Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Cabul 1842 (Capt. John Edwd. Dyer 3rd. K.O.L. Drags.) engraved naming, with original steel clip and straight bar suspension, and top silver riband buckle, nearly extremely fine £800-1000

John Edward Dyer was commissioned Cornet in the 3rd King’s Own Light Dragoons on 26 May 1825, and was promoted Lieutenant on 21 December 1826. He sailed with the Regiment to India in April 1837, and was appointed Riding Master to the Regiment in 1841. He must have been proficient in these duties, as when the regiment was reviewed on 5 January 1842 by General Sir Jasper Nicholls, Commander-in-Chief in India, he ‘expressed himself most gratified with the fine appearance of the men and the horses, and with the precision and celerity with which the manoeuvres in the field were performed.’ Soon after the Regiment was ordered to Peshawar, following the disaster during the retreat from Kabul, as part of the force being assembled to relieve General Sale and his brigade from the fortress of Jalalabad, rescue the prisoners from Kabul, and punish the Afghans. Dyer reached Peshawar on 29 March 1842, joining the troops under Major-General George Pollock. Passing through the Khyber Pass on 5 April, the 3rd Light Dragoons reached Jalalabad on 16 April, and then, on 20 August, left Jalalabad for Kabul. Travelling along a road ‘literally strewn with skeletons of the thousands who had been massacred nine months before, they drove Akbar Khan’s army back to Kabul, routing his horsemen at Tezeen on 13 September- the Regimental records stating that, ‘the Dragoons were actively engaged in cutting up and dispersing several parties of the enemy.’ The Force entered Kabul on 15 September 1842, and after releasing the prisoners and blowing up the Grand Bazaar they began the long march home, finally emerging from the Khyber Pass on 6 November 1842. Promoted Captain on 24 November 1843, Dyer went on leave to England in 1845, and did not rejoin his Regiment, transferring to the half-pay list as unattached on 31 July 1846.