Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Punjab medal awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Chester, Bengal Army, a veteran of the First Burmese war, who was mentioned for gallantry at Chilianwala and killed in action in the Indian Mutiny

Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Chilianwala, Goojerat (Bt. Major C. Chester Asst. Adj. Genl.) edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine £600-£800

Charles Chester was born at Hintlesham, near Ipswich, Suffolk, on 19 August 1803, second son of Sir Robert Chester. He entered the Bengal Army in 1820 and arrived in India in May 1821, being posted shortly afterwards to the 2/4th Native Infantry (later renumbered as the 23rd N.I.). In June 1825 he was taken on the strength of the Commissariat Department as a Sub Assistant Commissary General and was employed in Arakan until the termination of the first Burmese War (Medal). In July 1826 he was appointed Assistant to Mr Crawfurd, Envoy to the Court of Ava, with whose Mission he was employed until its return from Ava to Rangoon in January 1827. In October 1833 he was appointed to attend and conduct to Calcutta a deputation from the Maharaja Ranjit Singh to the Governor-General, and was employed on this duty until March 1835, when he resigned the charge of the Lahore Mission, eventually rejoining his regiment at Neemuch in the following October. In December 1840 he was appointed Brigade-Major in the Eastern Frontier District, and served at Sylhet in this capacity until March 1842. In August 1843 he was appointed Officiating Deputy Judge Advocate-General of the Presidency District, and held the charge of the office there until September 1844. In January 1848 he was appointed an Assistant Adjutant-General to the Cawnpore Division until October 1848, when he was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General of the 2nd (Gilbert’s) Division of the Army of the Punjab.

In this position he served during the earlier parts of the Punjab Campaign of 1848-49, including the passage of the Chenab and the battle of Chilianwala, in which last he nearly lost his life in a gallant but fruitless attempt to save that of Major Ekins who, having first been disabled by a shot, was afterwards hacked to death by the enemy, in spite of the strenuous and almost frantic efforts of his friend Major Chester to bring him off in the face of the hostile cavalry. Immediately after the battle he was appointed to officiate as Assistant Adjutant-General of the Army, and a fortnight later he was appointed Second Assistant Adjutant-General at Army Head-Quarters, with effect from the date of the battle. In this capacity he served during the remainder of the campaign, including the battle of Goojerat (Medal and two clasps and promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet).

In May 1856 the important appointment of Adjutant-General of the Army was conferred upon him. He was with Army Head-Quarters at Simla when the Mutiny broke out in May 1857, accompanied the Commander-in-Chief, General Anson, to Ambala, and thence onward towards Delhi, and on the General’s death at Karnal, he went on with the Delhi Field Force under Sir Henry Barnard. On the morning of 8 June 1857, he advanced with the force to the attack of the enemy’s position at Badli-ke-Serai, five or six miles from Delhi, and at the very commencement of the engagement, struck down by a canon-shot, almost the first that was fired, he fell mortally wounded and expired in a few minutes.