The C.B. group of four to Deputy Surgeon-General George Farrell, Indian Medical Service, Surgeon of Shannon’s Naval Brigade and later of the 5th Gurkhas during the Second Afghan War

(a) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (Military) C.B., breast badge, 18 carat gold and enamels, hallmarked London 1880, lacking swivel-ring straight suspension and now fitted with fluted silver-gilt ring

(b) Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Relief of Lucknow (Asst. Surgn. G. Farrell)

(c) India General Service 1854-94, 4 clasps, North West Frontier, Jowaki 1877-8, Burma 1885-7, Burma 1887-89 (Surgn. G. Farrell, 2nd Punjab Infy.)

(d) Afghanistan 1878-80, 3 clasps, Peiwar Kotal, Charasia, Kabul (Surg-Maj. G. Farrell, 5th Goorkha) generally good very fine (4) £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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George Elias Farrell was born in Dublin on 22 October 1831 and trained at Steven’s Hospital, Dublin. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the Honourable East India Company’s Service on 4 August 1854 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Ireland) in 1856. He embarked for India aboard the S.S. Nubia and landed at Calcutta on 17 December 1856. After duty at the General Hospital, Calcutta, he was ordered to report to the Surgeon of the 20th N.I. at Benares in February 1857, but the following month was attached to the 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion, Bengal Artillery, and proceeded with a detachment of that unit to Dinapore on 12 April. He next returned to Benares and was attached to the Loodianah Sikhs and was placed in medical charge of all European troops at the station.

On 19 July, with Bengal in revolt, he was ordered to Calcutta and shortly after his arrival was assigned to accompany the second party of H.M.S. Shannon’s Naval Brigade which, 120-strong, left Calcutta for Allahabad in the river steamer Benares on 18 September, under Lieutenant Vaughan. Vaughan’s party caught up with the rest of the Naval Brigade on 20 October and marched into Allahabad fort with the ship’s band playing at the head of the column. During the Second Relief of Lucknow he found a steady demand for his professional skills. Of the total of 553 officers and men landed from Shannon, four officers and one hundred men were killed or died from wounds or disease. One officer and seventeen men were invalided, and a further seven officers and fifty-one men wounded in action.

Following the Relief, Farrell was sent with the sick, wounded, and non-combatant members of the Residency garrison to Allahabad, where he was appointed to do duty at the General Hospital until February 1858, when he was ordered to Mean Meer in the Lahore Circle for general duty. He was next attached to the 2nd Punjab Infantry on the Frontier and in April 1860 took part in the expedition against the Mahsud Waziris under Brigadier Neville Chamberlain (qv). Service with Sam Browne’s Cavalry, interrupted by a spell with the 2nd Punjab Infantry in 1865, followed until 1868, when on 4 August, he was promoted Surgeon. Farrell became Surgeon Major in 1873, and in 1877-78 took part in the punitive expedition against the Jowaki Afridis.

During the Second Afghan War he served with the 5th Gurkhas in the Kurram Valley Field Force, under Major-General F. S. Roberts, and was mentioned in despatches for services at Peiwar Kotal and thanked in orders. He continued with the force to Ali Khel and the Shutargardan Pass and returned with the force to Kurram, via the southern route and the Mangiar defile where the rearguard and baggage were suddenly attacked by the Mangal Pathans. The situation was saved by the ‘steadiness and gallantry of the 5th Gurkhas’ who for five hours repulsed every attack. Two officers were severely injured in the encounter, Captain Goad, a transport officer, and Captain Powell of the 5th Gurkhas, both of whom subsequently died of their wounds.

During the second campaign of the war, Farrell started again under Roberts, now commanding the Kabul Field Force. On 6 October 1879 Farrell was present with the forward elements of the Field Force which encountered the army of Kabul at Charasia, and put it to rout. Farrell entered Kabul with Roberts’ force a few days later and subsequently served in operations around Kabul and in the defence of the Sherpur cantonment, earning another mention in despatches. Promoted Brigade-Surgeon in December 1883, he was advanced to Deputy Surgeon-General and created a Companion of the Bath in 1886. He last saw active service in 1886-87 during the Burma Campaign. Farrell retired from the Indian Medical Department in September 1893, and died in Dublin on 28 April 1899.

Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); IOL L/MIL/10/81; Roll of the Indian Medical Service (Crawford); The Naval Brigades in the Indian Mutiny 1857-58 (Naval Records Society); The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880 (Shadbolt).