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

The Second Afghan War medal to Captain St J. T. Frome, 72nd Highlanders, who was killed in action at the battle of Kandahar

Afghanistan 1878-80, 4 clasps, Peiwar Kotal, Charasia, Kabul, Kandahar (Captn. St. J. T. Frome, 72nd Highrs.) good very fine £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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For his services on this occasion Frome was favourably mentioned in despatches. Thereafter he was with the advanced troops quartered at Ali Khel on the Kurram line. Following the massacre of Cavagnari and his staff and escort, the 72nd formed part of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, under Brigadier-General T. D. Baker (see lot 105), and took part in the advance on Kabul. Frome was recommended for his conduct at Charasia, and subsequently took part in operations around the city; the occupation and defence of the Sherpur cantonments; and the memorable march from Kabul to Kandahar in August 1880.

Before Kandahar at 9.30 a.m. on 1 September 1880, the 72nd in Baker’s column came up against stubborn resistance ‘in crossing a plain cut up by watercourses and thickly set with willow trees, and in threading its way through walled and loopholed enclosures, and the narrow lanes of Gundigan’. ‘The brunt of the fighting in this part of the field was borne by the 2nd Sikhs under Colonel Boswell, and the 72nd Highlanders under Colonel Brownlow, both regiments having frequently to fix bayonets to carry positions, or to check the bold rushes of Afhgans. Their courage and determination were crowned with complete success, but the Highlanders lost their gallant commander, also Captain St J. T. Frome and Lance-Sergeant Cameron ... and had many killed and wounded.’

Frome’s memorial in the Biographical Division of S. H. Shadbolt’s The Afghan Campaign concludes: ‘Sir Frederick Roberts, in his Field Order issued after the battle of Kandahar, speaks of Captain Frome as “a gallant and distinguished soldier”; and in his address to the 72nd and 92nd Highlanders, delivered on leaving India, after paying a just tribute to the memory of Colonel Brownlow, late commanding the 72nd, he adds: “With him fell an equally gallant spirit, Captain Frome.” Similar testimony is borne by his brother officers, by whom his loss as a proved friend and true soldier, is sincerely regretted; and one of high rank, under whom he served during the Afghan campaign, thus writes of him: - “He was an excellent officer, and the coolness and gallantry with which he always led his company into action was the admiration of all who were ever with him under fire.’

Refs: The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880 (Shadbolt); Forty-One Years in India (Roberts); The Second Afghan War (Hanna).