The Indian Mutiny medal to Assistant Surgeon James Allan Currie, 8th Irregular Cavalry, who was recommended for the Victoria Cross for his gallant charge at Hurha in April 1858

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Asst. Surgn. Jas. Allan Currie, 8th Irr. Cavy.) second ‘A’ of ‘Allan’ officially re-impressed, nearly extremely fine £600-£800

During his brief career Dr. Currie saw more service than falls to the lot of most men. On his arrival in India in January 1854 he was appointed Assistant-Surgeon to the 47th Regiment of Native Infantry then in Burmah, with which regiment he remained until promoted to the medical charge of the 8th Irregular Cavalry. When that corps mutinied at Bareilly on 31 May 1857, Dr Currie escaped with several other brother officers by riding sixty-six miles to Naini Tal without changing his horse. He afterwards rejoined that portion of the regiment which continued true to its allegiance and was posted to Oonao to keep open the communication with Lucknow. On arrival at that station the 8th I. C. had been reduced to 12 Native Officers and 11 Sowers, later known as the “Loyal Remnant”. This gallant band stayed and fought with Captain A. M. Mackenzie throughout 1858.

On 6 April 1858, this faithful remnant was despatched under the command of Captain Mackenzie to attack a body of rebels under Lultah Singh who offered desperate resistance and at one moment the issue of the conflict seemed likely to be disastrous. Dr Currie at once perceived the critical nature of the emergency. He had been left with the reserve, a short distance in the rear, and was the only officer with it. Instantly placing himself at the head of this small body of troopers he rushed to the aid of his sorely pressed comrades and by the impetuosity of his charge threw the enemy into confusion. In the melee his horse received a musket ball in the neck and was wounded by a bayonet thrust to the quarter but Lultah Singh and his bodyguard were slain and the pacification of the entire district was the first fruits of victory. For this gallant exploit Captain Mackenzie applied to the Commander-in-Chief for the Victoria Cross for Dr. Currie.

Major-General Inglis’ despatch of 6 April 1858, states Lultah Singh and 25 of his men were “cut to pieces”. Of Currie, Inglis wrote “His care of the wounded afterwards was unremitting”.

James Allan Currie was born in Edinburgh on 30 December 1827 , son of Alexander, one of H.M. Principal Clerks of the Session, and his mother Mary Barrie. A brilliant student he gained an M.A. at Aberdeen University aged just 19. He was firstly educated in Forfarshire being awarded the Angus Club Medal for Latin and the Melville Award for 1843. Secondly at Aberdeen King's College: Prize List 1846/47 Moral Philosophy (Order of Merit) and Civil Law; M.A. 1847. Thirdly at Edinburgh M.D. & M.R.C.S 1853. Overland route to India 21 November 1853, arriving at Calcutta on the Hindostan on 14 January 1854, and appointed Assistant-Surgeon, 47th Native Infantry in Burmah; appointed to medical charge of the 8th Irregular Cavalry, 17 December 1856.

After the mutiny Dr Currie resumed his duties with the regiment until mid-1859 when he was appointed Superintendent of Vaccination of the Agra District which at the time had a population of over 5 million. He was also surgeon and lecturer in surgery at the Thomason Medical School. On his leaving the 8th Irregulars the commanding officer placed an order of the day in the regimental books, recording his strong sense of Dr. Currie's services as the medical officer of the corps and of the way he had endeared himself to the men.

Currie said of himself, on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays I ride or drive between 25 and 58 miles each day before 9 a.m. visiting the relief dispensaries and kitchens. On other days I have surgical duties and lectures at the General Hospital.
On 14 June 1861, he travelled the 25 miles to Khundolee kitchen on the banks of the Jumna to make arrangements for the mitigation of a violent outbreak of Cholera that had taken place there. He returned to Agra that night but was stricken by cholera the following evening and in a few hours fell a sacrifice to the cause of humanity. Dr Currie died on 15 June 1861.

“He was,” said Captain A. M. Mackenzie in tribute, “in his own particular profession, zealous, active and clever – a most gallant soldier, a warm friend, and a high-minded man.”

It seems remarkable that upon the basis of such a small loyal contingent the 8th Irregular Cavalry should have been reconstituted in 1861 and allowed to keep its four pre-1857 battle honours. On the reorganisation it became the 6th Bengal Cavalry and all those original surviving officers and sowers were listed for the Order of British India; especially mentioned was Wordie-Major Nazeem Khan “who not only sacrificed all his property but left his three hapless and very young children to their fate to follow our fortunes”. Sold with comprehensive research