Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Afghanistan 1878-80, no clasp (Lt. A. B. Mein. Bo: S.C. Transpt. Dep:) nearly extremely fine £400-£500

Alexander Bowes Mein was born on 9 February 1853, the son of Major-General John Mein, and was commissioned Lieutenant into the 77th Regiment of Foot on 30 December 1871. Transferring shortly afterwards to the 22nd Regiment of Foot on 29 October 1873, he held the appointment as a Staff Officer at Shahjehanpore from 31 July 1877 to 21 January 1878, before serving as the 22nd’s Instructor of Musketry from 31 July 1878 to 9 January 1879.

Transferring to the Indian Staff Corps on 10 January 1879, Mein entered the Bombay Army and joined the 21st (Marine Battalion), Bombay Infantry. He was appointed an Assistant Superintendent of the Transport Train in Afghanistan during the Second Afghan War on 1 April 1879, and for his services in Afghanistan was awarded the Afghan War Medal, his only medallic entitlement. Later appointed Adjutant of the 21st (Marine Battalion), Bombay Infantry, he later served at Zaila, on the Abyssinian coast, supervising the movement of Egyptian troops during the Egyptian campaign 1884-85. Promoted Wing Commander, 21st Bombay Infantry, on 31 October 1885, and then Second in Command on 25 May 1888, he held various Staff appointments, including service as a Brigade Major in Aden, before becoming Commandant of the 21st Bombay Infantry on 28 January 1894. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1900, but saw further service during the Great War as a Military Representative on the Emergency Committee at Eastbourne. He died there in 1929.

Sold with the following archive:
i) A fine Bombay Staff Corps Victorian Officer’s waistbelt clasp.
ii) Original statement of service, with much detail as to his career.
iii) An original signed ‘carte de visite’ portrait photograph.
iv) A copy of the book On Service in India: The Mein Family Photographs 1870-1901, edited by Peter Duckers.