Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Indian Mutiny medal awarded to Christopher James Best, an original defender at Lucknow who was the son-in-law of John Phillips, who was described as one of the bravest men in the ‘defence’; both of these men sallied out of the Residency on no fewer than three occasions

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Defence of Lucknow (C. Jas. Best.) with its original named card box of issue but this with incorrect ‘Baltic’ label and rather distressed, small test mark to lower obverse rim, otherwise toned, extremely fine £2,000-£2,400

Captain Tim Ash Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, December 2012.

Christopher James Best was born at Cawnpore on 26 August 1820, son of Henry William, a writer, and his wife, Mary. He joined the Uncovenanted Civil Service and by 1850 was at Lucknow, an Unregulated State, working as an ‘Indexer’ in the office of the Military Secretary under Captain Fletcher Hayes. In 1851 he married Ellen, the daughter of John Phillips, recently promoted to Head Clerk of the Lucknow Residency due to the demise of Mr Hare for embezzlement. Together they had one son, John Eustace, who was to die during the siege. The removal of Mr Hare, who had been in the King's pay, gave Captain Hayes the opportunity to infiltrate the King's Palace via the newly arrived Head Clerk. Successive British Residents at Lucknow had become increasingly alarmed at the King of Oudh's profligate expenditure, chaotic administration and hedonistic lifestyle of his court, so Phillips was instructed by Captain Hayes to set about organising a loose network of informers who could pass back information and gossip from the various departments as to what was happening in the palace. He was assisted in this endeavour by his son-in-law Mr C. Best and several other relatives and in-laws within the Residency. In 1856 the Kingdom of Oudh was annexed by the authorities using a device called the Doctrine of Lapse, by which the King had no legitimate heir causing resentment which sowed the seeds of revolt.

From the commencement of the siege, Christopher Best defended the Judicial Garrison or Germon's Post, named after Captain R. C. Germon, 13th Bengal N.I. It was greatly exposed to fire from the tower of Johannes’ House, just outside the Residency perimeter and from cannon and mortar fire from Phillips’ House and Garden battery which opened up with such force and accuracy that the position became untenable. It was therefore necessary to evacuate the wives and children to the cellars of the Tykhana, where the wives of the officers were sheltering. Repeated attacks were made on Germon’s Post, with the one on 20 July being the fiercest. The Uncovenanted distinguished themselves greatly, all being under arms from eight in the morning to eight at night.

Copies of the original lists of those who served throughout the siege show that John Phillips, Christopher James Best (son-in-law) and William Charles Phillips (relative) all accompanied sallying parties out of the Residency on no fewer than three occasions.

After the siege was lifted, Best continued to work at Lucknow until his retirement in 1880, in the Military Secretary's office being variously described as Record Keeper or Diarist and Dispatcher. He retired to West Bengal dying of double pneumonia on 9 March 1905, aged 84. He was interred in the grave of his father-in-law John Phillips, in the Lower Circular Road Cemetery at Calcutta. The grave is still extant.

The anomaly of his Baltic card box of issue is the subject of an article by Captain Tim Ash, M.B.E., entitled, “From the Cold of the Baltic to the Heat of Lucknow”, published by the Orders and Medals Research Society, 1996, Vol. 35.

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