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

The Punjab campaign medal to Lieutenant-Colonel W. G. Prendergast, 8th Madras Light Cavalry, Persian Interpreter to the Commander-in-Chief during the second Sikh War, who later raised the 3rd Punjab Cavalry

Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Chilianwala, Goojerat (Lieut. W. G. Prendergast, 8th Lt. Cavy. Persian Intr. to C. in [C]) final part of naming obscured by suspension claw, fitted with silver ribbon buckle, good very 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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William Grant Prendergast, the son of Lieutenant-General Sir Jeffrey Prendergast, Military Auditor General, Madras, was born in Madras on 24 June 1824. He was educated at Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a Cadet in the Bengal Service in 1834 and was appointed Cornet on 9 February 1835. He arrived in India in August of that year and was posted to the 8th Madras Light Cavalry. Promoted Lieutenant in July 1838, he acted as Interpreter and Quartermaster of his corps from January 1839 to October 1843. In 1842-43, he served as Brigade Quartermaster to the troops under Brigadier Young during the insurrection in Bundelkhund. Between January and March 1846 he officiated as second in command of the 16th Irregular Cavalry. In November of that year he was appointed Persian Interpreter to the Commander-in-Chief and held that post throughout the second Sikh War, during which he was present at Ramnuggur, and at the battles of Chilianwala and Goojerat.

On 18 May 1849, having relinquished his appointment as Persian Interpreter, he started to raise the 3rd Punjab Cavalry, one of five regiments of irregular cavalry formed for the protection of the frontier from the Black Mountain of Hazara to the limits of Scinde. The 3rd Punjab Cavalry was subsequently amalgamated with the 1st Punjab Cavalry (raised by Lieutenant Henry Daly, of the 1st Bombay Fusiliers, at Lahore in the spring of 1849) to become Prince Albert Victor’s Own Cavalry (11th Frontier Force). Following its formation, the 3rd, under Prendergast’s command went to Amritsar, where in February 1850 it suppressed the mutiny of the 66th Bengal Native Infantry at Fort Govindgarh.

In 1852 the regiment suffered severely from the loss of 300 horses from the fatal disease surra, which Prendergast ascribed to ‘necromancy’. Whether this unfortunate occurence was by sorcery or not it ruined the regiment’s Horse Fund for years, and a special loan had to be obtained from the Government. In March 1854 Prendergast was officiating as Brigadier in the Punjab Irregular Force and took part in minor operations on the North West Frontier. He resumed command of the 3rd Punjab Cavalry in 1856, but went home on two years furlough in March. He married in 1857 and returned to India in 1858 only to die of cholera at Alipore, Calcutta, on 15 September of that year.

Ref: Officers of the Bengal Army 1758-1834 (Hodson); India’s Army (Jackson).