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

The unusual group of six to Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel W. J. Shone, Senior Surgeon of Pearl’s Naval Brigade during the Mutiny

(a) The Order of St John of Jerusalem, Officer’s breast badge, silver, the reverse inscribed ‘Brigade Surgeon Lieut. Col. W. J. Shone 1896’

(b) Crimea 1854-55, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (Assist. Surgeon Wm. Jas. Shone, H.M.S. Furious) contemporary engraved naming, clasp loose on ribbon

(c) Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Asst. Surgn. Wm. Jas. Shone. Pearl)

(d) Volunteer Decoration, V.R., the reverse hallmarked London 1892 and inscribed ‘Brigade Surgeon Lieut.-Col. W. J. Shone, Home Counties Vol. Brigade 1892’

(e) Order of the Medjidie, 5th class, silver, gold and enamels, the reverse centre attractively inscribed ‘Wm. Jas. Shone, R.N., Rl. Marine Brigade Crimea 1854-55’

(f) Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, contact marks to the earlier medals, otherwise very fine or better (6) £4000-5000

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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William James Shone served during the Crimean War as Assistant Surgeon aboard H.M.S. Furious (Captain William Loring, R.N.) and was employed on shore with the Royal Marine Brigade. In mid 1857 he was serving in H.M.S. Pearl (Captain E. F. Sotheby, R.N.) when she was diverted from duties on the Pacific Station for service in the Indian Mutiny. En route for India she called at Singapore to pick up two companies of H.M’s 90th Regiment which had been wrecked in the iron trooper Transit in the Strait of Banca. Pearl disembarked the troops at Calcutta on 12 August, and Captain Sotheby offered his services to the Government. A Naval Brigade 250-strong was formed from the corvette’s complement and a few volunteers from the merchant vessels at Calcutta. Leaving the ship with the first party on 12 September 1857, Shone proceeded to North West Bengal where Pearl’s Brigade was attached to the Sarun Field Force, under Brigadier Francis Rowcroft, and went into action against the mutineers for the first time on 26 December at Sohunpore. The enemy, under Hurkishen Singh, were driven out of an entrenched position and dispersed. Captain Sotheby reported to the Secretary of the Admiralty: ‘Drs. William J. Shone and Dickinson, Assistant Surgeons, were in close attendance, with Mr. Williams, the Chaplain, and Mr. Bowling [Ritchie 1-107], Clerk, but fortunately they were but little required’.

On 8 February 1858, the Brigade moved up the Gogra River in 150 boats to Ghopalpur which was reached on the 10th. On the 17th Shone was ‘on the field’ at the capture of the strong fort of Chanderpur by 130 members of the Brigade together with 35 Sikhs and 60 Gurkhas. An enfilading fire was delivered by the river steamer Jumna and the enemy suffered some 300 casualties. The losses on the attacking side were again insignificant with only four men being wounded. On the 19th Nouranie was reached, and that night another fort was seized on the Oudh side of the river. The following day an attack was made on a strong body of rebels at Phoolpore. On this occasion, Rowcroft reported to his Major-General that ‘Drs. Shone and Dickinson, Naval Brigade, were present and active on the field, and ready for any emergency.’ As senior sugeon of the Brigade it fell to Shone to report two Gurkhas killed, one Royal Marine and one Able Seaman wounded, together with one officer and three men, belonging to the army of Gurkha prince Jung Bahadur, also wounded.

On 2 March the Brigade marched to Amorah, where Rowcroft was informed that the fort of Belwa, seven miles further on was occupied by mutineers. That afternoon Shone joined a force of some 160 men of the Brigade with four guns and some 24-pounder rockets, thirty-five Sikhs, and a regiment of Gurkhas, and advanced on the fort, near which they were met by the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry (a unit consisting of European planters, merchants and others, who for the most part had lost everything in the troubles and who volunteered their services to the Government for the duration of Mutiny).

Yeomanry patrols had already been fired on and the force soon discovered that the enemy was in greater strength than had been anticipated. Accordingly the force fell back on Amorah. The retirement from Belwa was construed by the rebels as a sign of weakness, and greatly reinforced by men from Fyzabad, Nawabgunge, Gonda, and elsewhere, the Belwa garrison advanced on the small camp of Sarun Field Force which then numbered no more than 1500 including the sick.

14,000-strong and with 14 guns, the eager and confident enemy were seen advancing on the morning of 5 March. Shone left camp with 1260 men of the Field Force who took up a position about half a mile to the the west of Amorah, with the Pearl Brigade’s four guns sited astride the road. The guns were flanked on the left by a Gurkha regiment and a small detachment; another Gurkha regiment was on the right. On each outer flank was placed a squadron of the Bengal Yeomanry. The whole of Rowcroft’s position, however, was outflanked by the rebels by about a mile on each side. The action commenced with an artillery duel, after which the enemy came on in excellent order behind a screen of skirmishers. Despite the daunting odds, Rowcroft replied by throwing out his skirmishers and a forward movement commenced, which never ceased until the rebels were driven from the field. A captured rebel gun was turned on the enemy and, in the absence of a port fire, was fired by discharging a rifle into the vent. Plied by their own grape, the enemy fell back in disorder. The Yeomanry sealed the victory with a brilliant charge against the enemy’s left wing which fled leaving eight unspiked guns on the field. Heat and fatigue finally put an end to the action after four hours. In the Battle of Amorah casualties were higher than before with the Naval Brigade losing one officer killed and fifteen men wounded. Sotheby duly reported, ‘the Rev. Mr. Williams with Mr Bowling, Acting Clerk, were most ready in assisting Drs. Shone and Dickinson, Assistant Surgeons, with the wounded’.

In order to show the enemy ‘that the forces of the Government were confident of being able to take care of themselves’ a line of rifle pits were dug around a new camp out in the open plain. Here the force remained until the end of April during which time it was reinforced by the left wing of H.M’s 13th Light Infantry. On 17 April Shone was present with the force sent out to drive off a body of rebels from the nearby village of Thamowlee, and on the 25th was with the force that engaged the enemy in a series of actions at Puchawas. In June the Naval Brigade moved to Bustee and, sending out several expeditions, had frequent encounters with bodies of rebels.

In the middle of November the whole force left Bustee for the nothern jungle on the Nepal Frontier as part of a concerted effort to encircle the last of the shattered rebel armies. While Rowcroft moved round from the east, Hope Grant (Ritchie 1-110) came up from the south, and Sir Colin Campbell in from the west. On 23 December, the remnants of the enemy, some 12,000-strong, were routed in a joint attack. This was the last affair in which the Pearl Brigade fought and was indeed the last general action of the Mutiny. Christmas 1858 was spent at Tolseepur and after a useless pursuit under Rowcroft to the Nepal frontier, the Pearl Brigade was ordered back to Calcutta. Pearl sailed on 13 February and after calling at Madras reached Spithead on 6 June 1859 - thereby arriving home after an absence of three years and one week. The officers and men of the Pearl came together for the last time on 16 June when the almost extinct custom of holding a ‘paying-off’ dinner was revived. Shone passed for Surgeon, but was unemployed after leaving the Pearl. His name last appeared in the Navy List in December 1859.

In December 1889, Shone was appointed Brigade Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel in the 1st Buckinghamshire Volunteer Rifle Corps and was in medical charge of the Home Counties Volunteer Infantry Brigade. He was awarded the Volunteer Decoration in 1892 and the Order of St John in 1896.

Refs: Naval Brigades in the Mutiny [Naval Records Society]; The Royal Navy [Clowes]; Official Army List 1894.