Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

The Defence of Jellalabad C.B. group to Major-General Augustus Abbott, Bengal Artillery, who commanded the artillery throughout the siege

(a) Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) breast badge in 22 carat gold and enamels, hallmarked London 1843, and unusually also punched with the standard mark on each of the lions in the angles of the cross, maker’s initials WN, complete with gold ribbon buckle

(b) Army of India 1799-1826, 1 clasp, Bhurtpoor (Lieutt. A. Abbott, (1st) Regt. of Arty.) long hyphen reverse, naming engraved in running script

(c) Ghuznee 1839 (Captn. A. Abbott, No. 6 Lt. Fd. Batty.) contemporary engraved naming and fitted with contemporary scroll suspension

(d) Defence of Jellalabad 1842, Flying Victory (Captn. A. Abbott, Comg. Artillery) contemporary engraved naming and fitted with contemporary scroll suspension

(e) Cabul 1842 (Major A. Abbott, C.B. No. 6 Lt. Fd. Batty.) contemporary engraved naming and fitted with contemporary scroll suspension

(f) Order of the Dooranee Empire 1837, a small but attractive 3rd class badge of European manufacture, gold and enamels, the central Persian inscription encircled by 34 seed pearls, the reverse with brooch fittings but no pin, generally good very fine or better
£5000-7000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals.

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Augustus Abbott, the eldest of five sons of Henry Alexius Abbott, Calcutta Merchant, and Margaret, daughter of William Welsh of Edinburgh, was born on 7 January 1804, and educated under Dr Faithfull at Warfield and at Winchester College. He was nominated a Cadet for the Bengal Artillery by the the Hon. W. F. Elphinstone and entered Addiscombe at the age of fourteen. At fifteen he received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Bengal Artillery and sailed for India on 16 April 1819. Promoted Lieutenant in August 1821, his first service in the field was at the Fort of Bakhara in the Malwa region of the Punjab. At the Siege of Bhurtpoor in December 1825, ‘he commanded a battery of two eighteen-pounder guns built on the counterscarp of the ditch at the north angle, which held for three weeks without relief’ against the forces of the usurper Doojan Sal. Following the capture of the city on 17-18 January 1826, he received Lord Combermere’s commendation and shared in the Bhurtpoor Prize Money. In 1833-34 he saw service against the Forts at Shekewatte.

In August 1838, Abbott was given command of the Camel Battery at Delhi and received orders to join Sir Robert Sale’s Brigade in the Bengal Column of the 27,000 strong Army of the Indus, then forming under Lieutenant-General Sir John Keane for the invasion of Afghanistan. The Army’s purpose was to supplant Dost Mohamed, the Amir at Cabul, and restore the weakling Shah Soojah-ul-Moolk, who, supported by the British lived in ‘honourable’ exile in Ludhiana. Accordingly Abbot marched with the Bengal Column via the Bolan Pass and, after several skirmishes with recalcitrant tribesmen on the way, reached Kandahar, the capital of western Afghanistan on 27 April 1839. Following the occupation of the city, Abbott and his battery joined a force under Brigadier ‘Fighting Bob’ Sale in pursuit of the Kandahar Sirdars and chased them to Girishk. The Army marched again on 27 June and on 21 July arrived before the fortress city of Ghuznee, a place considered impregnable by native tradition. It was imperative to take the stronghold forthwith as the Army had less than three days’ provisions. On the 23rd the gate was blown by the genius of Captain Thomson, B.E., and the fort and citadel taken by storm. Dost Mohamed fled from Cabul and the Army of the Indus entered the eastern capital on 7 August. Abbott was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 30 October 1839), and once restored, Shah Soojah-ul-Moolk expressed his gratitude by admitting selected British officers to the Order of the Dooranee Empire. This decoration, 3rd Class, was conferred on Abbott on 11 November 1840, though Boase tells us ‘he never wore it.’

A cantonment was set up near Cabul, wives and families arrived, and the British settled down to the customary round of garrison life. A polo ground and a racecourse were marked out, but few dared venture out into the surrounding country. In the winter of 1839, Abbott’s exhausted camels were replaced with native galloways and the battery moved to Jellalabad with the brigade that provided the escort to Shah Soojah’s court. In January 1840 Abbott joined the force under Colonel Orchard which set out from Jellalabad to reduce the fort at Pushoot, some fifty miles to the northeast, and was accorded the ‘highest praise’ in Orchard’s despatch (Calcutta Gazette 15 February 1840) for the manner in which he conducted his ‘arduous duties’.

Throughout the spring and summer, Abbott was at Cabul and was next actively engaged in ‘Fighting Bob’s’ foray into Kohistan to flush out Dost Mohamed, and took part in the assault and capture of Tutamdara at the entrance to the Ghoraband Pass on 29 September. Immediately after this action Sale wrote ‘The casualty return will show that this advantage has been attended by little loss, a fact which I in great measure attribute to the dread inspired by the excellent practice of the Artillery under the able direction of Captn. Abbott.’ On 3 October, Abbott further distinguished himself in an attack on a fortified position at Jalagah and although the assaulting column was forced to retire he won Sir Robert’s ‘warmest approbation’ and another mention in despatches (London Gazette 9 January 1841). Next morning it was found that the enemy had abandoned the position under cover of darkness. Dost Mohamed was finally brought to bay three days later at Parwandah, and faced with little alternative, he gave himself up to the British Envoy at Cabul, Sir William MacNaghten.

In September 1841 Abbott took part in an expedition under Colonel Oliver into Zurmat, which involved taking his guns over a 9,600 foot pass. He participated in the reduction of several forts and returned to Cabul in time to join Sale’s Brigade which had been ordered back to India. En route, Sale was asked to clear the Khoord-Cabul Pass of several refractory Ghilzai chiefs. This was accomplished on 9 October and the Brigade moved on towards Jellalabad, but was attacked by the Ghilzais in the Tazeane Pass and later at Jagdalak, where Abbott commanded the advanced guard and the fighting was especially heavy (London Gazette 11 February 1842). Eight days later the Brigade reached Gandamack where Sale received an urgent message from MacNaghten ordering him to return to Cabul. But instead of complying with this request Sale held a Council of War and it was decided to proceed to Jellalabad, which was garrisoned on 13 November and immediately invested by the Afghans. Abbott was instrumental in sighting the guns for the defence and commanded the artillery throughout the five month siege. He also took part in several sallies against the enemy. On 1 December he participated in a sortie led by Colonel Dennie, and, pushing his guns forward at the gallop, temporarily dispersed the enemy.

Meanwhile, at Cabul, MacNaghten had been horribly murdered by Dost Mohamed’s son, Akbar Khan. His head and limbs were severed and paraded through the town while his body was ‘exposed’ in the bazaar. The imperiled British garrison under General Elphinstone was powerless and tried to ignore the incident. Finally on 6 January 1842, with an assurance of safe conduct from Akbar Khan, the garrison numbering some 4,500 fighting men and 12,000 camp-followers commenced the doomed retreat from Cabul. By 13 January the army had been reduced by the continual harassing tactics of the Afghans and the intense cold to a handful of half-frozen British officers and men, of whom only Dr Brydon was permitted to reach Jellalabad.

After the destruction of Elphinstone’s force, Akbar Khan was able to bring a larger force before Jellalabad. Nevertheless Abbott drove off the enemy in a sally on 22 February and again on 11 March, when he was wounded by an Afghan matchlock-man whose ball hit him in the chest. But the wound did not keep Abbott from his duty for a single day. When the prospects of the garrison were at their lowest, Abbott was in the habit of cheering his men, ‘and on one occasion set up a General’s cocked hat at the unoccupied corner of his battery to draw the enemy’s fire, and the Afghans were surprised to find that the British General had so many lives to spare’. Finally on 7 April, Sale, having refused Akbar Khan’s offer of safe conduct, went on the offensive and led an attacking force out from the fort. As the infantry deployed, Abbott’s guns moved to the front and poured a heavy fire into the massed Afghans. The enemy, already worried by news of an 8,000 strong relief column under General Pollock forcing its way through the Khyber Pass, was swept out of his position; his artillery captured and his camp burnt.

For services during the Siege of Jellalabad, Abbott was again ‘most favourably’ mentioned in Sale’s despatches and was ‘recommended for some mark of honour and Brevet rank’ (London Gazette 7&10 June 1842 & 9 August 1842). Pollock reached Jellalabad on 16 April and immediately appointed Abbott his Commandant of Artillery. Abbott was also warmly greeted by his brother Frederick who was Pollock’s Chief Engineer. Pollock tried to impress on the Governor-General the urgent need to re-occupy Cabul, but was delayed and for several weeks his troops suffered greatly from the heat and the constant raiding of the convoys by local tribes, particularly the Shinwaris. In July Abbott accompanied Brigadier Monteath’s punitive expedition into the Shinwari Valley, and duly played a principal part in the tribesmen’s defeat at Mazenia (London Gazette 11 October 1842). Returning to Jellalabad, he marched out with Pollock’s force on 20 August and participated in the actions at Mamu Khel and Kuchli Khel on the 24th, and was present at the forcing of the Jagdalak Pass on 8 September. On the 13th, Akbar Khan made his last stand at Tazeane concentrating his 16,000 strong army in a seemingly impregnable position. Nevertheless his forces were decisively beaten and Cabul was re-entered unopposed two days later. Abbott and his No. 6 Field Battery were mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 8&24 November 1842).

Abbott returned to India with the Army and, as one of the ‘Illustrious Jellalabad Garrison,’ was welcomed home by the Governor-General, Lord Ellenborough, at Ferozepore on 17 December, having been made a C.B. two months earlier. In April 1843, Ellenborough marked Abbott’s ‘distinguished services in the field’ by appointing him one of his Honorary Aides-de-Camp, which honour was afterwards re-affirmed by Governor-Generals, Lords Hardinge, Dalhousie and Canning. Ellenborough, who revelled in war, decreed the word ‘JELLALABAD’ be engraved on Abbott’s guns and that they be retained for use in No. 6 Field Battery. In 1855, Abbott was appointed Inspector General of Ordnance and in 1858 was promoted to the command of the Bengal Artillery, but shortly afterwards was compelled through ill-health to return to England after thirty-nine years of uninterrupted service. He attained the rank of Major-General in April 1860 and retired to the final resting place of many ‘qui-hyes’, Cheltenham, where he died on 25 February 1867.

Refs: Dictionary of Indian Biography; Officers of the Bengal Army 1758-1834; National Dictionary of Biography; Modern English Biography (Boase); Addiscombe - It’s Heroes and Men of Note; IOL L/MIL/10/24.