Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A scarce H.E.I.C. Meritorious Service Medal and Long Service pair to Pensioned Sergeant-Major J. H. Must, Indian Army

H.E.I.C. Meritorious Service Medal, V.R. (Pensd. Sergt. Major J. H. Must, 4th N.I.); H.E.I.C. Long Service, 2nd issue, anchor reverse (Fife Major J. H. Must, Qr. Mr. Sergt. 58th N.I. 18th Jany. 1860) extremely fine and rare £1000-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late Alan Wolfe.

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John Henry Must, the son of a Sergeant of the same name in the Bengal Artillery, and Elizabeth Mason, of the Lower Orphan School at Calcutta, was baptised at Calcutta on 11 July 1819. He enlisted at Dum Dum, Bengal, on 14 January 1835, for unlimited service in the East India Company’s forces. The fact that he served as a musician indicates that he was almost certainly Eurasian, via his mother. The Lower Orphan School, for the children of enlisted men, including those abandoned when British Army units left India, performed a useful function as a marriage market whereby N.C.Os. were allowed to visit and select a bride from the teenage girls by ‘sight alone’.

Under Bengal General Order by the Commander-in-Chief dated 22 September 1859, Must was promoted from Fife-Major, 57th N.I., to be Sergeant on the Unattached List, and was appointed Quarter-Master Sergeant of the 58th N.I. He was awarded the L.S. & G.C. medal under Bengal G.O.C.C. dated 18 January 1860, and transferred as Q.M. Sergeant from the 58th N.I. to the 4th (late 33rd) N.I. under Bengal G.O.C.C. dated 24 June 1861. He became Sergeant-Major of the 4th N.I. on 25 May 1865, and was discharged to a pension of 2s 6d per day under G.O. 118 of 1871, at which time he was living at Dinapore. The date of award of his Meritorious Service Medal has not been found. Sergeant-Major Must died on 31 January 1889.