Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Indian Mutiny Medal awarded to Private G. White, 32nd Regiment of Foot, who was killed in the Massacre at Cawnpore on 27 June 1857, likely alongside his wife and two children

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (G. White, 32nd. L.I.) abrasively cleaned, nearly very fine £800-£1,000

Dix Noonan Webb, December 2000.

George White enlisted at Bristol on 1 March 1847 as Private in the 32nd Regiment of Foot. Initially sent to Chatham from April 1847 to June 1848, the muster rolls show first overseas service at Shahdera, India, in the first quarter of 1849, followed by a two-year posting to Jullundur in the Punjab. Transferred briefly to Camp Boorhan in late 1851, White enjoyed three years at Peshawur and Kussowlie, being promoted Sergeant on 21 February 1854. From here he spent a number of spells at the cantonment town of Subathu in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, famed for its historic association with the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16. Reduced to Private 22 March 1856, reason unknown, White spent September 1856 sick in the military hospital at Kussowlie, before being sent to the Depot of the 32nd Foot at Cawnpore in the fourth quarter of that year.

The Siege of Cawnpore proved a key episode in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The British contingent in the important garrison town consisted of around nine hundred souls, including three hundred military men, a further three hundred women and children, the remainder being merchants, business owners, drummers (salesmen), engineers and others. What happened next is well documented; totally unprepared for an extended Siege, the garrison under General Hugh Wheeler determined to surrender to rebel forces under Nana Sahib in return for a safe passage to Allahabad. Emerging from their entrenchments on the morning of 27 June 1857, the British proceeded towards the Satichaura Ghat and reached a flotilla of small boats on the bank of the Ganges tasked with taking them to safety. It was here that they were cut down and massacred by rebel cavalry sowars, the ferocity and unexpectedness of attack sending shockwaves across India and throughout the Empire.

George White is confirmed on the Medal Roll and Casualty Roll by I. T. Tavender as having been killed during the massacre whilst serving with the 2nd Company of the 32nd Foot. A Personal Narrative of the Outbreak and Massacre at Cawnpore during the Sepoy Revolt of 1857, by author W. J. Shepherd, further notes a ‘Mary White and 2 children’ killed at the same time.

Note: The Indian Mutiny Medal Roll shows two men named George White serving with the 32nd Regiment of Foot; this man, 3320 Pte. George White, and another man, 3182 Pte. George White, who is further entitled to the clasp Defence of Lucknow. This Medal appears entirely correct as to that belonging to the Private killed in the massacre.

Sold with copied research.