Orders, Decorations and Medals

The important campaign group of six awarded to Lieutenant-General Sir J. Bevan Edwards, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., Colonel Commandant, Royal Engineers, and Commanding Royal Engineer of the Suakin Field Force

Crimea 1854-56, no clasp, unnamed as issued; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Central India (Lieut. J. B. Edwards, Royal Engrs.); Egypt & Sudan 1882-89, 1 clasp, Suakin 1885 (Col. J. B. Edwards, R.E.); Imperial China, Order of the Button, Taiping Rebellion, Gold Merit Medal, coral centre, 36mm, fewer than 50 gold medals believed to have been struck; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, contemporary tailor’s copy by ‘J.B.’; Khedive’s Star 1884-6, original semi-court mounting as worn, good very fine or better (6) £8000-10000

James Bevan Edwards was born at Wornburn, Staffordshire, on 5 November 1834, the son of Samuel Price Edwards, of Buncrana, County Donegal, at one time collector at Bombay. He married Alice, daughter of R. Brocklebank, who died in 1899. He married secondly, in 1901, Nina, daughter of John Balfour, of Steephirst, Petersfield, and widow of Sir. R. Dalrymple Elphinstone, who died in 1916. He married thirdly, in 1918, Amy Ann Courtenay, daughter of the late J. N. Harding, of Buzzacott, North Devon. Edwards was educated at a school on Shooter's Hill and at The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he became Senior Under Officer and distinguished himself by winning a two mile race. He received his commission from the Cadet Company on 22nd December 1852.

After spending the usual period at Chatham Edwards was sent to Portsmouth and on to the Isle of White, where he was employed on the projects of defences of Freshwater, under the command of Major-General Sir. Frederick Smith, C.R.E. South Western and Sussex District, from whom he received generous praise in a C.R.E.'s order of 11 July 1855, when he and Captain (afterwards Sir Lothian) Nicholson left England for the Crimea.

It must have been a considerable disappointment to young Edwards that he was not sent out in the earlier days of the struggle and even now he met with so many unfortunate delays on the voyage that he did not land in the Crimea until the fall of Sebastopol. He arrived at Balaklava on 18 September, in the Troop ship Adelaide, with 51 non-commissioned officers and men from Chatham. On the 26th September, the 8th Company under the command of Captain Schaw with Lieutenant Edwards attached, marched to Cossack Bay, and had traced out a line of entrenchment's to be executed for covering the embarkation of the rear of the army in the event of such an operation being needed, when an event transpired which rendered the service unnecessary.

He was, however, fortunate enough to be employed on the demolition of the docks where he was under Russian Artillery fire. In June 1856, Edwards was moved to Corfu and spent an enjoyable time shooting and yachting, making trips to neighbouring islands and to the mainland in Albania.

On hearing of the outbreak of the mutiny in India he hastened home on leave, via Trieste, and volunteering for active service, was posted to the 21st Company R.E., with whom he landed at Bombay in November 1857. After the death of Captain Glastonbury Neville, by a round shot, Edwards received command of the Company. He was present at the siege and storming of Chandairee and commanded the ladder party at the assault, for which he was mentioned in despatches. On the 3rd May, at the siege and storming of Jhansi he was in charge of the ladders and directed the only two successful columns of assault. He was at the actions of the Betwah and Koonch, for wish he was again mentioned in despatches. Also in the actions before Calpee from the 15th to 21st may, the action at Goolowlee on 22nd May, in which he supported with his Company a portion of the 25th Bombay Native Infantry which had been driven back by overpowering numbers. For this action he was Specially Mentioned in Sir. Hugh Rose's Despatch:

“The enemy, simultaneously with their attack on my right, had advanced with equal vigour against my right centre, guarded by part of the 25th Bombay Native Infantry, who, despite a most gallant resistance, were driven back by overpowering numbers, which afforded an opportunity to Lieutenant Edwards, Commanding the 21st Company of Royal Engineers, which I had placed in support of the 25th, to charge with his Company, most successfully, the very superior force of the rebels, routing them with loss and pursuing them till out of reach. I beg to mention, specially, Lieutenant Edwards for his prompt resolution on this occasion; he is an enterprising and promising officer. The 21st Company fight as well in the field as they work in the trenches, and are worthy of their distinguished Corps.”


He was next at the capture of Calpee and the action before and capture of Gwalior. Edwards next served as Commanding Engineer with Colonel Liddell's Column in Bundlekund, in August, September and October 1858. Also with Colonel Meade's Column in Central India in February, March and April 1859, clearing the jungles and in the pursuit and capture of Tantia Topee, who for a time was a prisoner in their Quarter Guard, as they were the only Europeanforce present when he was taken.

At the end of hostilities the Company was ordered to Dagshai and from July to December 1859, Edwards spent six months leave on a tour to Thibet, Ladak and Kashmir. He travelled from Simla northwards to the Indus and shot Yak and Ovis ammon near the Pangong Lake; he then journeyed through Leh to Srinagar and after spending some time shooting Bear at Bara Singha in Kashmir, he returned to Dagshai via Chamba. Soon after this he was ordered home. At Calcutta he found Sir Robert Napier preparing his expeditionary force for China. Sir Robert told him that there was little chance of fighting, so Edwards made no attempt to cancel his orders and sailed to England in the P & O S.S. Simla, in company with Colonel Harness, and Lieutenants Beaumont, Webber and Festing.

In 1863 he was ordered to Canada but exchanged into a company under orders for China, and arrived at Hong Kong in December 1863, after a five month voyage around the Cape. Pressing on to Shanghai he joined Colonel Gordon's ‘Ever Victorious Army’ in time to take part in its final actions, at the siege and storming of Chang Chowfu. For his services during the Taiping rebellion he received the Gold Merit Medal ‘of first class’ from the Emperor of China, although no campaign medal was authorised by the British government. Edwards remained in the neighbourhood for some time, employed on survey work, and later made an interesting tour to Tientsin and Pekin and to the Great Wall before returning to Hong Kong.

In 1866 Edwards returned to England and became Major of the Training Battalion at Chatham. About this time he published a pamphlet suggesting An organisation for the Army of England. His ideas included the concentration of a larger number of Battalions in England and their organisation with other troops into Corps d'armees, short service during wartime, and the formation of Depots and facilities of expansion from peace establishments. In a letter, included amongst the original documents sold with this group, from Sir John Burgoyne, the veteran Field Marshal, still in harness at the War Office, gives his opinion of Edwards’ proposals: “It is a very important question and one of very great difficulty and on which you enter into competition with many others . . . My feeling is, what you all appear afraid to meet, that additional means are among the things needful and additional expense will be necessary to make secure against the enormous preparations making in the rest of the world. Your arguments about the Colonies may be true in the abstract, and that may be should defend themselves, but it has not yet been decided and they look to us to protect them; and when the emergency arrives they will cry shame! upon us not doing so.” This was an interesting comment in view of the important part played by Sir Bevan in later years towards making some of the greatest of the Colonies self-defensible. In 1868 he lectured upon the same subject at the Royal United Service Institution and in 1871 he published another pamphlet, A national Army or How to solve the problem of to-day, in the preface of which he was able to say that ‘since the following pages were printed Mr Cardwell, as Secretary of State for War, has brought forward in the House of Commons the new scheme of Army reorganisation proposed by the Government, the main features of which tend towards the fulfilment of the proposals put forward in this pamphlet.’ And, he might have added, in his previous publications also.

At the end of 1867 he was selected to escort a Japanese Prince on a month's tour in the British Isles and after that he was moved to Portsmouth where he remained for ten years. In 1877, he was sent by Sir Lintorn Simmons, the then inspector General of Fortifications, on a ‘secret mission’ to select the harbour suitable for a coaling station between Malta and Port Said.

In October 1877 Edwards was promoted Lieut Colonel and Brevet Colonel. He served for short periods in the Northern District and at Shorncliffe and had spent some time on half pay.

In February 1885 he was sent to Suakin as Commanding Royal Engineer of the Suakin Field Force, under the Command of Sir Gerald Graham, V.C. He was present at the action of Hasheen, the attack on convoy on the 26th March and the action of Tamaai. Sir Gerald's dispatch does justice to the unfailing assistance rendered by his C.R.E. in carrying out the many engineering operations which had to be undertaken, including the construction of zarebas, forming defensive posts at various places, the clearance of dense bush, formation of ground for the railway and development of the water supply. The services of the balloon detachment, under Major Templer, which, however, were generally baffled by the high wind, received notice and also those of the telegraph service, and the fighting of the 17th and 24th Companies R.E. and of the Madras Sappers at MacNeill's Zareba on 22nd March, where, in spite of heavy losses, they contributed to the heavy defeat of the enemy. The campaign was over in June and Colonel Edwards returned to England to receive the substantive rank of Colonel and be appointed Commandant of the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, a post which he held until March 1888, soon after his promotion to Major General.

In March 1889, General Edwards took up the command of the Troops in China, but remained in Hong Kong for only a few months as his services had already been asked for by the Colonial Office to inspect and report upon the local forces of the Australasian Colonies and to advise the respective Governments as to the uniform organisation of these forces with a view to mutual co-operation on emergency. The orders to carry out this duty reached him at Hong Kong in May. He arrived at Brisbane in July and his report on the six Colonies of Australia was dated from Sydney in October.

After reporting separately upon the state of organisation he found existing in each colony, he concluded with his proposals for their reorganisation for joint action, in which he recommended that there should be a federation of forces, under a Lieutenant-General; a common system of organisation and armament, a common defence act, a federal military college for the education of officers, and a federal small arms factory, Gun Wharf and Ordnance Store. He proposed that rifle clubs should be extended and that a uniform gauge for the railways be instituted. Each colony had small permanent forces of Garrison Artillery and Submarine Miners, and these he proposed to amalgamate into one uniform Fortress Corps. In the course of his tour General Edwards was brought into contact with many of the leading colonial statesmen and it is certain that his earnest conversations and letters added considerable weight to the movement in favour of the federation of the colonies. At any rate, his visit did much to clear the air and to inculcate sound principles of defence. A month later he had completed his inspections in New Zealand, where he recommended the amalgamation of the districts into four and the organisation of field forces, ‘small in peace but capable of great expansion in war’, in each district. For domestic reasons he was obliged to resign the command in Hong Kong in the spring of 1890 and was not employed again.

In 1891 he became Lieutenant-General and was appointed K.C.M.G. In 1903 he became Colonel Commandant of the Royal Engineers, and in 1912 he was appointed K.C.B. He represented Hythe in Parliament from 1895 to 1899.

The activities of his later years were devoted whole-heartedly to the service of the Imperial Institute in which he held the office of President of the Council from 1909 to 1915. One who was closely associated with him in this work wrote, “He spent his life as an Engineer in matters civil as well as military; he wanted to get things done; keenly conscious as he was of the necessity and utility of propaganda, he was chiefly concerned with results. Material, political or physical, existed for him only to be used for construction. . . The secret of his success is to be found partly in his capacity for work, partly in his power of organisation and de-centralisation . . . He never spared himself but he imposed upon others the performance of the tasks which he regarded as peculiar to their office. He indicated the object to be kept in view, he was prepared always to advise and superintend and the manner in which he got things done by committees, colleagues and subordinates, was the best tribute to his genius for organisation.” Lieutenant-General James Bevan Edwards died in London on 8 July 1922.

The group is accompanied by a good quantity of original letters, documents and obituary news cuttings, including five Commission documents and signed manuscript letters from Field-Marshal Burgoyne, Lord Sydenham, Lord Wolseley, the Duke of Cambridge and Lord Napier of Magdala.