Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Mooltan, Goojerat (Capt. P. K. Skinner, Dep. Ju. Adv. Genl. 9th Regt.) slight edge bruising and contact marks, very fine £600-800

Philip Kearney MacGregor Skinner was born in Belfast on 4 December 1805, the youngest son of Cortland MacGregor Skinner, late Captain 70th Foot and Controller of Customs in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and was nominated as a Cadet for the East India Company Infantry. He passed the Military Committee at East India House in London in December 1824 and was posted to Bombay in May 1825. By 1830 he had qualified in Hindustani and served as Acting Interpreter and Quarter Master to the 13th Bombay Native Infantry. He was promoted to Lieutenant in August 1831 and Adjutant to the 9th Bombay Native Infantry in April 1832. As a Captain he was the Sub-Assistant Commissary in charge of bazaars at Deesa, January-May 1836. He had charge of a detachment of the Poona Auxiliary Horse on field service in Mahee Kanta and Eelur Districts.

He was Acting Major of Brigade at Deesa in April 1836, Acting Interpreter to the Corps of Bombay Engineers from January 1837 and Interpreter and Quartermaster to the 9th Bombay Native Infantry from January 1838. On 22 May 1838 he was appointed Acting Deputy Judge Advocate to the Northern Division of the Bombay Army and was promoted Captain in November 1839. In October 1840 he was confirmed as Deputy Judge Advocate. On 15 October 1844 he was appointed Assistant Adjutant General of the Poona District; following this he was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate General of the force assembling at Ruree on 11 October 1848. As such he was engaged in the subsequent operations at Mooltan and the battle of Goojerat and was mentioned in Brigadier-General H. Dundas’s despatches of 28 December 1848 and 22 February 1849. For his services in the Punjab Skinner received the brevet of Major (London Gazette 5 June 1849). Appointed Judge Advocate General of the Bombay Army in June 1851, he was promoted to Major in May 1852 and received the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel in November 1857. Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in May 1858, he was appointed to the Bombay Staff Corps in September 1861. Whilst serving with that unit he was advanced to Major-General in July 1866 and was promoted to Lieutenant-General in September 1874 and to General in October 1877. On 15 March 1867 he was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath. General Skinner died on 3 June 1880 at Fauconberg Villas in Cheltenham and was buried at St. Peter’s, Leckhampton.

With copied research including roll and gazette extracts, genealogical information and a copy of the article on the recipient that appeared in the O.M.R.S. Journal of December 2008.