Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

The Third Mahratta War medal for the capture of Poona to Lieutenant-Colonel S. R. Warren, 65th Foot, who had distinguished service in various expeditions against the pirates of the Persian Gulf

Army of India 1799-1826, 1 clasp, Poona (Lieut. S. R. Warren, Brig. Major) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming, fitted with silver ribbon buckle, damage to obverse rim at 3 o’clock and several small edge bruises, otherwise very fine and rare £3000-4000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals.

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Collection

A total of 69 clasps issued to European recipients for the capture of Poona, including 42 to the 65th Foot.

Samuel Robinson Warren was commissioned Ensign in H.M’s 65th Foot and joined headquarters in India in 1808. In 1809 the Bombay Government authorized an expedition to the Persian Gulf to assist the Iman of Muscat in the suppression of the piratical activities of the maritime Joasmi Arabs who, subscribing to the beliefs of the religious reformer Abdul-ul-Wahab (The Bestower of Blessings), and operating from Ras-el-Khima on the narrow peninsula to the west of the Ruus-al-Jibal promontory, were terrorizing the western coast of India. The expedition consisted of two Royal Navy ships and nine Company cruisers. The troops embarked were the 65th Regiment, the flank companies of H.M’s 47th Regiment, a detachment of Bombay Artillery, and about a thousand sepoy Volunteers, the whole under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lionel Smith of the 65th. The expeditionary force arrived off Muscat on 13 October 1809, and after a few days sailed on and anchored two miles off Ras-el-Khima on 11 November. The enemy’s strength was estimated at about 5,000, and after a preliminary naval bombardment, the troops were landed in the early hours of the 13th. The attack went in at daybreak and ‘by 1.30 pm the British flag was hoisted over the Sheikh’s house, and the town, after considerable fighting, was in our possession. The losses of the enemy numbered upwards of three hundred killed and wounded.’ British losses amounted to one officer killed and twenty-one officers and other ranks wounded.

In the afternoon the sailors set fire to some fifty pirate vessels, and everything of value was removed from the town prior to it being put to the torch. The withdrawal of the troops was carried out in the small hours of the 14th and coincided with the arrival of enemy reinforcements from the interior who assembled on the shore, and fired their muskets wildly after the departing raiders. The expedition proceeded to Lingeh, a flourishing Joasmi port on the northern side of Qishm. The inhabitants fled to the hills and the town was occupied and burned. The greater part of the force was then sent about forty miles west of Muscat to gather supplies from Barkah. Meanwhile, Ensign Warren with a half company of the 65th proceeded aboard H.M.S. Chiffone to Laft, a port on the northern side of Qishm. They arrived on the 26th and after twenty-four hours of fruitless negotiation the troops were landed. ‘Here considerable opposition was met with before the enemy finally surrendered, the total casualties on the British side amounting to eleven killed and fifty-five wounded, and of these one sergeant and two men of the 65th detachment were killed and Ensign S. R. Warren, one sergeant and six rank and file were wounded. Lieut.-Colonel L. Smith was so pleased with the behaviour of this half company that he presented a “Certificate of Merit” to each of the survivors - a sergeant, a corporal and fifteen private soldiers.’

From Laft the detachment rejoined the main force at Barkah and sailed on to Muscat. A Bombay newspaper of 6 January 1810 reported: ‘While the armament was lying at Muscat on its return from the expedition against the pirates, the Imaum paid a visit to H.M’s ship Chiffone and was entertained with fruits, sweetmeats and sherbet, the juice of the grape being excluded in deference to his religious prejudices. The ship was dressed on the occasion with the Colours of different nations and delighted His Highness by her beautiful appearance. Captain Wainwright presented him with a picture of Lord Nelson, which he graciously accepted. After having been gratified with the attentions shown him on board H.M.’s ship, he went on shore to a small bay where Lieut.-Colonel Smith had prepared a mortar and howitzer, from which shells were thrown that greatly excited his astonishment.’ Notwithstanding his wound, Warren next went with the expedition, now accompanied by the Iman and 2,000 of his troops, to the fort of Shanas on 24 December.

On 1 January 1810, following the refusal of the Wahabi chief, in possession of Shanas, to evacuate the fort, a bombardment was opened. On the 3rd, the chief was offered another opportunity to surrender but again declined, and accordingly Colonel Smith attacked and the fort was taken by storm. British losses were small, one man killed and eleven wounded, the Wahabis on the other hand suffered over a thousand casualties. On 5 January, the troops were re-embarked and, having called in at various ports to destroy more ‘piratical craft’, returned to Muscat.

Following the return to Bombay, Warren was next employed with his regiment in the 5th Brigade under Colonel Smith, who acted as Brigadier, in the capture of Mauritius. The French forces occupying the island capitulated after a half-hearted defence in early December, and the regiment sailed for Bombay under convoy of the Chlorinde. In the cold weather of 1811, the 65th were ordered to form a part of an expeditionary force directed against the chief of Navangar, a town on the southeast coast of the Gulf of Kutch in Kathiawar, who had rebelled against his overlord the Gaikwar of Baroda. Navangar was reached on 21 February 1812 and Warren, now a Lieutenant serving in a specially formed Light Battalion, took part in its capture after some desultory skirmishing. In 1815, there was further trouble in the State of Kathiawar and the 65th, again accompanied by the flank companies of the 47th and four battalions of native infantry, were despatched to punish the rebels. During these operations, Warren was present at the capture of Anja which was taken before advancing on the capital, Bhuj, and destroying several piratical ports on the eastern coast of Kathiawar in early 1816.

At the close of the year the 65th relieved the 56th Regiment which had been ordered home in the Deccan, and spent the next few months in search of Trimbuckjee, a follower of the Peshwa who, having been imprisoned by the British for murder, had escaped and was now thought to be assembling troops in the Mahadeo Hills. In October 1817, shortly before the start of the war against the Pindarries, the 65th Regiment was encamped at Surur, forty miles northeast of Poona, and was accordingly employed under Lord Moira’s plan of campaign in the 1st Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Milnes (qv), a former C.O. of the 65th, in the 4th Poona Division, under Brigadier-General Lionel Smith, the whole being encompassed in the Army of the Deccan. Warren was appointed Major of Brigade to Colonel Milnes whose brigade, along with the rest of the Poona Division, reinforced Colonel C. B. Burr on 13 November after the Battle of Kirkee. On the 15th, the left wing of the division under Milnes fought its way across the Mutha Mule River and the next day linked up with the rest of Smith’s force, for the capture of Poona which was completed by the 17th. Thereafter Warren took part in the pursuit of the Peshwa, marching in excess of two thousand miles during ‘this very trying, difficult and long protracted campaign’. Warren continued as Brigade Major and next served, in early 1819, in the force formed under Major-General Sir W. Kier Grant at Anja for further service in Kutch. On 26 March Kier Grant’s expedition was attacked as it pitched camp before Bhuj. The enemy, however, was quickly driven back and the guns in the fort of Bhuja which protected the capital were silenced as a preliminary to the successful assault by escalade next day.

Later the same year, the Bombay Government resolved to take decisive action to extinguish piracy in the Gulf and mounted another expedition against the Joasmi. Keir Grant was placed in overall command of the expedition numbering 1645 Europeans and 1424 natives, whose transports were convoyed by H.M. Ships Eden, Liverpool and Curlew. The 65th, with whom Warren was now serving as a regimental officer, embarked with the 1st Division on 30 October 1819 and sailed with the General on 3 November. The sighting of a pirate fleet of sixty-four sail cruising off Kutch and reports of thirty-five Joasmi ships off the coast of Materan and Sind confirmed the fact that the expedition had been mounted none too soon. On 17 November, the expedition assembled at Qishm where an audience was sought with the Iman of Muscat who promised his co-operation in the forthcoming endeavour. On the 25th, Kier Grant in the Liverpool set out to reconnoitre Ras-el-Khima and a few days later called up the transports. At 4:00 am on 3 December the 1st Division made an unopposed landing two miles southeast of the town and next morning dislodged the enemy from a bank 900 yards from the outer fort. On the night of the 5th, a battery of four guns, with a mortar battery on its right, and a trench for the protection of the covering party, was established only three hundred yards from the fort’s southernmost tower.

Next day a bombardment was opened from the position. The Liverpool also opened on the town but found the distance too great to have much effect. At 8:00 pm, the Joasmi made a sally on the entrenchment, an account of which later appeared in the United Service Journal of 1829 (Part 1, p.713): ‘The firing had terminated for the day, the men had been relieved, silence reigned in the batteries, the night was very dark, and the picquets as usual were on the alert. About one, a dark object like a large black dog, was seen creeping along on all fours, several similar objects following. The advanced picquets were instantly cut down; all was hurry, shout and bustle. The trenches were filling with a large party of Arabs, engaged in close contest with our men, who were speared and stabbed in a twinkling. Already the Arabs had succeeded in dragging away a howitzer in triumph. The alarm spread like wild fire through the trenches. A party, under Major Warren [this officer was Maj Nathanial Warren], instantly advanced in double-quick time, attacked the assailants, drove them out of the trench and re-captured the howitzer. A desperate conflict ensued; the Arabs fought like furies, but they were soon bayoneted; nearly all of them, ninety in number, were found lying in the trenches. They had divested themselves of their upper garments to facilitate their onset, and if we mistake not, their bodies seemed anointed with oil.’

The bombardment was resumed on the 7th and by sunset the enemy’s position in the southernmost tower was reported untenable and the breaches were nearly practicable. By 8:00 a.m. next day, the breaches were completed and the troops moved forward. But to their surprise they entered the town without firing a shot; the Arabs had evacuated during the night. The Wahabi’s now realising the pointlessness of further resistance sent in their submission from all quarters. All, that is, except for Hussain-Ben-Ali, the Wahabi chief of a post called Rams, six miles to the northeast, who with four hundred adherents had taken refuge in the hill-fort of Dhayah situated at the head of a creek two miles from the coast. A detachment, consisting of the 65th Regiment, the flank companies of a Bombay Native Infantry regiment, and thirty artillerymen with two 12-pounders, two mortars and four field guns, was formed under Major N. Warren, with Lieutenant S. R. Warren acting as Adjutant, and having embarked at Ras-el-Khima, landed on the 18th, ‘with considerable difficulty and risk, owing to the heavy surf that beat on the shore’, within four miles of Dhayah.

Having made contact with the enemy that afternoon, two days were spent bringing up the guns and encircling the town in order to cut off any possible escape routes, and by the morning of the 21st, Major Warren was ready to make his assault. The Major afterwards reported: ‘Aware, however, that the families of the enemy were all still in the town, and humanity dictating that some effort should be made to save the innocent from the fate that awaited the guilty, an opportunity was afforded for that purpose by an offer to the garrison of security to their women and children, should they be sent out within the hour; but the infatuated chief, either from an idea that his fort on the hill was not to be reached by our shot, or with the vain hope to gain by procrastination, returning no answer to our communication, while he detained our messenger, we opened fire at half-past eight in the morning, and, such was the precision of the practice, that by half-past ten, perceiving the breach would soon be practicable, I was in the act of issuing the necessary orders for the assault, when a white flag was displayed; and the enemy, after some little delay in assembling from the different quarters of the place, marched out with their arms, with Hossein Ben Ally at their head, to the number of 398; and at half past one p.m. the British flags were hoisted on the Sheikh’s house. The women and children, to the number of 400, were at the same time collected together in a place of security, and, I am happy to say, without a single instance of either injury or insult to their persons or feelings having occurred...’

In concluding his report the Major wrote, ‘To Lieuts. Place and Warren, the former acting quartermaster and the latter acting adjutant to the detachment, I have likewise had the occasion to express my obligation for their attention and alacrity in the performance of their duties...’ The detachment returned to Ras-el-Khima on 26 December, and, having visited and destroyed forts at several other places, sailed with the rest of expedition for Bombay which was reached by the first of their ships on 8 March 1820.

In 1822, the 65th Regiment was ordered home after nearly twenty-two years on foreign service and the following year was granted ‘the figure of the Royal Tiger’ to be borne on its Colours and the Battle Honours INDIA and ARABIA. Promoted Captain in 1823, Warren spent the next six years stationed at various places in England, Scotland and Ireland, and, in 1829, he sailed with the regiment once more on foreign service, this time to Barbados.

Warren served in the West Indies for many years as Military Secretary to Sir Lionel Smith, and finally retired from the service, owing to ill-health, in 1847, then being Deputy Quarter-Master General at Jamaica. He subsequently held the appointment of Barrack-Master at Windsor until his death in 1857.

Refs: Hart’s Army List; East India Military Letters; The York and Lancaster Regiment, 1758-1919, Vol I (Wylly).