Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The important Indian Mutiny medal awarded to John W. Sherer, C.S.I., Bengal Civil Service, attached to General Havelock’s force in the advance on Cawnpore in 1857, of which town he was appointed the first Magistrate, and claimed that he and Bews were among the first to see the well of Cawnpore, and that he had the well filled in; appointed one of the first Companions of the Order of the Star of India upon enlargement of the Order in 1866, he was a successful author of both historical and fictional works

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (John W. Sherer,) dark toned, good very fine £2,000-£3,000

John Walter Sherer was born on 31 December 1832, at Snenton Manor, Nottinghamshire, son of John Walter Sherer, B.C.S., and Mary (née Corrie). He was educated at Rugby School and Haileybury College, and entered the Bengal Civil Service in 1846. He was appointed Assistant Secretary and joint Magistrate to the Government, North West Provinces, in 1850, and in 1856-57 was selected as Assistant secretary to the Government of N.W.F. Provinces to report on efflorescence of the West Jumna Canal. Upon the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, he was Magistrate at Fatehpur and was attached to General Havelock’s force in the advance on Cawnpore, where he claimed that he and Bews were among the first to see the well of Cawnpore and that he had the well filled in. He was shortly afterwards appointed the first magistrate of Cawnpore, and proceeded to forward information and supplies to assist the relief and then the capture of Lucknow, for which he received a letter of cordial thanks from Sir James Outram. In 1864 he was chosen as Commissioner to examine claims against the ex-King of Oudh and, in May 1866, he was appointed one of the first Companions of the newly enlarged Order of the Star of India. From 1870-77 he was appointed successively Judge of Allahabad, Azimgarh and Mirzapore. He was for sometime a Fellow of Calcutta University, and retired from the service in 1877. In 1853 he married firstly Louisa, daughter of Sir Henry Byng Harington (d. 1865), and secondly in 1867, Annie, youngest daughter of Colonel Edward Watson, of the Bengal Army, by whom he had four sons and five daughters. He was the author of Daily Life during the Indian Mutiny; Havelock’s March on Cawnpore; and, in conjunction with Colonel F. C. Maude, C.B., V.C., Memoirs of the Mutiny, besides several novels. Sherer afterwards retired to Somerset and died in Bath on 30 December 1911, aged 87.