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

The Second Afghan War medal to Lieutenant C. J. R. Hearsey, 9th Lancers, killed in action in the famous charge at Killa Kazi, near Kabul
Afghanistan 1878-80, 1 clasp, Kabul (Lieut. C. I. R. Hearsey, 9th Lancers) some minor scuffs, otherwise, brilliant extremely fine £5000-6000

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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The plan was put into effect on the 11th but contrary to expectations the enemy was encountered advancing in overwhelming numbers towards the Nanachi Pass, the key to Robert’s base at Sherpur. On approaching the village of Killa Kazi in the Chardeh Valley about four miles from Kabul, Roberts who had set out that morning with high hopes of watching the destruction of the enemy, found an ‘extraordinary spectacle’ presented to his view. ‘An unbroken line extending for about two miles, and formed of not less than between 9,000 and 10,000 men, was moving rapidly towards me, all on foot save a small body of cavalry on their left flank - in fact the greater part of Mohammed Jan’s army. To meet this formidable array, instead of Macphearson’s and Massy’s forces, which I had hoped I should find combined, there were but 4 guns, 198 of the 9th Lancers under Lieutenant-Colonel Cleland, 40 of the Bengal Lancers under Captain Philip Neville, and at some little distance [Bloomfield] Gough’s troop of the 9th Lancers, who were engaged in watching the enemy’s cavalry.’

Massy, hoping to warn Macphearson with the sound of firing, had already sent the four horse artillery guns into action but firing against such a vast array there was little they could do little to stem the tide, and again and again they were were forced to fall back. Observing the predicament of the guns, Roberts ordered Massy to retire them and cover the movement with a cavalry charge: ‘Whether the cavalry understood the urgency of the need which sent them to destruction or not, they accepted the part assigned to them with noble alacrity. Splendidly led by Colonel Cleland, a squadron of the 9th Lancers, supported by the 14th Bengal Lancers, rode straight into the seething, raging sea of armed men, whilst Gough’s troop of the former regiment sought to confuse the enemy by a flank attack. Received with a terrific discharge of musketry, clouds of dust and smoke quickly hid the devoted band from the eyes of the anxious spectators: then, out of those clouds, horses were seen to come galloping back, some riderless, some with riders swaying in their saddles. Among the wounded were the gallant Cleland, his bridle arm badly sabred, a bullet in his stomach, and young Hearsey, shot through the lungs, who fell to the ground dead, as his horse stopped short. The charge had done nothing to improve the general situation ...’ The Afghans swept on and it was not until later in the day that the bodies of Hearsey and the other dead could be recovered for burial at Sherpur. Morty Durand (Ritchie 1-118), a Civilian on Robert’s Staff, observed ‘they were dreadfully mutilated by Afghan knives’.

Refs: The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880 (Shadbolt); The Hearseys, Five Generations of an Anglo-Indian Family (Pearse); Forty-One Years in India (Roberts); The Second Afghan War, Vol.III (Hanna).