Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: General Charles Dumbleton, 10th Bengal Light Cavalry

Maharajpoor Star 1843 (Cornet C. Dumbleton, 10th Regt. Light Cavalry) fitted with contemporary silver bar suspension; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Captn. C. Dumbleton, 10th Bengal Lt. Cavy.) good very fine (2) £700-900

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late Alan Wolfe.

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Charles Dumbleton was born on 13 May 1824, second son of Henry Dumbleton, formerly a Writer in the Bengal Civil Service. After attending the lower school of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he emerged as a College Cadet in May 1840 and was subsequently nominated for the H.E.I.C. by W. B. Bayley, a Director. He sailed for India in H.M.S. Plantagenet in June 1840 and was granted temporary rank as a Cornet the following month. He saw service with the 10th Bengal Light Cavalry during the Gwalior campaign of 1843, at the battle of Maharajpoor, and in December 1845 was promoted to Lieutenant. He appears not to have seen any action during the Sikh wars and in 1849 was on service with the Public Works Department. He was promoted to Captain in September 1855, and in April of the following year married Elizabeth, daughter of General Sir Thomas Reed, G.C.B., 62nd Foot, a veteran of Waterloo who became Provisional Commander-in-Chief in Bengal following the deaths of Generals Anson and Barnard in 1857. Dumbleton was with his regiment at Ferozepore at the outbreak of the mutiny in May 1857. The 10th L.C. initially behaved well and allowed itself to be disarmed, but later turned surly and the regiment was subsequently disbanded. Dumbleton’s career thereafter involved a succession of engineering assignments for the Public Works Departments. He became Major in July 1864, Lieutenant-Colonel in August 1865, Brevet Colonel in August 1870, and confirmed in that rank in August 1877. He was promoted Major-General in July 1881, Lieutenant-General in February 1886, and full General in August 1890, having been on the Unemployed Supernumerary List since August 1884. General Bumbleton died at East Horsley, Surrey, in 1916, aged 92.