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

The fine campaign group of four to Major-General C. W. Campbell, Bengal Army, an original defender at Lucknow who was severely wounded and promoted for gallantry whilst serving with the Volunteer Cavalry at Chinhut, again wounded during the siege, served with Fane’s Horse in China and commanded the 2nd Bengal Cavalry in Egypt

(a) Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Defence of Lucknow (Ens. C. W. Campbell, 71st Regt. N.I.)

(b) China 1857-60, 2 clasps, Taku Forts 1860, Pekin 1860 (Lieut. C. W. Campbell, Regt. of Fane’s Horse)

(c) Egypt & Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, no clasp (Lieut. Col. C. W. Campbell, 2nd B.C.)

(d) Khedive’s Star 1882, the first three professionally cleaned and lacquered, some pitting and contact marks but generally good very fine
£4000-5000

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

Despite this lack of intelligence, Lawrence sallied out next day with some six hundred men, including the Volunteer Cavalry, and met the rebels in a strong position before Chinhut. Deserted by his native cavalry and native gunners, Lawrence soon found his small force outflanked and was obliged to withdraw, being closely pursued throughout the retreat by the enemy’s artillery, which kept up a harassing fire of grape. At the bridge over the Kokrail, a river which lay between Lawrence’s force and Lucknow, a body of some 500 rebel horse was seen preparing to cut the line of retreat. The situation was critical but without an instant’s hesitation the Volunteer Cavalry, Lawrence’s only mounted troops and numbering only thirty-six men, ‘hurled themselves at the dense masses in their front’. Such was the terror that they inspired ‘before they could strike a blow, the enemy fled, leaving free the bridge.’ To this splendid charge alone was due the fact that the remnant of the British force finally reached Lucknow. The pursuit was followed up for nearly a mile and many mutineers were sabred. The Volunteer Cavalry, however, lost three of its members killed and five wounded, among whom was Campbell, severely wounded in the left thigh.



Promoted Lieutenant in the field for his gallantry at Chinhut, Campbell limped into the Residency entrenchment to commence the four-month siege. Notwithstanding his wound he played a full part in the defence and was particularly noted as a ‘first-class marksman’. He was again wounded before the arrival of Outram and Havelock, and severe fever ensued. Nevertheless, he had sufficiently recovered by the time troops under Sir Colin Campbell effected the Second Relief in November, and went on to take part in the victory over Tantia Topi at Cawnpore on 6 December. His health , however, was very shaky after the privations of the siege and he was sent home on sick leave in January 1858.

He returned to India in 1860, where he found an expedition under Sir Hope Grant (qv) was being fitted out for a joint Anglo-French campaign in China. In February Campbell was attached for duty to Fane’s Horse, a picked Sikh regiment which was being raised by Lieutenant Fane, an officer who had distinguished himself during the Mutiny as a commander of Irregular Cavalry. Campbell’s experiences with the Lucknow Volunteer Cavalry no doubt had an influence on his being chosen to join Fane’s regiment.

The expedition landed in China at the beginning of August, and on the 12th of that monththe Allied forces advanced from Pehtang to Sinho, and on this, their first encounter with the enemy, Fane’s Horse distinguished themselves by repelling an attack of some 4000 Tartar cavalry upon Sir Robert Napier’s division. The capture of the Taku Forts followed on the 21st, and a few days later Tientsin was occupied without resistance. Campbell commanded a troop of Fane’s Horse during the opening stage of the campaign, but served in the subsequent advance to Pekin as orderly officer to Brigadier Pattle, the General commanding the Cavalry Brigade. Pekin surrendered to the Allies on 13th October, and on the 24th the campaign ended with the signature of the treaty of peace. Early in November Sir Hope Grant began his march from Pekin to the coast, but Campbell remained with Fane’s Horse in garrison at Tientsin, and his regiment did not return to India until the following year.

In August 1864 he transferred to the 2nd Bengal Light Cavalry, and was promoted Captain in the Bengal Staff Corps in December 1866. In 1867 he laid claim to the Earldom of Breadalbane, but his efforts in this direction were unsuccessful and he gained neither coronet nor acres. In late 1874 he was made Major and six years later he was advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel and the command of his regiment. A back injury forced him home on sick leave in the summer of 1882, but on learning that his regiment was being sent to join Sir Garnet Wolseley’s expeditionary force in Egypt, he insisted on re-joining at Suez. He commanded the 2nd Bengal Light Cavalry in the advance to Ismailia, but his back played up and he was forced into hospital before the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. In 1884 he was given the Brevet of Colonel and in 1886 he retired with the rank of Major-General. The rigours of his military career soon told on him, and after much suffering from his spinal injury, he died at the age of fifty-eight on 30 August 1894.

Refs: A Military History of Perthshire (Marchioness of Tullibardine); The Seventh Rajput Regiment in The Indian Mutiny of 1857 (Tindall).