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

The important Second Afghan War C.B. group to Colonel G. N. Money, 3rd Sikh Infantry, late Bengal European Fusiliers, a leading member of the storming party at Delhi, who commanded the Sikhs in Afghanistan and was repeatedly mentioned in despatches

(a) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (Military) C.B., 18 carat gold and enamels, hallmarked, London 1881, fitted with later gold loop suspension

(b) The Order of St John of Jerusalem, Commander’s neck badge, silver and enamel, maker’s mark AP, some chips to white enamel

(c) Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 2 clasps, Delhi, Lucknow (Lieut. G. N. Money, 1st Eurn. Bengal Fusrs.)

(d) India General Service 1854-94, 2 clasps, Umbeyla, Jowaki 1877-8 (Lieut. G. N. Money, 3rd Punjab Infy.)

(e) Afghanistan 1878-80, 2 clasps, Kabul, Kandahar (Lt. Col. G. N. Money, C.B. 3rd Sikh Infy.)

(f) Kabul to Kandahar Star 1880 (Lt. Col. G. N. Money, 3rd Sikh Infantry)

(g) Jubilee 1887, silver, unnamed as issued, contact marks but generally very fine and better (7) £3500-4500

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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Gerard Noel Money, the son of the Rev. James Drummond Money, rector of Sternfield, Saxmundham, Suffolk, and his first wife Charlotte, daughter of the Hon. and Rev. Gerard Noel, Prebendary of Winchester, was born on 17 February 1835. He was educated privately under the Rev. J.R. Crowfoot at Cambridge and the Rev. Henry Monk at Fordington. On 17 February 1853 he wrote to East India House declaring his ‘intention to proceed to India by the overland route and to leave Southampton per ship Indus on 4 March’. Commissioned Ensign on 4 March 1853, he arrived in India on 16 April 1853 and did duty with the 37th Bengal Native Infantry prior to joining the 1st Bengal European Fusiliers with whom he served in Burma until 1854. He was promoted Lieutenant on 5 March 1856, and the next year served throughout the operations of the Delhi Field Force.

On 14 September 1857, the long awaited day of the assault on the city, he commanded 1 and 2 Companies of the Fusiliers, forming the first escalading party of Nicholson’s No. 1 Storming Column. Having advanced over the 800 yards between Ludlow Castle and the battered Kashmir Bastion, it was found that the ditch in front was partly filled with rubble forming a slope up to the breach. Money, taking the place of a ladder man who had been killed, threw his ladder into the ditch and slid to the bottom with his men who ‘scrambled up the other side like flies up a wall’. Under a hail of bullets and missiles from above, he caught hold of a man in front of him, put one foot on his pouch, climbed on to his shoulder, and was thus one of the first three men to top the wall.

‘While the regiment was forming up inside the city,’ Money recalled, ‘I asked the Adjutant [Lieutenant Henry Wemyss (see Lot 53)] where we had to go, he showed me a narrow lane, saying we were to keep down this and along under the wall. I went up to the lane and found some of the Queen’s 75th and 60th Rifles firing down it at a lot of niggers. I called out, “Come on boys. We’ve got to go down there.” But they hesitated, saying it was full of men. So I said, “Well, you won’t let me go alone, I know,” and jumped over the barricade of boughs and ran down. Before I had gone ten yards a lot of men were alongside, and we charged along and took a battery of about six heavy guns.’ This was the Kashmir Battery, and from here Money turned right along a lane below the ramparts, having been joined by Sergeant-Major Holford and some men belonging to Nos.1, 2, and 3 Companies, who assumed that they were supported by the rest of the regiment under the C.O., Major George Jacob, who was in fact clearing rebel strongpoints near the Kashmir Gate.

Carrying on down the lane, Money came to a slope leading up to the ramparts, which he ascended to engage a number of mutineers in a spell of hard hand to hand fighting before they could pass. Pushing on towards the Mori Bastion, Money and his party saw a 12-pounder manned by rebels, who quickly turned it on them and began rapidly loading it with grape. A race developed between the gunners and the Fusiliers as to whether the latter could reach the gun before the former could fire. When within the last few yards, the Fusiliers saw the gunners jump aside and a port-fire being applied, the priming flashed but the gun was ‘dumb’. It seemed that in their panic the gunners had forgotten to prick the cartridge. Expecting their assailants to be blown away the gunners remained at their posts, but within a couple of seconds found themselves being bayoneted.

‘After this’, Money continued, ‘I went ahead of the men, and turning down a narrow place found myself in the Mori Bastion among about thirty Pandies. They bolted at first; but, seeing I was alone, came at me and I was obliged to retreat, calling out to the men who soon came up and we polished them nearly all off. But one of them proved more than a match for me and would have finished me if a man of my company had not rushed up with his bayonet.’ Money’s assailant attacked him with such speed that he had great difficulty in defending himself with his light regulation sword. His saviour was Private Patrick Flynn of No. 3 Company who charged the rebel with his bayonet. The rebel, however, evaded the thrust, and catching Flynn’s musket under his left arm, brought a sword blow down over his head. But fortunately the impact of Flynn’s charge had knocked the man off his feet, so that only the hilt struck him. Although half-stunned by the blow, falling backwards and dropping his musket, Flynn managed to punch the rebel hard between the eyes, and before the he could recover, Money ran his sword through his body.

Money’s account continues: ‘I then saw another man hiding under a gun, and went towards him. The moment he saw me he jumped out and came at me. I warded off his blow and gave him a point, and the first resistance I felt was the hilt of my sword coming bump up against his breast while warm blood spurted over my hand. There were only about seven or eight men with me now, and we had gone so far ahead that the Pandies had closed all round us. I got a 6-pounder which was there, and loading it with grape, turned it on the entrance to the battery ... I then jumped on the parapet, and cheered as loud as I could, and was rather disgusted at being answered by a shower of grape from our advanced batteries [out on the plain]. Luckily I wasn’t hit and, jumping down, I tied a blue and white turban to gether and fastening it to the end of a musket and bayonet, I jumped up and waved it. This brought a cheer from our batteries and a storm of shot from a line of Pandies which I then saw for the first time lining a breastwork between the Mori and our advanced troops. I got down and loaded a 24-pounder with grape, laid it and fired it. It knocked down a lot of them and the rest bolted ...’

At this point Money at last realised that he was unsupported, but fortunately a party of 9th Lancers appeared below. Their officer called up to enquire how things were going, and having been told by Money that he was hard pressed, he dismounted a dozen or so men who had been instructed in gunnery. Having clambered up to the Mori Bastion, the Lancer gunners turned the captured guns on the interior. The rebels made several determined attacks to regain their lost position, charging right up to the muzzle of a brass 6-pounder placed in an embrasure at the rear of the Mori. After the last of these attacks, Colonel Edward Greathed (see Lot 51), commanding the 8th Foot, came up with some of his men, as did some of the 75th, the 2nd Bengal Fusiliers and the Punjab Infantry. ‘Colonel Greathed of the 8th Queen’s was now in the battery’ wrote Money, ‘and seeing that I had lost my sword which had been stolen by a Sikh while I was laying the gun, he took a sword that had belonged to an officer of his regiment who had been killed just before, and gave it to me, saying, “Here, Money, this is one of our swords. If you use it as I saw you using your own a little while ago you will not disgrace it.’ Soon afterwards, Adjutant Wemyss appeared with regimental headquarters, which Money joined and ‘went on to the Kabul Gate, and from there we made three charges at the Lahore Gate and Bastion. But we were driven back ... Anything I had been in before was child’s play. I was hit by a about a dozen spent balls and bruised all over by them and by splinters, etc ... It was here that I saw about twelve officers knocked out in five minutes.’

Following the fall of Delhi, a brigade was formed under Colonel Gerrard of the Fusiliers to help re-establish order in the surrounding country. Lieutenant Money was appointed Gerrard’s Brigade Major, and the column, comprising the 1st Bengal Fusiliers, two squadrons of the Carabineers, a troop of Bengal Horse Artillery, a Eurasian battery commanded by Colonel Henry Van Cortlandt (qv), the Guides, some Multani Horse and Sikh infantry, marched out on 10 November. The ensuing operations against the rebels of the Jodphur Legion, culminated in their defeat on the 16th at the Battle of Karnul. During the action, Money’s horse was shot under him. Two shots fired from the cover of brushwood in a nullah nearby followed; one of them passing close to Money’s head. Thinking that the shots had been fired by a Sikh, Money called out, “Look out where you’re firing you nearly hit us!” Almost immediately afterwards two more shots were fired from the same place, and Gerrard, a conspicuous target ‘resplendent in a redcoat covered with medals on a snow-white Arab horse’, said, ‘“I’ve got it; I’m afraid I’m done for.” Both his arms were hanging helpless by his side. Money quickly approaching helped him off his horse to a bank close by; and as he sat down he looked at his side, and said, “It’s gone clean through me. I’m fraid I’m done for.” Money, mounting Colonel Gerrard’s horse, went to fetch Dr Brougham, who, as soon as he had examined the Colonel’s wounds, said, “I’m afraid, Colonel, there is no hope.” “My poor wife, my poor children,” was all he answered, and two hours afterwards he died, whilst the battle was still raging in front.’

Mentioned in despatches for services at Karnul, Money returned to the 1st Bengal Fusiliers as Adjutant. He next took part in the actions at Gungearee, Puttealee and Mainpuri under Brigadier Seaton who moved down from Delhi with 1900 men in December. He was also present at the Alumbagh operation and the final storm and capture of Lucknow, the affair at Baree and the subsequent operations in Oudh under Hope Grant (Ritchie 1-110). In 1860 Money was appointed Barrack Master at Mooltan and the following year was transferred to the Bengal Staff Corps.

In 1863, he took part in the Umbeyla Campaign, under Neville Chamberlain (qv), as Adjutant and second in command of the 3rd Punjab Infantry. Promoted Captain in 1865 and Major in 1873, he served with the 3rd Sikh Infantry in the expedition against the Jowaki Afridis of 1877-78, taking part in the assault and capture of Jummoo by Brigadier Keyes’s Kohat Column on 1 December 1877, and was thanked by Keyes in his despatch published in General Orders (No.738 of 9 August 1878): ‘Major G.N. Money, 2nd-in-Command, 3rd Sikh Infantry, who joined his Regiment from furlough just before the attack on Jammu and commanded it with much spirit on that occasion. Subsequently he rendered valuable service by establishing heliographic communication between different posts, the apparatus for which he had purchased and brought from England at his own expense.’

He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in March 1879, and officiated as Commandant of the 3rd Sikhs during the absence of Colonel Mocatta from 1 February of that year. Following the renewal of the Second Afghan War in September 1879, Money was appointed by Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Roberts to the command of a combined force, consisting of the 3rd Sikhs, the 21st Punjab Native Infantry and No.1 Mountain Battery, and ordered to hold Shutargardan Pass by which communications with the Kurram Valley and India were kept open. On 2 October he defeated an enemy body of some 2,500 who were observed putting up breastworks on a high ridge of hills between Shutargardan and the Surkai Post, some 1,000 yards away, by despatching 200 rifles of the 3rd Sikhs and 100 rifles of the 21st Punjab Infantry.

On 14 October the Surkai Post was attacked by some 4,000 tribesmen, but this was only a feint, and the enemy’s real objective was one of the hills from which they had been ejected on 2 October. ‘Colonel Money with 100 rifles and 2 mountain guns started from Camp and gained the ridge just as the enemy’s advance party was nearing the top and drove them down. The main body of the enemy were being followed by the party under Major Griffiths, consisting now of 100 rifles, 3rd Sikhs, 200 rifles, 21st Punjab Infantry, and 2 guns.

The enemy, seeing their plan foiled, took up a position on a hill about a mile north west of the Surkai Kotal Post, from which they were only driven after a well contested fight of two hours duration and a bayonet charge. The enemy left 60 dead at their sangas [breastworks] and were followed up for two miles when they got out of range.’ On this occasion Lieutenant Walter Cook (Ritchie 1-113) especially distinguished himself and was recommended by Money for the Victoria Cross.

With the arrival of early snow on the Shutargardan, Roberts decided to pull Money’s force into Kabul. On the 15th, Money withdrew the Surkai Post but was besieged for the next next three days by tribesmen whose numbers having grown daily were now estimated at 17,000. Fortunately, however, Roberts had despatched Brigadier-General Hugh Gough to his aid. ‘The reinforcement arrived at a most opportune moment’, wrote Lord Roberts, ‘when the augmented tribal combination, imagining that the garrison was completely at its mercy, had sent a message to Money offering to spare their lives if their laid down their arms! So sure were the Afghans of their triumph that they had brought 200 of their women to witness it. On Gough’s arrival, Money dispersed the gathering, and his force left the Shutargardan ... and afterwards proved a most useful addition to the Kabul Field Force.’

Gough reached the Shutargardan on the 20th and next day punitive action was taken against some Ghilzai villages whose inhabitants had plundered several convoys and joined in the recent attacks. The Shutargardan was abandoned on the 30th and following the regiment’s arrival at Kabul via the Logar valley on 4 November, Money received a congratulatory telegram from the Viceroy: ‘I am very pleased with your defence of the Shutrgurdan [sic]. Pray accept my thanks and convey the same to the officers and men who have all assisted you so gallantly.’ And from the Commander-in-Chief: ‘The Queen-Empress desires to express to her gallant troops her sorrow for those who fell in their action [at Charasia] and in the recent brilliant exploit at Shutrgurdan [sic].’

On 8 December, after Mohamed Jan had emerged at the head of an Afghan army of 45,000 men, Money commanded his regiment in Macpherson’s brigade, which camped on the Arhgandeh road in order to prevent a junction between the Kohistanis and Maidanies. The former were engaged on the 10th six miles away at Surkh Kotal and driven from their positions. That night Money remained on picket duty in the Surkh Kotal hills with the left wing of the regiment and a company of H.M’s 67th Foot. On the morning of the 11th Money joined the right wing of the regiment as it marched out with the brigade from camp to attack the Afghans massing in the Chardeh Valley, and left orders with Major Griffiths to pack the baggage and place it in charge of the rear guard before hurrying on with the left wing of the regiment to rejoin him. Macpherson’s brigade duly attack the enemy’s rear on the plain and though unable to prevent the guns of Massy’s brigade being overrun, later in the day recaptured them. That evening, after several anxious hours when it looked as if the Mohamed Jan might make for the Sherpur Cantonment instead of the hills that dominated the city, Money was ordered back from Mizra whence he had chased a large body of Afghan infantry from the Chardeh plain, and was instructed to hold the village of Deh-i-Mazang covering the gorge of the same name for the night.

Next morning Roberts directed Macpherson to clear the crest of the Takht-i-Shah. Macpherson deputed the task to Money and detached a force totalling two guns and 560 British and Native Infantry. The hill proved a most formidable position to attack, and after persistent attempts had been made, Roberts ordered the assault to be deferred. The General had learnt that the enemy were being reinforced from the rear, and decided to wait until Brigadier-General T. D. Baker (see Lot 105) arrived next morning so that an attack from both front and rear could be made simultaneously. The hill was eventually taken, Colour Sergeant Yule (Ritchie 1-116) of the 72nd Highlanders being the first man to the top. Immediately afterwards Roberts signalled Baker from Sherpur to leave a party on the peak under Money and to move himself towards the cantonment with the rest of his troops. On the 14th with the general retirement into Sherpur, Money and the right wing of the 3rd Sikhs had a most difficult time. The enemy took possession of the peak as soon as his men retired and kept up a galling fire under which the Kabul River was reached. ‘From this point into Sherpur the right wing was exposed to fire from the Asmai heights as well as from the garden walls under the city, and it was only the ample cover afforded by the walls bordering the lanes that rendered the retirement feasible and enabled the wing to reach Sherpur in safety.’

On the retirement of Colonel Mocatta on 10 December 1879, Money became Commandant of the 3rd Sikhs, and subsequently served in the defence of the Sherpur cantonment. In May 1880 Money took his regiment, now serving as part of Baker’s brigade, into the Logar Valley to collect supplies. On the 15th he commanded a force, comprising 3rd Sikhs, 2nd Gurkhas and two mountain guns, which destroyed Padshah Khan’s village. In August 1880, Money commanded his regiment in Lord Roberts’ famous march from Kabul to Kandahar, and was present on 1 September at the defeat of Ayub Khan. In the latter action Money and the right wing of the regiment, ‘coming across a battery of five guns in position charged and took it - the enemy firing over the head of the attack fled in confusion. The advance continued, the enemy scattering in all directions till the camp was reached, when firing ceased’. In October and November, Money commanded his regiment in the arduous Marri expedition which was marked by many long marches of up to thirty-six hours duration and a general scarcity of water. For his services in the Second Afghan War, Money was ‘repeatedly mentioned in despatches’ and was made a Companion of the Bath. He was promoted full Colonel in October 1882 and went on the Reserve two months later. On 9 January 1885 he was admitted to the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, the Body Guard of the Sovereign, in which he served until his death in London on 11 February 1895.

Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); IOL L/MIL/10/87; IOL L/MIL/9/229 f.72-82; The History of the Bengal European Regiment (Innes); Historical Records of the 3rd Sikh Infantry, 1847-1930 (Shepherd); The Great Mutiny (Hibbert); Forty-One Years in India (Roberts); The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880 (Shadbolt); The Second Afghan War (Hanna); Hart’s Army List.