Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Honourable East India Company’s Edwardes Medal 1848, a later striking in bronze-gilt of the unique gold medal presented by the H.E.I.C. to Lt. and Brevet Major H. B. Edwardes, C.B., for his services in the Punjab, by William Wyon, 45 mm., fitted with swivelling scroll suspension and Punjab ribbon, minor scuffs and marks, otherwise good very fine £400-£500

Provenance: The Dr. Arthur B. King Collection, October 2003.

In 1850, when word reached England of the exploits of Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes in bringing order to the wild inhabitants of Bannu and uniting them against Mulraj, whom he had defeated in a series of actions in 1848, he became a household name, and the Court of Directors elected to reward his highly cost-effective services with a ‘special gold medal’, the design of which was entrusted to Wyon. On the obverse is the head of Queen Victoria, ‘the fountain of all honour’, and on the reverse the Edwardes family arms surmount the inscription, ‘To Lieutenant Herbert Benjamin Edwardes, Brevet-Major and C.B., for his services in the Punjab, 1848’. The inscription is flanked by the figures of Valour and Victory, and beneath the inscription, the figure of the infant Hercules (emblematic of Edwardes’ youth) strangles the serpent. The medal was intended as a unique honour and instructions were issued from the Court that once struck, the die was to be broken, but these instructions were evidently not obeyed and a number of specimen strikings exist in silver, bronze-gilt and bronze, both with and without suspension. Edwardes received the medal from the hands of the Chairman, John Shepherd, at a formal presentation held at East India House, Leadenhall Street, on 12 February 1851. In his short address Shepherd ‘confidently’ anticipated that ‘the same energy, skill, and bravery would distinguish’ Edwardes’ future career. Unfortunately, Edwardes, a man who worked at ‘white heat’, became fanatical after the Mutiny and ‘wished to give no recognition to either Hinduism or Islam.’

Sold with copied Cadet papers and biographical details of H. B. Edwardes, together with a copied portrait photograph.