Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Maharajpoor Star 1843 (1st Lieutenant J. N. Sharp Bt. Captain Engineer Department of the Army of Gwalior) fitted with contemporary adapted bar suspension and ribbon buckle, toned, good very fine and rare £1,000-£1,400

John Nickson Sharp (commonly spelt John Nixon Sharp) was born in Coventry in 1811, the son of the local historian and writer, Thomas Sharp of Coventry and Leamington (1770-1841). Sharp was educated at the Indian Army College at Addiscombe, 1827-28, also studying at the Chatham Engineers’ school of sapping and mining under Lieutenant-Colonel Paisley in 1829 as a Gentleman Cadet, H.E.I.C. service (ranked as Ensign). He entered the Bengal Army as 2nd Lieutenant of Engineers on 12 December 1828.

He arrived in India in September 1830 and in October was posted to Delhi for duty with the Sappers and Miners; he commanded a company of S & M until late 1834. In May 1834, he was appointed Assistant to the Executive Engineer of the Allahabad Division of Public Works, continuing in that role until August 1835 when he transferred in the same capacity to the Cawnpore Division, for the purpose of superintending the construction of a bridge on the Cawnpore-Allahabad road.

In April 1838, he was appointed Executive Engineer of the Mhow Division of Public Works, but never joined as he was retained (in a temporary capacity) in the Cawnpore Division and in December 1839 was posted to the force assembling for the siege of Jhansi. On the surrender of the fort, no action having taken place, he was ordered back to Cawnpore and from there sent to supervise repairs at Allahabad fort.

In August 1840, he was appointed Executive Engineer of the Dacca Division but was also ordered to remain where he was until January 1841 and then proceeded towards Dacca. However, he was soon recalled to Allahabad and in the Spring of 1841 fell into the temporary charge of the Allahabad Division with, from May 1842, additional responsibility for the Trunk Road from Fatehpur to Allahabad, and in January 1843, he was formally appointed to the charge of the Division.

In August 1843, he was appointed Officiating Executive Engineer of the Agra Division, a position made permanent on October. In December, Sharp joined the Army of Exercise, afterwards titled the Army of Gwalior, and proceeded on active service with the Right Wing of the army and was present in the battle of Maharajpoor on 29 December (Bronze Star).

On the conclusion of the Gwalior campaign he returned to his appointment in Agra, where he served until November 1846 before going on leave to the Presidency, and then to the U.K. on long furlough in January 1847. He returned to India in January 1851 and was then appointed to officiate as Garrison Engineer at Fort William and Civil Architect for the Presidency, holding that post until October 1852, when he was posted to Mian Meer as Officiating Executive Engineer, a post in which he was confirmed in May 1854, receiving promotion to Major in the same year.

Shortly afterwards, he was appointed as Officiating Garrison Engineer at Fort William and Officiating Civil Architect for the Presidency, but at his own request this was cancelled in the following month, and he remained at Mian Meer until his death there in 1856. His major work during his time at Mian Meer (1851-56) was the design and construction of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

In June 1856, he was appointed Officiating Superintending Engineer of the First Circle of Public Works in the Punjab, which appointment he held until his death, from cholera, at Mian Meer on 17 August 1856. He was buried in The Royal Artillery Cemetery in the Cantonment at Lahore, where an inscription reads:

Beneath this lies interred the body of Major John Nixon Sharp, Bengal Engineers, sometime Executive Engineer at this station. He died of cholera on 17th Aug. 1856 in the 45th year of his age. This tomb is erected by friends of both services as a tribute of respect to his memory.

He is also commemorated by a tablet in St. Mary of Magdalene’s Church, which he designed and built at Mian Meer, which is inscribed:

In Memory of Major J. N. Sharp, Bengal Engineers, and sometime Executive Engineer in this station who died of cholera 17th August 1856, aged 45 years. This tablet is erected by Friends in India to whom he was known as a large hearted and high minded man, a consistent Christian and a conscientious servant of the State. Next to the good name he left behind him, this beautiful Church, of Which he was the Architect, is his noblest Monument.

Sold with comprehensive research including detailed biography of his father and family, and copied pictures of the Church at Mian Mar and his tomb.