Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An important ‘Hunza 1891’ pair awarded to Major W. H. M. Stewart, Bengal Staff Corps, Assistant Political Agent with the Hunza-Nagar Field Force, and also ‘galloper’ to the Field Force Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel A. G. Durand

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hunza 1891 (Captn. W. H. M. Stewart S.C.) official correction to ‘S.C.’; Delhi Durbar 1903, silver, unnamed as issued, extremely fine and very rare (2) £4000-5000

William Hall Mackintosh Stewart was born on 2 November 1858, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Stewart, late Madras Army, of Tunbridge Wells. He was educated at Cheltenham College between October 1869 and July 1875, and then attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment in 1878 and transferred to the Bengal Army in 1881. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1881, to Captain in 1889, and to Major in 1898. In 1890 he was confirmed as a Political Agent.

In 1891 Stewart was appointed to serve as Assistant Political Agent with the Hunza-Nagar Field Force. The government of India was desirous of bringing these two small states under its control, firstly because of continued Russian interference in the area, and secondly because of the habitual raiding of Central Asian trading caravans by its inhabitants. Hostilities began when the rulers of Hunza-Nagar rejected an ultimatum permitting the construction of roads through their territories.

The Field Force appointed to invade Hunza-Nagar consisted of 12 British officers and 1,131 native officers, N.C.O’s and men, the majority from the State Forces of Kashmir. Stewart was appointed ‘galloper’ to the force commander, Lieutenant-Colonel A. G. Durand. There were another six British officers and a Kashmiri general on the Staff, and a correspondent from The Times, Mr E. F. Knight, whose account of the campaign, Where Three Empires Meet, was published in 1897.

The force crossed the Hunza river and entered Nagar territory on 1 December 1891, and, the next day advanced nine miles to Nilt where a fort blocked their further progress. A party of the 5th Gurkha Rifles, under Captain F. J. Aylmer, and a few Bengal sappers advanced to the fort and succeeded in blowing in the gate with explosives, whereupon the Gurkhas stormed the breach and held the gates against great odds until reinforcements arrived. Captain Aylmer and Lieutenant G. H. Boisragen, 5th Gurkhas, both received the Victoria Cross for this action. Durand was wounded and had to temporarily relinquish his command.

The enemy still held the opposite side of the Nilt ravine, which rose to a great height and strongly defended positions. No advance was possible until these obstacles could be overcome. For 17 days the force remained stationary while nightly reconnaissances took place in an attempt to find a suitable path to scale the heights. During this time Stewart commanded a detachment of Moslems from the 20th Punjab Infantry, and also supervised the transport services.

Finally, a route to the enemy’s strong-point above the ravine was discovered by Sepoy Nagdu of the 2nd Kashmir Rifles. On the night of 19/20 December Lieutenant John Manners Smith led a party of 100 men of the 2nd Kashmir Infantry, half of whom were Gurkhas, the other half Dogras, all hill-men accustomed to clambering over difficult obstacles, to the bottom of the ravine and, early the next morning, succeeded in a perilous climb of over 1200 feet, the last portion under heavy fire. The ensuing assault on the enemy positions was completely successful and resulted in the award of the V.C. for Manners Smith, the third and final V.C. for this campaign. Once the British force crossed the Nilt ravine, resistance collapsed and the British force occupied Hunza on 22 December.

On the conclusion of the campaign Stewart remained in Hunza-Nagar as the senior British representative, reporting to Surgeon-Major Robertson at Gilgit. Robertson gave Stewart a number of instructions, including one to consider himself the protector of the Hunza-Nagar people. On 20 January 1892 Lieutenant-Colonel Durand wrote a confidential despatch to the Resident at Kashmir:

“Captain Stewart is in political charge of both countries, and a garrison of 280 men is left to preserve order. I wish to say that both Mr Robertson and I are extremely pleased with the manner in which Captain Stewart has entered into the spirit of his instructions, and carried them out up to the present.”

Stewart was also mentioned in Durand’s despatch of 27 January 1892:

“Captain Stewart, Political Officer, acted as my galloper, and after I was wounded was employed in superintending the forwarding of supplies from Gilgit, which important work was executed most satisfactorily.’

There are several references to Stewart in the reminiscences of Cosmo Stewart (later Brigadier-General) who was then commanding No. 1 Kashmir Battery of the mountain artillery. He recalled, “I had gone into Headquarters at Gilgit to celebrate Christmas 1894 with my good friend and clansman, Captain W. H. Stewart, Assistant British Agent, and known to his friends as ‘Curly’ from the nature of his hair, and, as usual, one of my first questions to him had been whether there was any chance of trouble anywhere. With an amused smile he had returned me the usual disappointing answer...”

Over the following weeks a crisis developed in Chitral over the succession to the Mehtar. Surgeon-Major Robertson was sent there to represent British interests and Cosmo Stewart was with his namesake at Gilgit when he received a copy of an ultimatum which Robertson had sent to the Pathan leader Umra Khan. “I well remember ‘Curly’ Stewart’s comments as he read it! We were both full of admiration for Major Robertson’s boldness and resolution.”

Robertson and his escort were besieged in the fort at Chitral and control of relations with the various states of the Hindu Kush then devolved on Stewart. Not only did he keep the various peoples of the area quiet and orderly, but he was even able to enlist levies who were of material assistance in the relief of Chitral.

Stewart later served as Political Agent in two of the princely states of India, Bhopawar and Malva. In 1900 he was appointed to the court of Sirdar Ayub Khan, the former Emir of Afghanistan, who had been deposed after defeating British forces at the battle of Maiwand. After a period of exile in Persia he surrendered to the British and lived as a pensioner in India. In October 1901 Stewart returned to Gilgit as Political Agent. His next appointment was to Kerman, in south-east Persia, in 1905, and his final posting was to Bikanir, in Rajasthan, in 1906. He died on 24 August 1908, shortly after his retirement.