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

The Indian Mutiny medal to Surgeon-Major G. M. Ogilvie, Bombay Medical Service, awarded the C.B. for his services as officiating Sanitary Commissioner and Superintendent of Jails during the siege of Lucknow

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 2 clasps, Defence of Lucknow, Lucknow (Surgn. G. M. Ogilvie, Supt. of Jails) nearly extremely fine
£3000-3500

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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George Matheison Ogilvie, the son of Major Ogilvie of the Madras Infantry, was born at Secunderabad on 28 December 1818, and studied medicine at Edinburgh. Having ‘applied himself with great diligence to the Study of and Practice of Surgery’, as required by the H.E.I.Co., he was nominated an Assistant Surgeon on the Bombay Establishment by Captain John Shepherd, Esq., on the recommendation of Captain Stevens. Ogilvie was appointed Assistant Surgeon on 9 March 1841, and was attached to the European Hospital on arrival at Bombay in July of that year.

In January 1842, he was directed to join the Scinde Field Force and take medical charge of the left wing of the 15th Bombay N.I. The following year he was placed at the disposal of the Superintendent of the Indian Navy and was directed to conduct the duties of Port Surgeon, presumably at Bombay. After home leave in 1847, he was appointed to the 13th Bombay N.I. and following another period of leave to Europe, he was appointed Garrison Surgeon at Bombay. Promoted Surgeon in 1855, he was next appointed, in 1856, to the charge of ‘Jails and Dispensaries in the province of Oude’, a post which brought him to Lucknow.

On 2 July 1857, the second full day of the siege of the Lucknow Residency, Dr Ogilvie, who had been appointed Garrison Sanitary Commissioner, was summoned to Dr Fayrer’s house. Sir Henry Lawrence had been severely wounded in the Residency building while talking to the Assistant Adjutant General, Captain Thomas Wilson (qv). Wilson and others moved him to Fayrer’s house as the Residency was still under heavy fire, and there Ogilvie and his colleagues foregathered. ‘There was nothing to be done for the dying man beyond checking what little haemorrhage was present, supporting the injured limb with bandages and pillows, and giving stimulants to counteract shock. When the pain became excessive Dr Fayrer gave him chloroform. He consulted Dr Partridge and Dr Ogilvie on the question of operating, but they both agreed that it would be hopeless. They were satisfied, after a further examination under anesthetic, that the pelvis was fractured, and that it would therefore be useless to amputate at the hip joint. Even if the thigh bone alone had been broken, it was doubltful whether the patient could have stood the shock of amputation.’

Lawrence’s nephew, George, ‘was constantly beside him. Dr Ogilvie keeping him company, while Mrs Harris, Mrs Dashwood, and Mrs Clarke helped to nurse him. He seemed to Mrs Harris to be suffering the utmost agony, but Dr Fayrer did not believe that the pain was intolerable. During the 3rd July Lawrence was gradually sinking, and took nothing but a little arrowroot and champagne. At eight o’clock on the morning of the fourth he died, so quietly that his nephew, who had just been shot through the shoulder and was sitting at his feet, did not know he was dead until Dr Ogilvie told him.’ His dying words, “I forgive everyone - I forgive my brother John”, referred to a disagreement he had had with his younger brother and colleague on the Punjab Board of Administration, which had resulted in his appointment at Lucknow.

In his capacity as Sanitary Commissioner, Ogilvie had managed reasonably well before Chinhut but afterwards, with the Indian sweepers deserting daily, and the troops being otherwise employed, his department struggled to allay the constant reek of carrion and ordure. With the temperature averaging 110° and with torrential monsoon downpours, the health of the garrison soon began to suffer. Child mortality increased and there were several cases of cholera. Painful boils apeared on the faces of many Europeans, and ‘not in a single case had the amputation of a limb saved the patient’s life’. On 15 September Mrs Soppitt, whose small son had died of cholera at the beginning of the siege, made an entry in her journal concerning Ogilvie’s wife and reflecting the scarcity of food: ‘Bought a bullock’s heart at a fabulous price, 10/-. Mrs O., wife of a doctor, who was a personal friend of Outram, gave me a sheep’s head.’

As Sir James Outram and Sir Henry Havelock fought their was towards the Residency with the First Relief Force on 25 September, Ogilvie was ordered to find out how many carts would be needed to evacuate the non-combatants, though the so-called Relief Force turned out to be no more than a reinforcement. Rashly, the ‘garrison had concluded that at last there was no need to stint. At the Brigade Mess, where several dozen of champagne had been hoarded against the relief, every man was free to eat and drink his fill. The officers of the relieving force were astonished to find the men they had relieved living, as they thought, in such style, having looked to find them eating horse flesh or even rat.’

The arrival of the First Relief Force, however, gave Ogilvie the necessary labour to overhaul the sanitary arrangements, clear away the accumulated filth and the carcases of dead animals from the neighbourhood of the Residency and the extended perimeter around the palace area.

Both Doctor and Mrs Ogilvie survived the siege and were evacuated from the Residency by Sir Colin Campbell’s relief force in November. Ogilvie was thanked for his services in Brigadier Inglis’ despatch (London Gazette 16 January 1858), and subsequently received the thanks of the Government of India. On being withdrawn, Ogilvie was instructed to ‘continue in charge of the families of the Lucknow Garrison while in progress from Cawnpore to Allahabad’. His name further appeared on Outram’s ‘Recommendatory List’ - ‘Surgeon G. M. Ogilvie officiated as Sanitary Commissioner throughout the siege. To his very efficient performance of his important duties, with inadequate means, is to be attributed our comparative immunity from sickness, both before and after General Havelock’s junction.’ In July 1858 the Ogilvies left India on home leave for eighteen months, and in January 1859, the Doctor received tangible recognition of his efforts at Lucknow, when he received from the Queen the insignia of a Companion of the Bath. In 1860 he became a M.R.C.P. and early the following year he was promoted Surgeon Major. He died soon afterwards at Suez on 26 October 1861.

Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); IOL L/MIL/9/388; IOL L/MIL/12/85; Ordeal at Lucknow (Joyce).