Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Second Afghan War Medal awarded to Captain C. J. R. Fulford, 26th Bengal Native Infantry, who was mortally shot by an assailant on 20 April 1882

Afghanistan 1878-80, no clasp (Capt. C. J. R. Fulford 26th Regt. Ben. N.I.) good very fine £500-£700

Dix Noonan Webb, June 2008.

Cecil John Russell Fulford was born at St. Leonards-on-Sea on 8 April 1845, the eldest son of Admiral John Fulford, Royal Navy. Educated at the Royal Military Academy, he entered the Army as a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 18 July 1865. Posted to India, he continued to serve with the Artillery until September 1870 when he was appointed Second Wing Subaltern in the 26th Native Infantry on probation for the Bengal Staff Corps. In March 1871 he was advanced to First Wing Subaltern and in January 1877 became Wing Officer and Quartermaster. In November 1878 he accompanied the regiment on service with the Southern Afghanistan Field Force and for a time in December he officiated as Brigade-Major to the Second Brigade of Infantry. After service in Afghanistan, 1878-79, he was posted home and joined the Staff College at Sandhurst. On passing the College he returned to India in early 1881 and rejoined his old regiment. With them, he was appointed Quartermaster of the corps and Wing Commander. In July 1881 he was appointed Officiating Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General at the headquarters of the Rohilkhand District, and in September was additionally appointed Officiating Deputy Assistant Adjutant General. In the spring of 1882 he was transferred as D.A.Q.M.G. to the Peshawar District.

On 20 April 1882, in the evening, while Fulford was out walking along the road by the the shrine in front of the mission house in the cantonment of Peshawar, a fanatical Pathan crept up behind him and shot him in the back with a pistol loaded with a bullet and about a dozen pellets. Captain Fulford died of his injuries on 4 May 1882. The Pathan who shot Fulford was, within a few minutes of his crime, shot and bayoneted by a sepoy of the 35th Native Infantry, while attacking Colonel Rowcroft and a soldier of the Cheshire Regiment with a knife.

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