Army Museum, including a graphic account of the storming of the Berara Pass and his incomplete account of the mutiny of the 61st N.I. which, he says, ‘was written by me immediately after the outbreak - probably in June 1857 - I do not know what became of the rest of the manuscript.’ Sold with copied pages of these accounts together with comprehensive research.

See Lot 843 for the D.S.O. group awarded to his son, Lieutenant-Colonel H. S. Tyndall, 40th Pathans.