Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The ‘Defence of Lucknow’ medal awarded to Mr A. H. Bryson, an 8-year old day scholar at La Martiniere School, whose boys served throughout the siege earning the sobriquet “The Ragged Fusiliers”

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Defence of Lucknow (Mr. A. H. Bryson,) later officially impressed naming, fitted with contemporary silver ribbon brooch, lightly toned, extremely fine £3,000-£3,600

Provenance: Ritchie Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, December 2004. This medal was originally purported to be that of Mr. Alexander Bryson but subsequent research in the India Office at the British Library confirms that it actually belongs to his son Alfred Henly Bryson.

Medals to the foundation boys of the La Martiniere School are prized for their uniqueness and scarcity, being 58 in number. These boys boarded at the school and came under the auspices of the Claude Martin Charities being deemed as from straightened but deserving families.

By contrast Alfred Henly Bryson was a day scholar for whom no medal roll exists. He served throughout the siege at the Martiniere Post claiming his medal in 1910. Medals to these Martiniere boys are exceptionally rare with few known. On 13 June 1857, the foundation and day-boys, totalling almost 100, marched out of the Martiniere to the Residency on a journey that over the next 6 months would turn these young boys into men and earn for them the soubriquet “The Ragged Fusiliers”. Bryson was just 8 years old.

In early 1910, Mr A. H. Bryson wrote to the India Office asking if he and his late father, Alexander Bryson, were entitled to Indian Mutiny medals. This request was probably instigated by his brother Alexander Courtney Bryson, who had retired to Cheltenham, and attended the Golden Commemoration of the Indian Mutiny Veterans at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 December 1907. He appears on the Lucknow Garrison Civilian Survivors' list so would have claimed his medal prior to this event.

The following two military despatches confirm approval:

‘I shall be glad to be informed whether an Indian Mutiny medal with the clasp “Defence of Lucknow” was ever issued to the relatives of the late Mr Alexander Bryson, an Uncovenanted Civil Servant who was killed at Lucknow on 11th July 1857, and also whether the services of Mr A. H. Bryson during the siege of Lucknow entitled him the medal and clasp. It is observed from paragraph 2 of your Financial Despatch No. 13 dated 8th February 1906 that Mr. W. E. Grueber, who was a boy of about 8 years of age at the date of the siege of Lucknow, received the medal and clasp.’

‘We have no information to show whether an Indian Mutiny Medal with clasp “Defence of Lucknow” was ever issued to the relatives of the late Mr. A. Bryson, an Uncovenanted Civil servant, who was killed at Lucknow 11th July 1857, but we consider that the next-of-kin was undoubtedly entitled to his medal and clasp. The services of Mr A. H. Bryson during the Siege of Lucknow would also entitle him to the grant of a medal and clasp under the terms of paragraph 15 of military despatch No. 198 dated India Office, the 30th October 1908. We request therefore that the medals and clasps may be issued accordingly. Dated 4th March 1910.’

Alfred Henly Bryson was born at Howrah, Calcutta on 29 August 1849, and baptised on 19 February 1851, the son of Alexander Bryson of the 17th Lancers and his wife Marian (Mary Ann) née Kavanagh. Marian was the sister of Thomas Henry Kavanagh V.C. whose daring night sortie across the Gompti River to meet the relieving force and guide it to the Residency won for him Britain's highest military honour.

On the outbreak of the mutiny Alexander immediately volunteered his services and was made the Sergeant-Major of Radcliffe's Volunteer Cavalry, only 36 in number. Their gallant charge at Chinhut threw the insurgents into confusion, allowing the defending force to retreat to Lucknow and thus saving the garrison from certain disaster. In this debacle the force lost 118 officers and men. After Chinhut he was placed in command of the dangerous outpost known as Sago's Garrison. It was here on the 9th July (not the 11th July as mentioned above) that he was shot in the head and killed while “singly building, under a deadly fire, a barricade for the safety of his post, a duty he volunteered to perform.”

With most of the servants having fled the Residency, the military authorities impressed the younger boys of the Martiniere to undertake domestic chores including, sweeping the compounds, the drawing of water, grinding the daily rations of corn to make bread and some to cook the boys meals. Others tended to the sick officers and others to take messages between garrisons. Later, Brigadier Inglis requested that as many boys as possible should be sent to pull the punkahs over the sick and wounded at the General Hospital. For this purpose 36 were told off in reliefs of 12 each and changed every 12 hours. The boys’ health suffered greatly and two died but they soldiered on until the first relief arrived. The older boys were used as night watchmen and for digging the wells for the “filth” of the Establishment.

L. E. R. Rees wrote of their plight:
‘The poor Martiniere pupils, who go about the garrison more filthy than others, and apparently more neglected and hungry even than we are, are made use of to drive away these insects (flies) from the sick in hospital, and others. That they, too, should contribute their share of usefulness is but just and fair; but that they should be placed in menial attendance upon the healthy great in the garrison is, in my opinion, far from right. But I shall say nothing more on this subject, lest I assume a tone of censure.’

The Martiniere Post, after the Judicial Garrison, was the most exposed defence in the Residency. Johannes House kept up an incessant rifle fire from just outside the perimeter with “Bob the Nailer” being the most accurate. The Post was defended by men from the 32nd Regiment of Foot, civilians and a small group of armed senior boys from the Martiniere some as young as 16.

Tragedy struck the Bryson family again when, on 9 November 1857, William Henly Bryson, aged 5, died, although one report states he was killed.

After the final relief Marian Bryson took her three remaining children to Meerut but, in 1865, she died leaving Christopher, Alexander Courtney and Alfred Henly orphaned. The charitable Bishop Cotton College at Simla enrolled the three boys later the same year where they studied, with Alfred later matriculating at the University of Calcutta. He served for three years in the Jutogh Cadet Corps of the Simla Volunteer Rifles and entered the Civil Service, being appointed in 1869 to the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India under Colonel J. T. Walker, R.E. He assisted in carrying out the topographical survey of Cambay and Boroda and was with Colonel J. R. McCullough, R.E., employed in carrying out a series of levels from Bangalore to Raichore. He was also engaged in the final series of the Principal Triangulation of India and its connection with the Trigonometrical survey of Ceylon.

In 1885 he was transferred to the Military Finance Department and after 25 years service he retired on pension to South Australia, settling at Burnside where he interested himself in fruit and olive growing, a pursuit he followed to the Northern Territory when he wrote about the growth of cereals and other products as a member of the South Australian Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia.

He was for 8 years the local secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society and a prominent J.P. and member of the South Australian Justices' Association. He became an honoured member of the South Australian Corps of Volunteers and was always a prominent personage at the many gatherings and levees in which the Corps participated. His highly publicised evangelical speeches drew large audiences but it was his after supper recollections of his experiences at the Lucknow Garrison that the audience had come to hear, making him a well loved celebrity. In one of his many speeches in Australia he related that “as time wore on he and his young companions grew quite oblivious to the dangers with which they were surrounded.”

Alfred Henly Bryson died at Glenelg, Adelaide, South Australia, on 23 November 1913, and was buried with full military honours. An obituary notice stated:

‘On the evening of Sunday 23 November 1913 there passed away Mr Alfred Henly Bryson at Adelaide's Bay-side suburb of Glenelg. His expiring peacefully in his sleep at the age of 64 signalled the end of a fascinating story and a link with a significant event in military history - one that had begun at the siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny of 1857-59. As a small boy of only eight years of age Alfred Bryson had actively participated in the defence of Lucknow from 29 June to 22 November 1857. He later received, albeit 53 years after the event, the Indian Mutiny Medal and clasp 'Defence of Lucknow'! This was rare distinction indeed.’ Sold with comprehensive research.