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

The Sutlej medal to Major Robert Codrington, 49th Bengal Native Infantry, a distinguished veteran of the First Afghan War, severely wounded at the battle of Moodkee

Sutlej 1845-46, for Moodkee 1845 (Major R. Codrington, 49th Regt. N.I.) good very fine
£600-700

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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Robert Codrington, the son of Christopher Codrington, Army Surgeon, was born on 13 March 1805, and was nominated a Cadet in the Bengal Infantry in 1820 by W. Astell, Esq., on the recommendation of his father. He was commissioned Ensign on 4 July 1821 and arrived in India four months later. Appointed to the 2/20th N.I., he was serving with three companies of the battalion near Chittagong, trying to prevent incursions by the Burmese in 1824. Whilst with this field detachment he was involved in the ‘terrible disaster at Ramu’ on 17 May 1824, when the small force was ‘overwhelmed and practically annihilated by a Burmese army under the command of the celebrated Maha Bandula’. Codrington was one of only three officers who escaped from the field, and the only man who escaped unwounded. As such he was a major contributor to the report of the affair published in the London Gazette on 27 November 1824. He was afterwards employed as Assistant Engineer at Chittagong helping to strengthen the defences until February 1825 when he was appointed Adjutant of a supplementary corps of Pioneers with whom he served in the Arakan campaign of 1825.

In August 1825 he became Brigade Major to the Light Brigade, also in the Arakan, as well officiating as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General and Deputy Judge Advocate-General to the assembled forces, generally termed the South Eastern Division. In October 1826 he joined the 49th N.I., who had arrived in the Arakan, as Adjutant and continued in that post until attaining the rank of Captain in 1829. In February 1832 Codrington went on furlough for three years. He returned to become officiating D.A.Q.M.G. and undertake the task of inspecting the ‘Boundary Pillars’ marking ‘the estates of Oude and Nepaul’ and was invested with full powers to arbitrate in any disputes arising from the adjustment of the frontier. He was next employed on survey duty in the Jubbulpore and Saugor Districts, and was placed in charge of the Governor-General’s Camp up to February 1840. After service as D.A.Q.M.G. with the Sirhind Division and in surveying the country between Karnaul and Ferozepore, he was advanced to Assistant Quarter-Master-General in January 1842 and the following month joined the force proceeding to Afghanistan under Major-General Pollock in the same capacity. Accordingly he was present at the forcing of the Khyber Pass, and in the actions of Mammoo Khel, Jagdalak, Tazeane and Haft Kotal, and the reoccupation of Kabul. Promoted Major by Brevet for services in Afghanistan and repeatedly mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 7 June 1842, 13 October 1842 & 24 November 1842), he was next appointed A.Q.M.G. of the Sirhind Division and was employed for a considerable time surveying the hills near Subathu.

In December 1845, he was appointed A.Q.M.G of of the 2nd Infantry Division on the formation of the Sir Hugh Gough’s Army of the Sutlej, with which he marched to meet the Sikh invasion force of 22,000 men and 22 guns. At the sanguine British victory of Moodkee, Codrington was seriously wounded (London Gazette 23 February 1846). Indeed his wounds were so severe that he was prevented from taking any further part in the campaign, and, promoted Lieutenant-Colonel by Brevet in April 1846, he was granted a wound pension equivalent to that for the loss of a limb. Having spent most of 1846 trying to recuperate at Simla, he was finally granted leave on a medical certificate to the Cape, but en voyage he died suddenly aboard the Wellesley on 22 January 1847.

Refs: Officers of the Bengal Army, 1758-1834; IOL L/MIL/10/38, 40, 42 & 163; Soldiers of the Raj (De Rhé-Phillipe).