Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The rare First Burma and First Afghan Wars group of five awarded to Quartermaster-Sergeant J. N. Heseltine, 13th Prince Albert’s Light Infantry, an exemplary fighting soldier, who was wounded at the storm of Ghuznee and distinguished for his Gallantry during the Battle of Gundamuck, near Jellalabad and the Khyber Pass, on 11 November 1841; after leaving the army, he stayed on in India as ‘a man of property’ who owned several hotels

Army of India 1799-1826, 1 clasp, Ava (Josh. N. Heseldine [sic], 13th. Ft.) short hyphen reverse, officially engraved naming in upper and lower case as issued in India; Ghuznee 1839 (*Qr. Mr. Serjt. J. N. Heseltine No. 268. 13th. or P.A. Lt. Infantry.*) contemporarily engraved naming, with hinged silver straight bar suspension; Defence of Jellalabad 1842, 2nd Flying Victory type (Josh. N. Heseldine [sic] 13th. Ft.) contemporarily engraved naming in upper and lower case as before, with original steel clip and straight bar suspension; Cabul 1842 (Qr. Mr. Serjt J. N. Heseltine No. 268. 13th. or P.A. Lt. Infantry.) contemporarily engraved naming, with original steel clip and bar suspension; 13th Light Infantry Regimental Merit Medal for 14 Years’ Good Conduct, hollow silver, chased, the edge inscribed ‘Josh. N. Heseldine [sic] 13th. Ft.’, light contact marks otherwise good very fine or better, the Defence of Jellalabad Medal one of the few (believed to be fewer than fifty) exchanged by men who remained in India when the regiment returned to England (5) £4,000-£5,000

Army of India Medal confirmed in Gould’s roll.

Joseph Nelson Heseltine was born in Doncaster on 3 October 1803. A labourer by trade, he enlisted in the 58th Foot in 1822 and transferred to the 13th Foot later that year. In September 1822, the 13th Foot was moved from Ireland to Chatham in Kent, where it was brought up to strength for service in India - it is likely that Heseltine joined at that time. At Chatham it was reconstituted as a light infantry unit in December 1822 and re-titled as the 13th (1st Somersetshire) Regiment (Light Infantry).

Ava
The 13th Light Infantry arrived in Calcutta in May/June 1823. Soon after its arrival, Burmese forces attacked Cachar, a territory in Assam that was under British protection. War was declared against the kingdom of Ava on 5 March 1824. It was decided that the war would mainly be fought via amphibious attacks, with a key objective of conquering the port town of Rangoon, on the north bank of the Irrawaddy. The expeditionary force was organised at Port Cornwallis in the Andaman Islands under the joint control of Brigadier-General Archibald Campbell and Commodore Grant. The 13th Light Infantry, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel ‘Fighting Bob’ Sale, formed part of the 11,000 strong infantry component.

The first task assigned to 13th Light Infantry was to seize and occupy the island of Cheduba, near Ramree on the Arakan Coast, astride the coastal trade route between Rangoon and Calcutta. Three companies were detailed to make this attack, whilst the remainder of the regiment proceeded to Rangoon. The attack on Rangoon passed off smoothly and the town was soon converted to a defensive stronghold. However, 50,000 Burmese men armed with muskets, swords and spears, all familiar with jungle fighting, dug in around Rangoon.

During the 1824-25 campaigning season, Brigadier Campbell went on to the offensive. It was hard fought - artillery had to be man-handled through the jungle, soldiers were falling thick and fast due to disease and each town and fortified stockade was heavily defended. By February 1826 the Anglo-Indian army had advanced three hundred miles north to the town of Yandaboo and the Burmese capital was just four miles away. The advance on the capital began on 9 February 1826 with the 13th Light Infantry leading a night attack, which caused the enemy to flee. The capital was reached two weeks later. The King of Ava agreed to pay an indemnity and surrender a considerable part of his western and southern territories.

Garrison Duties in India
The 13th Light Infantry returned to garrison duty in India. From May 1826 to 1838, they were successively stationed in Baharampur, Dinapur, Agra and finally Karnal. Inspection Reports mention the newly-instituted regimental reward system of a gold medal to be awarded for 20 years Good Conduct and regimental service, and silver medals for 7 and 14 years of Good Conduct and service. The Reports also mention the frequency of courts martial. Heseltine was court-martialed in 1826 for ‘Signing his Captain’s name to a Pass from Evening Parade’. He was advanced to Corporal in 1831, Sergeant in 1833 and appointed Colour Sergeant in February 1837.

The Inspection Reports suggest that the 13th Light Infantry’s rank and file comprised three main groups. At one extreme were the hard cases, habitual drunks who were repeatedly court-martialed. At the other extreme were ‘Havelock’s Saints’, who attended the all-ranks bible study classes established by the austerely religious Captain Henry Havelock, were Chapel-going Baptists and members of the regimental Temperance Society, which had 274 members in 1837. Heseltine’s record suggests that he was neither a drunkard nor a saint but part of the middle group, for which a separate Church of England chapel was built.

Sergeant Heseltine married in Agra on 15 April 1833. He chose the traditional formality of banns rather than marrying ‘by permission of Commanding Officer’, the other route that serving soldiers could opt for. His age is given as 29, his wife was 19. She is named only as C. Sandison and was given away by Mr and Mrs Harding (Mrs Harding was illiterate).

The Invasion of Afghanistan and the winter retreat
In 1838 the 13th Light Infantry formed part of the 1st Brigade of the Army of the Indus, leaving Karnal for Ferozepore and crossing the Indus, marching through Scinde and Baluchistan to the Bolan Pass, then on to Kandahar. Heseltine was wounded in the left foot during the storming of Ghuznee on 23 July 1839, when Captain Vigor’s company was part of the Forlorn Hope. The rest of the 13th Light Infantry fought their way into the town after the Kabul Gate was blasted open to reveal a tunnel 150 yards long by 20 wide, where a desperate hand-to-hand struggle took place.

The 13th Light Infantry then moved on to Kabul itself. One of Heseltine’s comrades, Sergeant George Godfrey, recorded that: ‘The country abounds with hills and valleys; the former are generally barren, the latter very fertile and well-watered in many parts, in some places very much reminding us of our own country... The Regiment lay in the Bala Hissar during the winter in temporary barracks and in the spring [1840] we went out to camp again. Afterwards a small force was formed and marched into Kohistan, a few marches from Cabool. We were engaged at a village called Tootum Durra and very soon succeeded in clearing the orchards and places round it. We routed the enemy and destroyed the village with very little loss on our part. They retreated across a small river at the back, into the hills. The next place we attacked was a small mud fort called Julgar [3 October 1840]. After cannonading it for some time a breach was made and an assault was undertaken, which did not prove so effectual as was expected, on account of the scaling ladders being too short, and not exactly of the right kind, as they were made of doolie poles. Fourteen of our men belonging to the storming-party were killed, one of whom was our sergeant-major, an excellent non-commissioned officer who stood very fair for a commission. After dusk the enemy made their escape, although closely watched, on account of the faithlessness of some of the Jaunbazees (local native infantry) employed in our service...’

After his participation in the fighting in Kohistan, Heseltine was appointed to the important responsibility of Quartermaster Sergeant in October 1840. He reached the age of 37, quite an achievement as a European in India at that time, had 14 years seniority in the regiment and qualified for the Regimental 14 Years Good Conduct Medal. A corrupt or inefficient Quartermaster Sergeant could do great damage to the men’s welfare and morale, so the appointment was a significant one.

The next 10 months were relatively tranquil for the British forces in Afghanistan, and Government decided to cut costs by reducing the subsidies paid to the tribes along the main supply route from India and by drawing down part of the British garrison. This was a major blunder, as it infuriated the tribesmen, who attacked the troops as they withdrew from Afghanistan - the 35th Bengal Native Infantry suffered heavy losses. The next day, 11 October 1841, local Major-General Sale took a strong force out from Kabul to subdue the Afghans and re-open the main supply route from India. The 800 men of the 13th Light Infantry formed the core of Sale’s troops.

Gallantry at Gundamuck, Beseiged in Jellalabad
As Sergeant Godfrey stated: ‘In the month of October 1841 we left Cabool, thinking we were going on towards the provinces, but soon found that we had to force the Khoord Cabool Pass, the Tazeen Pass, the Jugdulluck Pass...’ After heavy fighting with the Afghan tribesmen along the Khoord Cabool and Jugdulluck Passes, Sale’s column reached Gundamuck on 30 October. Gundamuck was a small military cantonment, almost halfway between Kabul and Peshawar, which was garrisoned by Afghan forces supposedly loyal to the British installed puppet ruler, Shah Sujah, and commanded by British officers - one regiment of local infantry, one of cavalry and 200 Jaunbazees.

News arrived of an anti-British uprising in Kabul itself, together with an order for Sale to return to Kabul with his troops. Sale had 300 wounded men to transport, faced increasing numbers of desertions from the native civilians hired to care for the transport animals and was running low on ammunition. He refused to return, instead suggesting that the British troops in Afghanistan should all withdraw to the frontier town of Jellalabad. He left Gundamuck for Jellalabad on 11 November 1841. Heseltine’s records state that he was ‘noted during the forcing of the Passes on 11 November 1841 at Gundamuck for his gallant and soldier-like conduct.’ When Sale marched out of Gundamuck cantonment, he simply abandoned much of his camp equipment and baggage. As soon as the Afghan tribesmen saw that the red-coated infantrymen had left, they attacked the cantonment. Most of Shah Sujah’s garrison mutinied and joined the attackers.

The surviving British officers from Shah Sujah’s troops and their 130 Afghan soldiers who remained loyal to the Shah joined the rear elements of Sale’s men who were still in the cantonment, and fought the tribesmen. Heseltine was to the fore, determinedly improvising replacement camel and mule drivers for the animals transporting his stores. The survivors of Gandamuck, including Heseltine (with a considerable amount of his regimental baggage) desperately hacked their way out of the murderous chaos and plundering mobs of tribesmen. They caught up with Sale’s column well before it reached Jellalabad. Immediately after their arrival, they began the enormous task of preparing this walled city to withstand a siege. In Kabul, things went from bad to worse, and the British authorities decided to evacuate back to India, taking up an offer of safe passage. However, they were repeatedly attacked and slaughtered as they made their way through the passes in the midst of winter. Out of the 4,500 troops and 12,500 camp-followers who left Kabul on 6 January, only a single survivor reached Jellalabad on 13 January 1842.

The Earthquake, 19 February 1842
In the midst of a perilous situation, cut off from any hope of early reinforcement, surrounded by hostile forces, Heseltine and his comrades were involved in a terrifying event. It was described by Private Edward Teer of the 13th Light Infantry as: ‘A happening so terrible and nerve-destroying that I have never hesitated to say that I would rather fight in a hundred battles than live through that catastrophe again. On February 18th there was one of those mysteries of Nature which in those days few men could understand. The air was so full of electricity that the sentries could not hold their muskets, and had to stand beside them, for to touch metal of any sort was to have the body thrilled with countless needle-pricks. There was the sense of an overwhelming danger, and with it the helplessness of perfect ignorance. Not even the officers could explain the mystery, and we could only wait fearfully for a solution. In the darkness, the electric force played around the tips of the bayonets, making balls of ghostly flame. But just before noon next day there was a strange, unearthly noise like thunder. Instantly we thought that the enemy had out-generaled us and had sprung a mine to encompass our destruction; then we knew that no work of man had startled us. Believe me, the very earth heaved like a stormy sea, and the great mountains near us literally danced. In that time of peril we thought the hills would fall upon and bury us. As it was, we were hurled to the ground, and when, in speechless fear, we staggered to our feet again, we reeled like drunken men. The earthquake, for such it was, lasted about 18 seconds. Our work of defence - how puny against such a mighty power! - were shattered; some of the native troops were buried in the hospital, which collapsed, and some were injured.’
The shocks continued without much respite, dense clouds of smoke arose from other towns and villages. During the next six weeks over 100 further shocks were registered.

Once Jellalabad was relieved by the ‘Army of Retribution’ sent from India, Heseltine and the 13th Light Infantry had to fight their way back through the passes to Kabul. ‘We defeated the enemy again and again at various places, wherever they withstood our progress on the road to Cabool. Day by day we saw many parts of the road, where the dried skins and bones of all sorts, and pieces of clothing lay, that belonged to the more than half-famished army which retreated from Cabool in the winter [January 1842]’ (The Life of George Godfrey refers).

Lord Ellenborough, the Governor-General, staged a triumphal ceremony to greet Sale’s Jellalabad garrison as it returned to India in December 1842. As Sale’s force crossed the Sutlej frontier, with each man wearing his Mural Crown Jellalabad medal, it was greeted by a 19-gun salute and a two and a half mile-long line of troops presenting arms.

From Labourer to Senior Rank Soldier and finally to a wealthy ‘Man of Property’
Quartermaster Sergeant Heseltine was discharged at Lukker, India, on 12 November 1844, after 21 years of service, due to age (41), long service and disabilities contracted during the Afghan War. The catalyst appears to have been the news that the regiment would return to England in December 1844, and that soldiers had the option to stay behind. 446 men opted to stay in India, with most transferring to other British regiments.

The ‘2nd type’ replacement Jellalabad medals did not reach India until May 1845, and Heseltine would have had to get in touch with the Assistant Adjutant-General at Bengal Presidency to exchange his ‘Mural Crown’ for the newer and more attractive ‘Flying Victory’ design; fewer than fifty exchanges were made in India. The award of the retrospective Army of India medal was announced in an Indian General Order of 14 April 1851. Once again, qualifying survivors had to apply through their Presidency. The medals finally arrived in India shortly before the Mutiny began. Heseltine would have received his medal in time for his fifty-third birthday.

Heseltine is next heard of in 1864, apparently living in Lucknow with his step-daughter and her husband, David Gardener of Lucknow, possibly to undergo medical treatment. Heseltine owned The Ellenborough Hotel and Estate (which included a house called ‘The Winter Retreat’) in Rajpore. Both names have strong associations with the Afghan War: Lord Ellenborough was Governor-General in 1842-44 and supported the ‘Army of Retribution,’ while The Winter Retreat probably references the 1841 retreat from Kabul. Heseltine either built and named, or acquired and re-named, his properties in the years before the Mutiny.

Heseltine appeared to be expanding his hospitality business by opening the Mussoorie Hotel (run by his two daughters) in the hill-station of that name in the years just before his death in Spring 1865. He bequeathed his Rajpore properties and some money to his wife Elizabeth (he seems to have re-married, to a widow with children of her own) and, after her death, to his son Robert Henry Heseltine. He also had an adopted son, Alfred Munsoueeol - the handwriting is hard to read - who his son Robert was instructed to look after and educate until Alfred reached the age of 20. Annual payments of £10 for the rest of their lives were left to his other daughter, Mrs Charlotte Daines, to his brother William Heseltine and to his sister.