Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (2753 J. Sands, 1st Bn. 60th Rifles) suspension claw refixed, edge bruises, otherwise very fine and scarce £180-220

Just over 50 Medals with the ‘North West Frontier’ clasp to men of the 1/60th Rifles.

Iden Sands was born in the Parish of Peckham, near Tonbridge in Kent and enlisted in the 60th Rifles in January 1846, aged 18 years. As accompanying research verifies, he went on to win entitlement to the Punjab Medal for ‘Mooltan’ and ‘Goojerat’, and the Indian Mutiny Medal for ‘Delhi’, in addition to his India General Service Medal for services on the North West Frontier in February 1850.

He was discharged at Winchester in July 1860 ‘in consequence of wasting of muscles of the right shoulder blade, the result of a gunshot wound across the right side of the neck’, a wound that was received at Delhi on 14 September 1857:

‘The bullet entered a little below the angle of the jaw on the right side and passing backwards came out at the right side and back of the neck. The muscles were injured to such an extent that he is unable to raise his arm at right angles to the body, and is quite unable to bear any weight in the arm. He is consequently quite unfit for the active duties of a soldier.’