The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection

A rare and important K.C.B. group of four awarded to General Sir Thomas Pratt, commanding officer of the 26th Regiment in the First Opium War and G.O.C. in New Zealand at the time of the Taranaki Wars 1860-61

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, K.C.B. (Military) Knight Commander’s set of insignia, comprising neck badge, gold and enamel, and breast star, by R. & S. Garrard & Compy., 25 Haymarket, London, silver, with gold and enamel applique centre; China 1842 (T. S. Pratt, C.B., Lt. Col., 26th Regiment Foot); New Zealand 1845-66, undated reverse (Lieut. Genl. Sir T. S. Pratt, Staff), enamel work slightly chipped on the breast star and the intermediate suspension ring on the badge a little bent, otherwise very fine and better (4) £5000-6000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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Thomas Simson Pratt was born in 1797, the son of Captain James Pratt, and was educated at St. Andrews University. Gazetted to an Ensigncy in the 26th Regiment in February 1814, he accompanied his father a volunteer in the 56th Regiment to Holland in the same year, where he witnessed action before Merxem and at the bombardment of Antwerp.

Purchasing a Captaincy in his regiment in 1826, he served variously in the Mediterranean and in India, and he had risen to the rank of Major by the time of the 26th Regiment’s part in the First Opium War 1840-42. Having commanded the land forces at the assault and capture of Chuenpi on 7 January 1841, for which he was given the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel, he participated in the attack on the Boca Forts, guarding the approach to Canton, on 26 February, and commanded the Cameronians in the attacks on Canton in May 1841, and at the night assault on Ningpo in October, in addition to the actions at Chapu, Wusang, Shanghai and Chinkiang in 1842. He was subsequently present at the signing of the peace treaty aboard H.M.S. Cornwallis and was appointed C.B.

Serving as Deputy Adjutant-General in Madras 1843-45, Pratt was next given command of the forces in Australia in 1859, in the rank of Major-General, a command that embraced New Zealand. And when in July 1860 news reached him of serious reverses suffered by British troops in the Waitara district of Taranaki, he decided to send reinforcements and to direct operations in person - he sailed from Melbourne with his Staff on 26 July, the centre of much public interest heightened by his only daughter’s marriage to the Governor Sir Henry Barkly.

Arriving in Taranaki in August, he quickly reorganised the defences of New Plymouth and conducted operations against Hapurona’s forces, and in early September he led the largest force yet to be employed in the field in New Zealand against the enemy at Peach Grove at Huirangi, before advancing towards the Maori position at Te Arei. Then on 5 November the allied tribes were defeated in a stubborn engagement at Mahoetahi, in which the Ngati-Haua and other northern tribesmen fought with great gallantry. Hostilities having then been suspended at the request of Wiremu Tamihana in mid-March 1861, and reinforcements and a siege train having arrived in the interim, the Government agreed to investigate the Waitara purchase a few days later, thereby bringing the conflict to an end - a full account of Pratt’s leadership during the campaign may be found in Fortescue’s History of the British Army.

Appointed K.C.B. for his services in New Zealand, Pratt was invested with his insignia by Sir Henry Barkly, the Governor of Victoria, in April 1862, the first such ceremony carried out in Australia, and became an influential member on the Victorian Executive Council, presiding over the Royal Commission on the Burke and Wills Expedition. He also voiced his doubts about the merits of local volunteer forces, arguing that they should all be placed under a central command - doubts that caused a cooling in relations with two successive treasurers.

Returning to the U.K. in April 1863, Pratt was appointed Colonel of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment, was advanced to General in May 1873, and died in February 1879; sold with a large quantity of research and a copy of 1870 Saarbruck to Paris, by Lt. Colonel S. C. Pratt.

The book 1870 Saarbruck to Paris is no longer included with this lot but now sold with Lot 232