Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Trumpeter C. Duly, 9th Lancers

Afghanistan 1878-80, 3 clasps, Charasia, Kabul, Kandahar (Trumpeter); Kabul to Kandahar Star 1880 (1534 Trumpeter, 9th Lancers) the first severely pitted and worn from the star, the naming consequently re-engraved, the second worn but naming original and unaffected (2) £150-200

Trumpeter Duly published an interesting memoir at the turn of the century entitled The Life of Trumpeter C. E. Duly. Late of the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers. According to his memoir, Duly was allowed to enlist at the age of fifteen in 1873 because the 9th Lancers had a regimental circus, and he had proved his talents as a contortionist. When the circus’s run came to an end, he declined an offer to purchase his discharge, and subsequently found himself in India, where he triumphed at regimental sports and ran a pickle factory on the side. Then the regiment was sent to Afghanistan and the author paints a lively picture of the march to Kabul and the subsequent march from Kabul to Kandahar: ‘We circled around Cabul until we came to the gorge, the same one we went over on the 8th October. We got into the Charden Valley and it was here where our trouble commenced... the enemy came down in swarms from the hills into the valley. The Artillery opened fire on them at seventeen hundred yards... I saw men and horses dropping on either side of me... The question, you know, was who was to be next. All that limp feeling passed away when I was ordered to sound the charge... I was trumpeter to Captain McKenzie.’