Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant-General A. F. Richmond, Bengal Infantry, who was wounded during the Nepaul campaign and again at Bhurtpoor, and was awarded the C.B. for services during the Cabul campaign

Army of India 1799-1826, 2 clasps, Nepaul, Bhurtpoor (Captn., 33rd N.I.) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming; Cabul 1842, unnamed as issued, with original steel clip and bar suspension, together with an original coloured portrait photograph laid down on card, extremely fine (2) £1500-2000

Archibald Fullerton Richmond was born in Edinburgh on 3 December 1789, and was nominated a Cadet for the East India Company’s Bengal Infantry in 1808. Commissioned as Ensign into the 16th Bengal Native Infantry on 10 April 1810, and served at the siege of Kalinger in Bundelkund, and in the storm of that fort on 2 February 1811, when he was slightly wounded. He served during the Nepaul War in 1814-15, and was present with the 1st Light Infantry Battalion in the assault on Kalunga on 27 October 1814; also with a detachment of Light Infantry which dislodged the enemy from a stockaded position near Nycheeow, above Calsee; at the storming of Kalunga in November 1814; with the force which attacked and defeated Bulbudder Sing, on the night of 2 December 1814, on which occasion he was wounded when leading one of the columns of attack and received the thanks of the Marquis of Hastings in General Orders; in the action at Peacock Hill when the Light Infantry Battalion was warmly engaged and lost three officers killed, and two wounded.

Promoted to Captain in May 1824, Richmond was transferred to the 33rd N.I. (formerly numbered 2/16th) and served with his regiment at the siege and capture of Bhurtpore, when he was again wounded according to his own statement of services. After a variety of appointments, including that of Commandant of the Calcutta Native Militia, and of 23rd N.I., he was promoted to Major in May 1833 and to Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1840, assuming command of the 33rd N.I. the following month.

He served in command of his regiment throughout the First Afghan War of 1842, and commanded the rear guard of the army during its advance on Cabul, from Gundamuck to Soorukab. He also commanded the advance guard through the Jugdulluck Pass, when he had to dislodge the enemy from a stockade prior to occupying the heights on both flanks of the Pass. On the following day he was selected to command the rear guard, and successfully repelled several attacks made by the enemy.

On 12 September 1842, when the whole army concentrated in the Tazeen Valley, he was selected to command the rear guard on the march of the army through the Hufikotul Pass, and successfully repelled repeated attacks by Afghan cavalry and infantry under Akhub Khan. At Cabul he commanded the detachment detailed to destroy the Great Mosque and Bazar of that city, which task was carried out with complete success.

On the return of the army from Cabul, when the rear guard was attacked at night in the Huftkotul Pass, he was directed by Brigadier Monteath to go back with the 33rd and 60th Regiments of Native Infantry, and extricate the rear guard, which service was successfully effected and a subsequent bold attack by the enemy, sword in hand, repelled. He again commanded the rear guard of the army through the Jugdulluck Pass and on the march from Dakka to the Lundee Khana Pass. The two following days he commanded his regiment with the advance guard under Sir Robert Sale, when moving through the Khyber Pass. For these various services he was numerous times mentioned in the despatches of Sir George Pollock and Brigadier Monteath, and was nominated a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Richmond was subsequently appointed Agent to the Governo-General of INdia on the North West Frontier in June 1843, and as Resident to the Court of Oudh at Lucknow from September 1844 until January 1849. He went on furlough to the U.K. on sick certificate in February 1849, and did not again return to India. Promoted to Colonel in March 1850, to Major-General in November 1854, and finally to Lieutenant-General in October 1864, he died at Sydenham, London, on 25 August 1866.