Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Private C. Monaghan, 25th and 72nd Regiments

Afghanistan 1878-80, 1 clasp, Kabul (58-E/429 Pte., 72nd Highrs.); India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Chin-Lushai 1889-90 (3174 Pte., 1st Bn. K.O. Sco. Bord.), edge nicks, good very fine or better (2)

Charles Monaghan enlisted in the 25th Regiment as a boy recruit at Edinburgh in January 1863, aged 15 years. Embarked for the East Indies that July, he would never return home, instead serving overseas for 27 years with the Colours before his death in India in 1890.

Having been advanced to Sergeant in October 1869, Monaghan transferred to the 72nd Highlanders, but he lost his stripes as a result of being convicted by the Civil Powers for an assault at Jhelum in May 1879, to which conviction he added several charges of drunkenness in the same period. Be that as it may, he was present with his regiment in the Kabul operations later that year, but was not present during the 72nd’s march to Kandahar, having in the interim been detached for duty with the 59th Regiment – accordingly, he was one of just five men in the regiment to be awarded the Medal with a single ‘Kabul’ clasp.

Monaghan transferred back to his old regiment, the 25th, in November 1880, continued to win and lose assorted stripes, and was present with the 1st Battalion during the Chin-Lushai expedition of 1889-90, but died of malaria at Poonawallee in July of the latter year, leaving a widow and six children. He was 42 years of age; sold with a file of research.