Awards to the Indian Army from the Collection of AM Shaw 578
MAHARAJAH OF BURDWAN’S MEDAL FOR GALLANT CONDUCT AT THE BURNING OF H.M.S. GOLIATH 1875, silver (H. Marling) brooch marks to reverse, otherwise nearly very fine and scarce
£600-800
H.M.S. Goliath was a training ship lent by the Royal Navy to Forest Gate School Board in 1870 . Moored off Grays, Essex, it held some 450 orphan boys, mostly from the East End of London and was used for training in Naval Service. On 22 December 1875 a fire accidentally broke out in the lamp-room and the ship was completely destroyed. One officer and 19 boys are believed to have died in the disaster. As reported in The Times of 1 January 1876, the Coroner said, ‘Every boy behaved himself like a man. Had they not been well disciplined, calamity would have been widespread, but they were free from all panic and tumult. The 14-year-old boy who dropped the lighted lamp in the lamp-room gave his evidence in an honest and manly way, as did all concerned.’
Such was the conduct of the boys that the Maharajah of Burdwan wrote to The Times expressing his desire to award a medal, through the Lord Mayor of London, to those boys who had particularly distinguished themselves:
‘Sir, Having read with the greatest admiration the account of the heroic conduct displayed by some of the boys of the training ship Goliath on occasion of the recent destruction by fire of that ill-fated vessel, I have felt a strong wish to present a silver medal to each of those who signally distinguished themselves on that occasion. I may have been forestalled in this wish, but I trust that I may be allowed to do something of the kind, as, coming from India, it will prove to the boys that deeds like theirs have not merely a local fame, but are marked and appreciated by their fellow subjects in the most distant parts of Her Majesty’s Empire ...’ (Extract from The Times, 22 February 1876).
579
A scarce pair for the Capture of Java, the First Burma War and the Siege of Bhurtpoor to Colonel Robert Seymour, Bengal Native Infantry
MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Java (R. Seymour, Lieut. 6th Bengal Vol. Bn.); ARMY OF INDIA 1799-1826, 2 clasps, Ava, Bhurtpoor (Captn. R. Seymour, 26th N.I.) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming, good very fine and scarce (2)
£5000-6000 Ex Brian Ritchie collection, Dix Noonan Webb, March 2005 (Lot No. 6).
A total of 46 M.G.S. Medals were issued to officers and men of the H.E.I.C. Service, 16 of whom also received the Army of India Medal, this probably being an unique combination of medals and clasps to the H.E.I.C. army. Only 13 medals were issued with the combination of Ava and Bhurtpoor, the two most common clasps and yet one of the rarest combinations.
Robert Seymour, the son of Anthony Seymour, merchant, and Ann, née Piding, was born in St Petersburg on 5 December 1789. He arrived in India as an Ensign in 1805 and was posted to the 13th Bengal N.I. Between 1811 and 1816 he did duty with the Bengal Volunteers, comprised of sepoys who had volunteered to serve overseas. In August 1811 he took part in Sir Samuel Auchmuty’s successful expedition to Java which secured the last settlement in the East Indies in the possession of the Batavian Republic for the Government of Calcutta.
The following year Lieutenant Seymour served as Commissary of Provisions on the expedition to Palimbang in Sumatra, and in 1813 he was Acting Fort Adjutant and Paymaster at Banca. He returned to his parent regiment and served with the 2nd Battalion during the Third Mahratta War, taking part in the sieges and captures of Mandala and Asseerghur. Promoted Captain while on furlough in 1823, he was transferred in 1824 to the 26th N.I. (late 1/13th N.I.).
During the First Burma War he was ‘slightly wounded in action against the enemy’ on 27 March 1825 (London Gazette 6 October 1825). At the Siege of Bhurtpoor in 1826, he was Major of Brigade, 4th Brigade, 1st Division. The next year he was appointed Brigade Major to the Establishment at Cuttack, and was afterwards appointed D.A.A.G. to the Presidency Division. Posted Lieutenant-Colonel to the 34th N.I. on 10 September 1834, he was transferred successively to the rolls of the 74th N.I., 22nd N.I. and 21st N.I. Seymour retired in 1841 and was made Honorary Colonel in 1854. He died at 8 Crompton Crescent, London, on 3 December 1868.
Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); Officers of the Bengal Army 1758-1834; IOL L/MIL/10/21.
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