Orders, Decorations and Medals

Four: Havildar Dewa Singh, 23rd and 34th Sikh Pioneers, Personal Orderly to Colonel A. C. W. Crookshank who raised the 34th Pioneers and commanded the River Column in Hazara in 1888 until he was killed

Abyssinia 1867 (1304 Sepoy Dewa Singh, 23rd Pjb. Pioneers) named on edge in running script; Afghanistan 1878-80, 4 clasps, Peiwar Kotal, Charasia, Kabul, Kandahar (1304 Sepoy Dewa Singh, 23rd Pjb. Pioneers) named in running script; Kabul to Kandahar Star 1880 (1304 Sepoy Dewa Singh, 23rd Pjb. Pioneers); India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hazara 1888 (27 Havildr. Dewa Singh, 34th Pioneers) this last officially re-engraved and all possibly later replacements, mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (4) £600-700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The collection of Medals formed by the Late Clive Nowell.

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Sold with an original letter from Major Claude Kennedy Crookshank, 34th Sikh Pioneers, dated Eastbourne, 2 July 1915, in which he writes to a relation, “I have the medals belonging to Havildar Dewa Singh of my regiment. He was Father’s personal orderly, and with him when he died. The old boy came back as orderly to my family & I in Ambala. Being about 90 years old he only used to sit in the sun and sing laudatory songs when any of us showed up. Syd [later Col. Sir Sydney d’Aguilar Chichester, K.C.M.G., C.B., C.I.E., D.S.O., M.V.O.] thought we ought to secure his medals before he died, and sent me the money to buy them from him.

Colonel Arthur Chichester William Crookshank, C.B., raised the 34th Sikh Pioneers and died of wounds received in the Hazara campaign on 24 October 1888.