Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

The Capture of Java medal to Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Grant-Peterkin, Bengal Volunteers

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Java (Peter Grant, Lieut. 4th Batt. Bengal Volrs.) good very fine
£1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals.

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Collection

A total of 46 medals issued to H.E.I.C. forces, mostly for the capture of Java.

Peter Grant, the son of George Grant and Elizabeth McDermot, of Burdsyards, co. Elgin, was born at St Thomas, Jamaica, on 2 October 1787. He was appointed a Cadet in the Bengal Infantry in 1804, having previously held a Lieutenant’s commission in the Elgin Volunteers. He arrived in India as an Ensign on 6 April 1806, and was directed to the notorious Cadet College at Barasat on the outskirts of Calcutta. Promoted Lieutenant on 1 February 1807, he was posted to the 4th Native Infantry, and, in 1811, served with the 2nd (Grenadier) Company of the 4th Bengal Volunteer Battalion at the Capture of Java from the French garrison under General Jansens. In 1815, he transferred to the newly raised 2/28th N.I. with whom he served during the Third Mahratta (Pindarry) War, including the operations at Dhamoni. On 22 February 1823 he was appointed to the command of the Guards at Delhi Palace, the ancestral seat of the Mohgul Emperors, where he had charge of the Imperial family until 1 November 1831. The title ‘Tuhuwar-ood-Dowlah, Bahadur, Dilawar Jang’ was conferred on him by Muhammad Akbar Shah II, titular King of Delhi, in the 28th year of his reign.

Grant was promoted Captain on 1 May 1824 and Major on 4 January 1832. He retired the following May, and, in 1836, on the occasion of his marriage to Mary Anne, the daughter of James Peterkin of Grange Hall, Forres, he assumed the additional name of Peterkin. Grant-Peterkin was advanced to the rank of Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel in 1854, and died at Greeshop, Forres, on 24 November 1878.

Refs: Officers of the Bengal Army, 1758-1834.

Withdrawn