Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Indian Mutiny medal awarded to Corporal W. G. Morey, who was wounded in action while serving with the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry; a civilian who rose from a humble draper’s assistant in Tasmania to become a well known adventurer, sportsman, and one of India’s finest exponents of the hazardous sport of ‘Pig-Sticking’

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Corpl. Wm. Morey, Bengal Yeo. Cavy.) together with contemporary dress miniature, fitted with ribbon brooch buckle, named on the edge ‘Sergt. W. G. Morey B.Y. Cavy.’, nearly extremely fine and scarce (2) £800-£1,000

William George Morey was born circa 1837 at Chichester, Sussex, the 8th of 10 sons and 3 daughters to James Morey, a shoemaker, later a relieving officer and his wife Martha (née Bullbeck). After the death of his mother on 8 March 1854, James, with a large portion of the older members of his family, emigrated to Australia.

The Hobart Colonial Times, dated 10 October 1854, lists among the new arrivals on the City of Hobart from Melbourne, James Morey senior, sons Charles and Josiah together with their wives, daughter Amelia, and two younger sons William and Walter. James opened a drapery store, assisted by William, but it went into liquidation shortly afterwards. With the family situation tenuous William, seeking adventure, travelled to Melbourne where he boarded the American owned ship Rowena and sailed to Calcutta arriving in October 1855, aged just 17.

Papers Past in the New Zealand Archives has an article from the Grey River Argus titled “Incidents of the Indian Mutiny”, dated 14 April 1888, by a certain ‘J.P.’ who relates the following:

‘Previous to my becoming a Govern[ment]-employee I held a situation in a Calcutta house, and among others in the same store was a young man named Fred (sic) Morey. Born and bred in London he had served some time as a draper’s assistant but the spirit of adventure and the desire of seeing foreign countries was too strong within him to allow him to remain as such. As soon as the mutiny broke out he threw up his situation and went up country, where he joined the irregular cavalry. During the period he and I were together I had conceived a friendship for him and he stated when leaving he would correspond with me. Soon after his departure I resigned my situation and went up country and heard no more of him. Some days after the arrival of the Lucknow-wounded Mr Carter, a Calcutta merchant, he told me that Morey was among the wounded in Fort William, and was desirous of seeing me, having called upon him and expressed that wish. I went and saw him more than once and happy to say he afterwards recovered and accepted a situation in the same house that employed him before becoming a sabreur.’

It is unclear if this article was written in 1888 or earlier which may account for the inconsistencies of the text but it is clearly referring to William Morey.

The Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry was a melange of incongruous men with little or nothing known of each participant other than their name on a medal roll. Raised as early as 23 July 1857, it consisted of strays, adventurers, merchants, planters, teachers, clerks, seafarers, Eurasians ‘of good character’ and ‘homeless’ British or H.E.I.C. army officers who were without a regiment. The only criteria was the ability to ride a horse which understandably confounded the mariners amongst their number. Interestingly the corps members elected their own Lieutenants. They wore a practical ostentatious uniform of corduroy breeches with knee high boots, loose blue flannel blouses and grey felt helmets enveloped in a huge white pugree, their personal arms comprising a heavy sabre, a light carbine and a formidable revolver. The B.Y.C. joined the operational Sarun Field Force at Chatra on the Nepal border in January 1858, serving under Colonel (later Brigadier, C.B.) Rowcroft. The medal roll shows Morey listed as a Corporal serving in the 2nd Troop.

The mutineers gave the B.Y.C. the soubriquet “Shaitan-i-Pultan”, the “Devil’s” or “Satan’s Regiment”, due to the ferocity of their charges. With a lack of mounted units the B.Y.C. protected the flanks of various British columns, sharing the trials of climate, exposure, disease and terrain. The BYC fought in 17 actions during the campaign but perhaps their greatest triumph came at Almorah on 5 March 1858, when they made three successive and successful charges to protect the flanks of the column, while Pearl’s Naval Brigade led the forward assault. They were to perform further good services and charges at Tilga (17 April), Deamureagunj (26 November), Toolsipore (23 December), and Kandi Koti (4 January 1859). The Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry was disbanded in the spring of May 1859. Quite when Morey was wounded is unknown as he does not appear in any official casualty figures.

After the mutiny Morey returned to Calcutta and according to ‘J.P.’ returned to his job in a Calcutta trading house. The directories of 1861 and 1863 show Morey working in the Indian silk industry as an assistant in R. Watson & Co’s silk filatures at Surdah and Motehar, and concerns at Rajshahi, West Bengal, later becoming Manager of the Radnagore Silk and Indigo concerns at Panchkoorah, Midnapore in 1873. In 1875 the Bengal Directory shows him as the manager of the Fureedpore silk concern. Morey was to become a leading expert in the silk trade comparing the quality of Indian silk to that produced in Italy.

In 1871 William married Frances Sophia daughter of Thomas Tweedie, a deputy magistrate in Bengal, who had inherited large indigo estates from his father. He continued working in West Bengal until 1900 before retiring to Ootacamund (Ooty) in the Nilgiri Hills, living in a house called Sydenham. Here he was to become a well loved member of the Nilgiri and Bangalore community. He died on 7 May 1905, on Ootacamund racetrack riding a horse belonging to his son-in-law Captain Gordon-Price when, between the 3rd furlong and half mile posts, he fell from his horse. He was 68 years of age.

One might say that he ‘died in harness’ but racing and hunting were indeed his passions. In 1871 the South Australian Chronicle records that Morey sold 31 horses in Colombo for £906, so it is clear he was trading in Indian and Australian horses, if not breeding them, for many years. He was described as genial and fond of the society of men, and his accounts of the Nilgiri racing and hunting scene for the South India Observer were jovial and racy. He was a wonderful rider and just a year before his death he won a race with his country-bred ‘Kunigal’.

However, it was the sport of ‘Pig-Sticking’ that he loved most. Ferocious and dangerous, it was not for the faint hearted. Pig-Sticking in Bengal by Raoul, 1893, devotes his book to the best known exponents of this art including William Morey. Raoul gives dozens of pages to the hunts that relate to Morey ‘whose blood is always up when he sees pigs’. It tells a rollicking yarn of the shikari and hunter against a formidable foe. Raoul also provides us with a full length photograph of Morey.

The danger is emphasised in an article from The Queenslander, 6 September 1890, which relates:

‘Mr Morey, a well known planter and sportsman in Bengal, was out hunting lately, on horseback, with his daughter, when a wild boar suddenly sprang from the jungle, and making for Mr Morey, threw over both horse and rider with a severe crash. The brute was on the point of tearing his victim with his formidable tusks, when Miss Morey sprang to the ground and placed herself between him and her father, who had been stunned by the fall. Miss Morey was wholly unarmed, but fortunate, she had with her a large greyhound, who, making straight for the boar, attracted his attention and drew him away. Then, running to the nearest pool, Miss Morey filled her solar topee with water and bathing her father’s head restored him to consciousness.’ Frances Sophie Morey died at Ooty on 24 February 1924.

A large folder of research comes with the lot including photographs of his house, ‘Sydenham’, at Ooty, full obituaries and Morey family history in Australia and New Zealand.