Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Battery Sergeant Major G. Kirkham, Royal Horse Artillery, late Bengal Horse Artillery

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (Staff Sergt. G. F. Kirkham. Bengal Arty.); Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Lucknow, naming erased; Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (4550 Batty. Serjt. Mjr. Geoe. Kirkham C Bgde. R H A.) suspension claw loose on last, edge bruising and light contact marks, nearly very fine (3) £240-£280

George Kirkham was born in Mitcham, Surrey, in 1824. He attested at London for the Army of the Honourable East India Company on 17 July 1844, and sailed to India not long thereafter aboard Queen. Initially posted as Gunner to 1st Troop, 1st Brigade, Bengal Horse Artillery, Kirkham rendered service at Loodiana and Ferozepore in November 1848, before being ordered to Jullundur and then Waziristan where he was employed in keeping the local tribesmen under control. He first saw action on the North West Frontier as Staff Sergeant with 1/1 Bengal Horse Artillery between 28 April and 18 May 1852, the roll stating:
‘Against the Ootman Khels and Ranezai tribes 11 May 1852, under Brig. Gen. Sir Colin Campbell KCB, to destroy the group of villages called Nowa Dand belonging to the Ootman Kheyl tribe which aided and abetted Agoon Khan, the murdered of a Government official, and to punish the people in the valley of Ranezai who had refused to pay the fine they had agreed to disburse on account of misdemeanour towards the British Government.’

Promoted Quartermaster Sergeant at the Capture of Lucknow, the 1/1 Bengal Horse Artillery later transferred to the Royal Horse Artillery in 1861. Volunteering as Sergeant Major for ‘A’ Battery, 2nd Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, Kirkham was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with annuity in January 1863, before likely returning home to Woolwich with his unit in the spring of 1865.