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

The Punjab campaign medal to Major-General J. S. Hodgson, who raised the 1st Sikh Local Infantry, the first Sikh regiment to be embodied in the British service, which he commanded throughout the second Sikh War, and afterwards formed the famous Punjab Frontier Force, of which he became the first Commandant

Punjab 1848-49, no clasp (Major J. S. Hodgson, Commg. 1st Regt. Sikh Local Infy.) fitted with silver ribbon buckle, some light contact marks, otherwise nearly extremely fine £800-1000

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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John Studholme Hodgson, the second son of General John Hodgson, Colonel of the 4th King’s Own Regiment, and his wife, Catherine Krempion, of Petrograd, was born at Blake Street, York, on 24 April 1805. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was admitted to the Bengal Infantry as a Cadet in 1821. He arrived in India on 12 July 1822, having been appointed Ensign on 3 February 1822. Posted to the 12th N.I., he did duty with the 23rd N.I. until 1 May 1824, when he was promoted Lieutenant and joined his own corps. He became Acting Adjutant of the 12th on 26 October 1824, and served in the same capacity with the Mhairwara Local Battalion from 25 November 1828. Advanced to the rank of Captain on 21 June 1834, he was on furlough from March 1838 to October 1842.

At the outbreak of the First Sikh War in December 1845, Hodgson was on sick leave suffering from the effects of ‘numerous tiger wounds’, but he was determined to rejoin the 12th N.I in the field. Finding communications interrupted and unable to find any means of carriage, he walked thirty miles through hostile country, narrowly escaping attack from the enemy and the peasantry. He served throughout the campaign of 1845-46, and was wounded at Sobraon on 10 February 1846.

During the uneasy peace that followed he was selected to raise the first Sikh regiment to be embodied in the British service. On 9 November 1846 he was made Brevet Major and Commandant of the 1st Sikh Local Infantry, which corps he commanded in the Second Sikh War. Although not engaged in any of the major actions, he carried out this tricky task with marked success, and was conspicuous in the attack on the Rajah of the Jusween Dhoon on the night of 2 December 1848, when he took and destroyed his fort at Ukrot. For services in this action he was specially commended, and received the Brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel on 7 June 1849. On 15 September 1849, the Governor-General expressed in General Orders at Simla his ‘high approbation of the conduct of the 1st Sikh Infantry throughout the war’.

On 23 November 1850, Hodgson, with the local rank of Brigadier, was appointed to organise and command the Punjab Irregular Force, and assume responsibility for the protection of the newly acquired and exposed north west frontier beyond which the independent tribes, when not fighting amongst themselves, considered the more or less peaceful dwellers of the plains on the British side of the border legitimate prey. The force originally consisted of three batteries of mountain guns with mule equipment, five regiments of irregular cavalry and five of irregular infantry, but was later expanded to incorporate four existing Sikh regiments, the Scinde Camel Corps, a regiment of Gurhkas and the Corps of Guides. Sikhs, with their well-known martial qualities and not resenting strict discipline, formed the backbone of the new irregular units, and these, together with Punjab Mohammedans, Pathans from both sides of the frontier, and Dogras from the Himalayan foot hills, representing the best fighting class of Hindus with the minimum of caste prejudices, were soon welded into the famous Punjab Frontier Force. The British officers, in the first instance just three to a regiment, were originally appointed in the ordinary exercise of the Governor-General’s patronage. The remoteness of the frontier stations and the rough nature of the service, however, soon persuaded many appointees that they belonged elsewhere. Thereafter the Punjab Government, under the guiding hand of the Lawrences, was scrupulous in its selection.

In 1853 Hodgson led two successful expeditions against the hill tribes west of Dejarat, firstly against the Shiranis from 30 March to 2 April, and, secondly, against the Kasranis later in the latter month. In July 1854 he relinquished command of the P.F.F. and was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain (See Lot 92). Hodgson went on furlough in 1855 and was posted Colonel of the 12th N.I. in 1858. In 1857 he published Opinions on the Indian Army, and privately in 1865 at Brighton, War Services of Major General John Studholme Hodgson. He became Major-General on 25 July 1861, and died at Stanhope Terrace, Hyde Park, London, on 14 January 1870.

Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); Officers of the Bengal Army 1758-1834; Dictionary of National Biography.