Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The exceptional and rare Indian Mutiny and Red River 1870 campaign group of three awarded to Staff Sergeant Instructor John ‘Mac’ McNaughten, Hertfordshire Rifle Volunteers, late 60th Royal Rifles and ‘Meerut Elephant Corps’

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Delhi (J. McNaughten, 1st Bn. 60th Rifles); Canada General Service 1866-70, 1 clasp, Red River 1870 (3192 Sgt. J. McNaughton, 1/60 K.O.R.) officially engraved naming; Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (3192 Serjt. J. McNaughten, 1-60th Foot.) the first with refixed suspension post, polished with edge bruising and contact marks, fine, otherwise very fine and better (3) £4,000-£5,000

An extremely rare combination of medals, one of only three such to the army.

John 'Mac' McNaughten was born in Chelsea, London in June 1834 and enlisted in 1/60th Royal Rifles in September 1852, aged 18 years. Embarked for India in the following year, he was present at the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny at Meerut on 10 May 1857, when the regiment had the sorry task of recovering the butchered remains of the garrison's women and children.

Regimental musters confirm that McNaughten was serving in either 'B' Company or 'G' Company at this time and, as such, he would have been allocated to the ‘Elephant Corps’ under Lieutenant Stanley Mortimer. With four riflemen to each elephant, and 50 men of the ‘Meerut Volunteer Horse’, Mortimer set off in pursuit of the rebel leader Sah Mull; the mutineers were put to flight in a hotly contested action at Bussowd on 29 July 1857. His services in Meerut's Elephant Corps happily concluded, McNaughten was ordered to Delhi in the following month. He arrived there in time for the storming of the city on 14 September 1857, when the Battalion's multiple-V.C.-winning ranks suffered 20% casualties (Medal and clasp). Following further service in the Oudh, McNaughten was advanced to Corporal in February 1859 and to Sergeant in August 1860. He returned to the U.K. at the year's end.

He was next embarked for Canada, via Malta, in September 1867, where he participated in the Red River Expedition of 1870, serving in Captain Buller’s “C” Company (Medal and clasp). He returned to the U.K. in September 1873 and was discharged at Gosport in the same month.

Awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in May 1874, McNaughten was next appointed a Staff Sergeant-Instructor in the Hertfordshire Rifle Volunteers and he served in that capacity until December 1887. The 1901 Census reveals that he was employed as a Bailiff for a County Court and he died at Wear, Hertford in July 1907; above details courtesy of the Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum, Winchester.