Lot 154: Single Campaign Medals

Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Mooltan, Goojerat (A. Edmond, 1st Bn. 60th R. Rifles) good very fine

Ex D.N.W. 17 September 2009.

Alexander Edmond was born c.1826 at Old Maher, Aberdeenshire. He enlisted at Chatham on 27 January 1847 and served with the 1/60th Regiment in India, taking part in the Second Sikh War. Edmond was invalided on 17 September 1849 and returned to England on 1 March 1850. Recovering, Edmond returned to India where he was serving at the time of the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny. On 27 May 1857 six companies consisting of 450 men left Meerut to join the Delhi Field Force, where they were known as the ‘Shaitan-ke-Pultan’ - the ‘regiment from hell’. Serving with his battalion, in pursuit of rebels from Meerut, he was killed in action at Ghazi-ud-din-Nugger, India on 30 May 1857. In the action the regiment suffered, one officer and eight other ranks killed, eight other ranks wounded and two other ranks missing. A report of the action reads: ‘With a ringing cheer the battery was captured at the point of the sword by ‘D’ Company, gallantly led by Captain Francis Andrews. At the last moment a Sepoy fired his musket into a tumbril [of gunpowder] which instantly blew up. Andrews and several of his men were killed. The body of the Captain was found in the road devoid of every stitch of clothing, and rifles were picked up twisted into knots.’ With copied roll extracts and other papers in folder. His Indian Mutiny Medal, no clasp, was returned to the Mint as unissued.