Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Indian Mutiny medal to Corporal J. B. Grierson (alias Frank Burgess), Bengal Sappers and Miners, killed in action at Delhi when he was a member of the explosion party at the blowing of the Kashmir Gate, a notorious incident which led to the award of no fewer than four Victoria Crosses to the survivors of this gallant endeavour

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Delhi (Corpl. J. B. Grierson, Bengal Saprs. & Miners) rank and initials neatly engraved (Cpl. F. Grierson on medal roll), good very fine £3000-5000

Joshua Burgess Grierson (alias Frank Burgess) was a Scot, born in St Cuthbert’s Parish, Edinburgh, in 1835. After leaving school he took employment as a clerk. It is impossible to know what motives caused him to enlist in the forces of the East India Company on 10 September 1854 at the age of nineteen but the fact that he enlisted under an assumed name suggests that he was anxious to escape from some serious problem at home. In the name of Frank Burgess he signed his attestation papers at Glasgow on 9 November for 10 years’ service. Shortly after reaching the H.E.I.C. depot he was transferred to the Bengal Sappers and Miners and, after completing his two years’ training, sailed in the transport Minden for India, where he landed on 29 November 1856. His first posting was at Roorkee and he was still there when the Mutiny broke out five months later. He was a member of the relief column which travelled by boat from Roorkee to Meerut, and later marched to Delhi, where he fought in the three major actions prior to the final assault on the capital city. He was promoted to Second Corporal on 20 June.

Lieutenant D. C. Home, of the Bengal Engineers, arrived at Delhi in August and on the 22nd was appointed a Field Engineer in orders. As part of the plan for the final assault on 14 September, Home and Lieutenant Philip Salkeld, also of the Bengal Engineers, were assigned to lead the Explosion Party which was to blow in the Kashmir Gate in advance of Colonel Campbell’s No. 3 Column. At day break just as the British siege guns had ceased firing, Brigadier Nicholson gave the order to advance, leading Nos. 1 and 2 Columns himself from the Kudsia Bagh, while No. 3 Column issued from the vicinity of Ludlow Castle. Two hundred skirmishers of the 60th Rifles ran out to cover the storming columns, and instantly the walls of Delhi blazed with rebel musketry.

At the front of No. 3 Column, Home and Salkeld led forward their detachment which, carrying ladders and powder bags, comprised three British N.C.O’s, fourteen Indian soldiers of the Bengal Sappers and Miners, ten men of the Punjab Sappers (or Pioneers) and a British bugler. When there was no more cover, the actual Explosion Party, consisting of all the Europeans and eight of the Indian Sappers, rushed in two small parties towards the gate. There are conflicting accounts of the heroic deed that followed but the most reliable should be those of the men who were actually there.

Duncan Home reported to Baird-Smith, the Chief Engineer, Delhi Field Force: ‘Serjeants John Smith and Carmichael, Mahdo Havildar, all the [four] Sappers and myself arrived at the Cashmere Gate untouched a short time in advance of the remainder of the party under Lieutenant Salkeld, having found the palisade gate on the outside of the ditch and the wicket of the Cashmere Gate open, and three planks of the bridge across the ditch removed. As Serjeant Carmichael was laying his powder bag [containing 25lb] he was killed by a shot from the wicket. Havildar Mahdo was, I believe, also wounded about the same time. Lieutenant Salkeld, carrying the slow match to light the charge, now came up with a portion of the remainder of the party ... the fire from the wicket which was very severe [and] I slipped down into the ditch. Lieutenant Salkeld being wounded in the leg from the wicket, handed over the match to Corporal Burgess who was mortally wounded while completing the operation, Havildar Tillok was at the same time wounded while assisting Corporal Burgess into the ditch; Sepoy Rambeth was also killed at the same time. As I was assisting Lieutenant Salkeld into the ditch I think he was wounded a second time. The charge having exploded blew in the right leaf of the gate, on which I caused the regimental call of the 52nd Regiment to be sounded as the signal for the advance of the storming party. I caused the bugler [Hawthorne] to sound the call three times, after which the column advanced to storm and the gate was taken possession of by our troops.’

Sergeant John Smith recorded: ‘As soon as the dust cleared I saw Lieutenant Salkeld and Burgess covered with dust. Lieutenant Salkeld’s arms were broken. Lieutenant Home got out of the ditch leaving me in charge of the wounded, and went to the front after the Rifles had gone in.’

Colonel Sandes in his Military Engineer in India records: ‘Carmichael and Burgess died almost immediately. Salkeld, Home, Smith and Bugler Hawthorne were awarded the Victoria Cross. But Salkeld lived for only two days. Before he died, when he was too weak to do more than whisper “It will be gratifying to send it home,” he received the red ribbon ... The Indian Sappers and Miners were rewarded with the Indian Order of Merit, promotion or grants of land; none was forgotten. This is the story of the bravest deed ever performed in India by Engineers or Sappers and Miners.’ In 1876 Lord Napier of Magdala placed a memorial to the Explosion Party outside the Kashmir Gate.

In the House of Commons, on 8 April 1859, Mr Cowan ‘rose to bring under the consideration of the House the fact that Sergeant Carmichael and Corporal Burgess or Burgess Grierson, of the Bengal Sappers and Miners, sacrificed their own lives in the blowing in of the Cashmere Gate at Delhi, in September, 1857, in the same service when the heroic and lamented Lieutenant Salkeld fell.’

‘The blowing up of that gate was the point on which the whole of our success in India rested. From the testimony of Colonel Baird Smith it appeared that it was Grierson who completed the work of the demolition of the gate by taking the lighted match from the hand of Lieutenant Salkeld when he was shot down, Grierson, who at the time of his death was a very young man, was the son of a constituent of his, a very respectable man, but who was at present in reduced circumstances; and he wished to ask the honourable and gallant General at the head of the War Office whether he did not think it fair and reasonable that the father of the man who had so gloriously lost his life in the service of his country, should possess some testimonial of his exploits. For this purpose he suggests the Victoria Cross might be granted to him.’

In response General Peel said, ‘it was with extreme regret that he found it was out of his power to take any steps for the purpose of procuring the Victoria Cross for the families of the gallant men to whom the honourable Gentleman had referred. It was not customary to grant such a reward on behalf of men who had been killed in the service by which they would otherwise have become justly entitled to the distinction. It was true that the Victoria Cross had been handed over to the families of the two officers who had been engaged in the same exploit; but the fact was, that although severely wounded, they had survived for some time, and as they had during that period been recommended by Sir A. Wilson, the commanding officer on the occasion, for the distinction, Her Majesty thought that every possible effect ought to be given to that recommendation. That was the sole ground of the difference made between the cases of the two commissioned and the two non-commissioned officers who had so nobly sacrificed themselves in that service. If those gallant soldiers had survived, however short a time, no doubt the same course “would have been pursued with respect to them.”

Sold with research which includes a copy of the original medal roll and a photocopied portrait photograph of ‘Jos. Burgess Grierson’.