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

The Punjab and Indian Mutiny campaign pair to Colonel A. J. Macpherson, 24th Foot, who was severely wounded at Chilianwala, and published his memoirs in Rambling Recollections of the Punjaub Campaign

(a) Punjab 1848-49, 1 clasp, Chilianwala (Lieut. A. J. Macpherson, 24th Foot)

(b) Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Captn. A. J. Macpherson, 1st Batn. 24th Regt.) edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine and better
£2500-3000

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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Andrew John Macpherson was born at 31 May 1824, at Mallow, Co. Cork, and was commissioned Ensign in the 2nd West India Regiment without purchase on 19 April 1842, joining that corps in Jamaica at the end of the year. Promoted Lieutenant on 26 July 1844, he transferred to H.M.’s 24th Regiment of Foot and arrived in India in July 1847. During the Second Sikh War, he took part with his regiment in the flank march under Sir Joseph Thackwell and was present at the abortive action at Sadulapur.

At the Battle of Chilianwala on 13 January 1849, the 24th Foot were brigaded with the 25th N.I. and the 45th N.I., under Lieutenant-Colonel John Pennycuick of the 24th. The brigade formed the right of Sir Colin Campbell’s division which in turn occupied the left of the British infantry line. Advancing through dense jungle, Campbell’s division was the first to come into contact with the Sikhs, with Pennycuick’s brigade suffering cruelly from a battery of 18 guns to its front and from masses of Sikh infantry positioned in between them. Macpherson was severely wounded, receiving ‘a fracture of [the] left humerus by a matchlock ball’. Colonel Pennycuick fell at the head of the brigade, and his seventeen year old son, an Ensign in the 24th, was killed trying to defend and bring away his father’s body.

The 24th Foot went into action at Chilianwala with thirty-seven officers and just over one thousand other ranks. ‘At the close of the battle it laid out on its mess table the remains of fourteen officers ... Of the non-commissioned officers and men, 217 were killed, and ten officers and 278 non-commissioned officers and men were wounded, making a total of 529 casualties. Macpherson was promoted Captain next day and was awarded one year’s pay and a pension of £70 per annum in consequence of his wound. The pension, however, was discontinued in 1854. During the suppression of the Mutiny, he took part in the defeat of the Jhelum mutineers and succeeded to the command of the 24th detachment there. He was promoted Major by Brevet in January 1858, became Lieutenant-Colonel in December 1868, and subsequently commanded the 21st Punjab Infantry. In 1889 Colonel Macpherson published his memoirs, Rambling Recollections of the Punjaub Campaign.

Refs: WO 76/231; WO 25/3243; Historical Records of the 24th Regiment.