A rare Defence of Kelat-i-Ghilzie medal to Gunner William Hunt, Bengal Artillery, who died at Candahar shortly afterwards

Defence of Kelat-i-Ghilzie 1842 (Gunner William Hunt, 4th Compy. 2d Battn. Arty.) naming officially engraved in running script, fitted with original steel clip and bar suspension, minor nicks and bruises, otherwise good very fine and very rare
£4000-5000

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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A total of only 55 medals awarded to European recipients, including one officer and 43 men from the 4th Company 2nd Battalion, Bengal Artillery.

Following the disastrous retreat of the British from Cabul in January 1842, Ghuznee was retaken by the Afghans, and the isolated garrison at Kelat-i-Ghilzie was invested. The garrison consisted of 600 of the Shah’s 3rd Infantry, three companies of the 43rd N.I., totalling 247 men, forty-four European and twenty-two native artillery, twenty-three Bengal Sappers and Miners, and seven British officers, all under Captain John Halkett Craigie.

The total strength of the garrison of Kelat-i-Ghilzie, situated about eighty miles north east of Candahar, was fifty-five Europeans and 877 natives. In spite of ‘cold and privation unequalled by any of the troops in Afghanistan’ the garrison put up a successful defence through the whole winter till relieved on 26 May 1842. On the 21st May, however, the garrison had repulsed a particularly determined attack by some 6,000 Afghans:

‘Khelat-i-Ghilzai was attacked at a quarter before four o’clock’, reported Craigie, ‘The enemy advanced to the assault in the most determined manner, each column consisting of upwards of 2,000 men, provided with 30 scaling ladders, but after an hour’s fighting were repulsed and driven down the hill, losing five standards, one of which was planted three times in one of the embrasures ... The greatest gallantry and coolness were displayed by every commissioned and non-commissioned officer, and private (both European and Native) engaged in meeting the attack of the enemy, several of whom were bayoneted on top of the sandbags forming our parapets ...’

Colonel Wymer and his relieving force consequently were only engaged in destroying the defences and caring for the sick and wounded, until the 1st of June when they returned to Candahar.

William Hunt was a native of the Parish of St Clement’s, London, who had enlisted for unlimited service in the East India Company’s Artillery at Tower Hill, London, on 1 March 1833. He was then described as aged 22 years 10 months, 5ft 8in tall, with light brown hair and a fair complexion, and had previously been a shoemaker. Allocated to the Bengal Army, he sailed for India in the Duke of Argyle on 5 August 1833, and arrived at Calcutta on 13 December of that year. He was there posted as 1806 Gunner to the 3rd Company 4th Battalion, Bengal Artilley. His name appears in the 1842 muster roll as serving with the 4th Company 2nd Battalion. Sadly, the gallant William Hunt died on 20 June 1842, though whether as a result of wounds or sickness is unknown.

Refs: IOL L/MIL/5/259; L/MIL/9/31; L/MIL/10/122; L/MIL/10/163; The Military Engineer in India (Sandes); Sieges and Defences of Fortified Places, Royal Engineers Journal, Vol XX, 1914.