Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Deputy Surgeon General H. B. Franklyn, Army Medical Department

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Lucknow (Asst. Surgn. Rl. H. Art.); Italy, Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus, 5th class breast badge, gold and enamels; War of Independence Medal 1860, silver, good very fine and a most unusual group (3) £450-550

Henry Bowles Franklyn was born on board H.M.S. Imperieuse (Harbour Quarantine Service) on 15 April 1829. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon in March 1852 and served during the Indian Mutiny with the Royal Horse Artillery. He was present at the attack on Secundra, and the storming and capture of Meeangunge; in the operations leading to the capture of Lucknow, and with the Azimghur Field Force, in the affairs of 9th and 10th June 1858. He was mentioned in despatches three times, twice for gallantry and once for general zeal and ability (Medal with clasp).

During the war for the Unification and Independence of Italy 1860-61, Franklyn was given charge of the stores and appliances of Lady Shaftsbury’s Committee. He was specially mentioned for his gratuitous attendance on the wounded, “in times of much peril”, after the battle of Volturno and the subsequent operations ending in the capitulation of Capua. He was personally thanked by, and made Honorary Surgeon to, King Victor Emmanuel II, and was awarded the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus, and the Italian Independence War Medal, for his aid to the wounded in the campaign of 1860-61. The Royal Humane Society of Italy also awarded him the Neopolitan Gold Medal for ‘Service of Peril.’

Franklyn qualified as F.R.C.S. Edin. in 1864, and M.D. St Andrews in 1872. He was also a Barrister-at-Law at the Middle Temple in London, having been called to the Bar on 17 November 1869. He died in Geneva, Switzerland on 6 August 1889.