The Indian Mutiny medal to Surgeon James Grant, H.M.’s 54th Regiment, a survivor of the Sarah Sands shipwreck in November 1857

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Surgeon J. M. Grant, 54th Foot) slightly later impressed naming, nearly extremely fine £600-800

James McGrigor Grant was born in Sierra Leone on 31 May 1819, and underwent his medical training at St Andrew’s, qualifying M.D. in 1840. Appointed Assistant Surgeon with the Medical Staff in November 1840, he was present at the storm and capture of Port Natal, against the insurgent Boers, in June 1842. He became 2nd Class Surgeon on the Staff in November 1850, and was posted as Surgeon to the 54th Foot in August 1853. Doctor Grant accompanied that portion of his regiment which embarked aboard the ill-fated Sarah Sands, bound for India, in August 1857, and thus became emroiled in one of the epic shipwrecks of Victorian times.

The Sarah Sands, with 368 officers and men of the 54th Regiment, together with women and children, a total complement of some 500 persons including the ships crew, sailed from Portsmouth on the 15th August, 1857. During the course of the voyage the crew became mutinous and many of them were locked in irons below deck. On the 7th November a squall carried away the foremost of the vessel's four masts but on the 11th a more serious disaster occurred when a fire broke out. The women and children were lowered in the boats to safety whilst the mutinous sailors deserted in the ship's long boat. The gallantry of the 54th, together with the petty officers and engineers who had remained on board, in fighting the fire and the subsequent powder explosion is a matter of record. Without loss of life, the Sarah Sands reached Port Louis, Mauritius, after being adrift for 12 days. Many soldiers had been terribly burned, their uniforms having been almost scorched from their bodies by the intense heat and flames of the fire. Of the original strength of the 54th only 151 remained fit enough to proceed to India and earn the medal for service during the Mutiny. Surgeon Grant served in Bengal and Oude during the Mutiny, from November 1857 to January 1859 (Medal). He was posted to the 84th Foot in April 1859, and was appointed Surgeon Major in November 1860. He subsequently served again with the Medical Staff and with the Army Medical Department, being appointed as Surgeon General in June 1876. He retired on half pay in May 1879, and died at Cheltenham on 3 October 1891. Sold with full service records.