Orders, Decorations and Medals

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Pegu (1st Lieutt. Chas. A. Purvis, 2nd Battn. Arty.) fitted with ornate silver ribbon buckle, very fine £300-350

Charles Alexander Purvis was born on 30 August 1819, youngest son of Colonel Charles Purvis, 1st Royal Dragoons, of Darsham House, Suffolk. He served with the Indian Army, becoming a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Madras Artillery. He was at the taking of the Fort of Badamee on the 9th and 10th June, 1841. He served during the Second Burmese War, and commanded the artillery at Martaban, was present at all the attacks made upon the place by the Burmese from 5th April 1852 to 14th January 1853, and accompanied the Martaban column of the Army of Ava to Shuaygheen. He afterwards received the ‘Pegu’ medal and subsequently was for seven years in command of the garrison artillery at Singapore. In June 1851, he married his first cousin, Jane-Lauretta, second daughter of Captain Edward Purvis, of Watlington House, Reading. Lieutenant-Colonel Purvis died on 7 September 1894. For related family medals see Lots 13 and 652.