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

The important family group to Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. W. Curtis, C.B., Indian Army, and his wife Mary Grace who was one of the four ladies present at the battle of Maharajpoor and who received a special Gold Star from Lord Ellenborough

(a) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (Military) C.B., breast badge in 22 carat gold and enamels, hallmarked London 1815, makers mark IE, with original wide swivel-ring suspension, ribbon buckle and suspension brooch
(b) Ghuznee 1839, unnamed and fitted with contemporary replacement bar suspension
(c) Maharajpoor Star 1843 (Captain J. G. W. Curtis, 37th Regt. Native Infantry) fitted with contemporary silver bar suspension


(d) Sutlej 1845-46, for Moodkee 1845, 2 clasps, Ferozeshuhur, Sobraon (Major J: G: W: Curtis, 37th Regt. N:I:)
(e) Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Chilianwala, Goojerat (Captn. & Bt. Lt. Col. J. G. W. Curtis, D.A.C.G. Bengal Army)
(f) The Maharajpore Gold Star presented by Lord Ellenborough to Mrs Grace Curtis, six pointed solid gold fluted star, with appilqué silver star of six points each set with three small diamonds, the gold centre finely enamelled with an Indian elephant with inscription around 'Maharajpore. 29 Dec: 1843', the reverse centre of the star glazed and containing a small lock of hair, fitted with small integral ring for suspension and contained in a contemporary Hunt & Roskell Ltd fitted case, minor enamel chips to the wreaths of the C.B. as usual, a few edge bruises to the medals, otherwise generally good very fine £8000-10000

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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James Gray William Curtis was the son of Joseph Curtis of Cross Avenue, Booterstown, Co. Dublin, and was born on 10 January 1809. He was nominated a Cadet for the Bengal Infantry by John Muspratt, Esq., on the recommendation of a relation, William Curtis, Esq. He arrived in India on 28 October 1827 and was appointed Ensign on 17 June 1828. Posted to the the 61st Native Infantry he was transferred to the 36th N.I. on 2 May 1828, and to the 37th N.I. two months later. Affairs in Chancery demanded his presence in England soon after, and he was granted furlough commencing on 17 January 1829. On 19 January 1831 he married, at Dublin, Mary Grace, the youngest daughter of John Shaw of Bohomer, Co. Dublin, and returned to India with his bride in October of that year.

Promoted Lieutenant in February 1833, Curtis rejoined his regiment in June and was subsequently appointed Interpreter and Quartermaster. In 1838 he was attached to the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Army of the Indus, and served with the Commissariat Department during the invasion of Afghanistan. On 23 July he was present at the capture of Ghuznee, and subsequently shared in the Ghuznee Prize. Advanced to the rank of Captain in January 1842, he next took part in the Gwalior Campaign, serving as Sub-Assistant Commissary-General. Accompanied by Mrs Curtis (qv), he crossed the border into the Mahratta state of Gwalior with Sir Hugh Gough’s army of 12,000 men and forty guns in December 1843. At the defeat of the Mahrattas in the battle of Maharajpoor on the 29th, Curtis, Captain Shakespear and Captain Fletcher Hayes (Ritchie 1-79) acted as Aides-de-Camp and elicited the ‘best thanks’ of the Commander-in-Chief (London Gazette 8 March 1844).

Promoted Brevet Major on 30 April 1844, for services at Maharajpoor, he served under Lord Gough in the Sutlej Campaign and was present at the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshuhur and Sobraon. For services in the latter action he was again mentioned in despatches by Gough: ‘Lt.Col. Parsons, Deputy Commissary General has evinced the most successful perseverance in his endeavours to supply the army. He has been ably aided at H.Q. by Major J. Thompson C.B. and Major Curtis sub assistant Commissary General, all three officers were most active in conveying my orders in the Battle of Sobraon in the face of every danger’ (London Gazette 1 April 1846). Curtis was made Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on 3 April 1846 for services at Sobraon.

By General Order of 26 November 1848, Curtis was no doubt relieved to be attached to the Army of the Punjab in executive charge Commander-in-Chief’s camp. He fought at Chilianwala on 13 January 1849 and was thus mentioned by Lord Gough: ‘To the General Staff - I am greatly indebted [to] Lt-Gen. Gough C.B., Qr. Mr. Genl., Lt-Col. J. G. W. Curtis, Ass. Commy. Genl.’ (London Gazette 9 March 1849). Shortly afterwards, on 2 February 1849, he was ‘held responsible for a further loss of Commissariat Stores at Kussoulie’, but on the 21st of the same month he again received Gough’s thanks for his services at Goojerat (London Gazette 19 April 1849).

Created a Companion of the Bath for his services in the Punjab (London Gazette 5 June 1849), Curtis’s career was further twice blighted in April 1850. A certain Lieutenant-Colonel Birrell complained of ‘having been grossly insulted in his own camp by Lt. Col. Curtis’ and on hearing the facts of the case the Commander-in-Chief ruled that Curtis should ‘make an ample and satisfactory apology’. He was also held responsible for the value of some condemned barley at Kalka, against which he unwisely appealed as the Government later found ‘his neglect more conspicuous than at first’. Curtis retired at the end of the year with the rank of Honorary Colonel and the pension of a Captain. He married secondly Georgina Martha, the daughter of Capt. Samuel Conran, and died at Oaklands, Shepherds Bush, Middlesex, on 16 November 1870.

Mary Grace Curtis arrived in India in October 1831 with her husband Ensign James Curtis nine months after her wedding day in Dublin. Twelve years later she found herself caught up in the battle of Maharajpoor. Following the unmourned death of the Maharajah of Gwalior in February 1843, the Governor-General, Lord Ellenborough, fearing that the Gwalior forces might ally themselves with the Sikhs, who also appeared to be spoiling for a war, adopted the doctrine, upheld afterwards by his successors, that he had the right to intervene in the affairs of an independent state so as to preserve the general peace.

He decided that the turbulent Gwalior army should be disbanded and, in December 1843, he accompanied a British force of 12,000 men and forty guns, under Sir Hugh Gough, across the border into Gwalior. As it was hoped the Gwalior Mahrattas would see reason and comply with the object of the expedition without a struggle, Christmas week was observed with all the normal festivities and certain officer’s’ ladies, namely Lady Gough and her youngest daughter, Frances Maria; Mrs Curtis and Mrs Harry Smith, were invited to join the Governor-General’s party. At dinner on Christmas Day the ladies suddenly noticed that their host had become preoccupied. Ellenborough had received word that the Maharani had cancelled her plans to parley next day and that the Gwalior army, outraged by his crossing the border, was massing to contest the British invasion.

On the 28th forward patrols reported the enemy’s presence, but Gough decided that he would delay his attack until next day, when hopefully he would be joined by the left wing of his army under Sir John Grey. At dawn on the 29th Gough’s force continued its advance, but without proper reconnaissance, in three straggling columns towards the village of Maharajpoor where Ellenborough’s party intended to have breakfast before taking up a suitable position from which they might watch the battle. But the Gwalior Mahrattas had moved up during the night and occupied the village, and the four ladies, riding on elephants at the head of the army in order to avoid the suffocating clouds of dust, were suddenly surprised by ‘cannon balls bowling towards them and between the elephant’s legs.’ Fortunately, Mrs Harry Smith was an old campaigner - at the tender age of fourteen as Juana Maria de Los Dolores de Leon she had been saved from the rape and pillage of Badajos by Harry, then a young officer in the 95th Rifles. He afterwards reported to a friend: ‘Juana had this command of Amazons, and she was as experienced as they young; her command was anything but satisfactory.’ Nevertheless, Juana managed to lead Mrs Curtis and the Goughs along the route taken by the Governor-General and his staff who likewise had come under fire. Of the ladies’ party there was but one casualty, an elephant which lost part of an ear.

Once the British victory was secured, a staff officer found the ladies and led them to Gough’s camp where a tent was pitched on the very ground the enemy had held earlier in the day. ‘After their cheek-twitching experience that morning, the ladies now viewed the cruel visage of war after a battle: the mangled remains of men dashed to eternity, the helpless wounded, the groans of amputees in hospital tents outside of which arms and legs had been flung. There were sudden explosions as the engineers touched off earthen jars of spare powder that had been buried. The ladies had just settled down in the tent for a cup of tea when the soldiers burst in and bundled them off: just in time, for a large mine exploded and the tent was blown to bits.’

After the battle, Sir Charles Napier asked Sir Harry Smith: “How came all the ladies to be in the fight? I suppose you all wanted to be gloriously rid of your wives?” The ladies’ adventures appealed greatly to Ellenborough who, with his mania for medals, decided to present each of them with a special gold six-pointed star made at his own expense. He had a penchant for star-shaped devices and once laid plans to hold a monster parade of the Indian Army arranged in the form of a star with a throne for himself at its centre, upon which, the Duke of Wellington suggested he ought to sit ‘in a strait-waistcoat’.

Ref: Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); IOL L/MIL/9/168; IOL Z/L/MIL/10; IOL L/MIL/10/28-10/55; Remember You Are an Englishman (Lehmann).