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

A rare Defence of Lucknow 1st Class Order of Merit awarded to Subadar-Major Ummer Singh, 13th Native Infantry

Order of Merit, 1st Class, gold and enamels, the reverse officially inscribed in three lines’1st Class “Order of Merit“’, and additionally inscribed ‘Subadar Major Ummer Singh, 13th N.I.’, complete with gilt (as usual) ribbon buckle, nearly extremely fine and very rare
£3000-3500

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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Ummer Singh who had been Subadar-Major of the Gaurud Ka Paltan (13th Bengal Native Infantry) since May 1850, was awarded the 1st Class Order of Merit for services in the Siege of Lucknow (General Order No. 60 of 1858, with reference to the Governor-General’s Order No. 1544, of 8 December 1857). Ummer Singh, in common with the majority of the 2nd and 1st Class awards for the Defence, was a direct admission to the 1st Class of the Order of Merit. A total of only 12 1st Class awards of the Order of Merit were made for the Defence of Lucknow.

At the outbreak of mutiny in the Mariaon cantonemt at half-past nine on the night of 30 May 1857, the great majority of the 13th N.I. remained loyal. Three hundred at once fell in on their parade ground under their C.O., Major Bruere (qv), and were marched off by him to take post with H.M’s 32nd Foot, complete with their officers, colours, and treasure chest. Next day a further fifty Sepoys of the 13th turned up from the lines and reported that they had saved the regimental magazine. Those of the 13th who joined the Mariaon mutineers and cleared off towards Sitapore and Delhi were pursued next morning. Martin Gubbins (qv) took three of them prisoner and these were afterwards hanged.

On 15 June the Sikhs of the regiment, ‘about fifty in number’, were formed at their own request into a separate ‘company’ under Captain Germon. On 28 June, a party of the regiment with some of the 71st N.I. and the Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain C. W. Radcliffe (qv), brought in a quantity of treasure and an important piece of ordnance from the King of Oudh’s palace. Two days later they fought at Chinhut, and on their return, the bulk of the regiment went to the Baillie Guard, while the Sikh element took up positions in the Machi Bhawan, the post which Lawrence had intended to defend in addition to the Residency but which was quickly abandoned.

The Sikhs subsequently formed part of the garrison of the Judicial Commissioner, Mr. Ommanney, where, less casualties and sixteen of their number who deserted, they remained until the end of the siege. The men of the 13th who held the Baillie Guard Gate occupied one of the most important positions in the whole of the defences. Brigadier Inglis wrote: ‘They were so near the enemy that every effort of persuasion, promise, and threat was alternately resorted to, in vain, to seduce them from their allegiance to the handful of Europeans, who in all probability would have been sacrificed by their desertion.’

On 4 September Major Bruere was killed, to the ‘great grief’ of the Native Officers and Sepoys, who insisted on carrying his body to the grave, thus ignoring their caste. In the same month an advance of three months pay was offered to all natives of the garrison, but this was declined by the 13th N.I. as they preferred to receive it in arrears as was pukka.

‘It may be mentioned that the casualties among the native soldiers in the Lucknow Garrison amounted to more than their whole strength, owing to the number that were wounded more than once.’

Ref: Deeds of Valour Performed by Soldiers of the Indian Army (Hypher); The Seventh Rajput in the Indian Mutiny of 1857 (Tindall).