Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (A. Anthony,) good very fine £300-£400

Provenance: Brian Lane Collection, Sotheby, September 1989.

Adam Henry Anthony was a member of the Uncovenanted Civil Service and was living at Agra with his wife and two children when the mutiny broke out. He served during the mutiny with the Agra Militia Infantry (Medal). After this service he returned to the Civil Service and in 1873 passed 1st Division entrance into Government service, becoming Assistant Comptroller General in 1878, and Assistant Accountant General in 1888. He retired as Deputy Auditor General in 1911.

As a young man Anthony expressed a desire to become a missionary but was frustrated in his attempt as described by J. C. B. Webster in ‘The Christian Community and change in the 19th century in North India’:

‘Seven years later [1855] the members of the North India Mission were faced with a problem which caused them to modify their earlier position. Adam Anthony a twenty-two year old Eurasian in Government employ, desired to become a missionary and the Rev. J. L. Scott was very eager to have him work in the new school at Agra. Anthony had no personal objection to joining as a member of Presbytery but not of the Mission, but he did want to know whether there was a rule against non-europeans becoming members of the Mission as “such a rule would be equivalent to the proscription of a class” and would therefore make missionary service unacceptable to him. However for financial reasons the Committee was unwilling to grant him an equal salary. Adam Anthony thus did not become a member of either the Presbytery or the Mission and his case was closed.’