Auction Catalogue
India General Service 1854-95, 2 clasps, North West Frontier, Hazara 1888 (Lieut. R. M. Jennings, 6th Bengal Cavy.) an officially impressed later issue, good very fine £200-250
Robert Melville Jennings was born in 1841, the son of an East India Company Chaplain on the Bengal Establishment. Appointed a Cornet in the 6th Bengal Cavalry in May 1859, he was advanced to Lieutenant in May 1860 and witnessed active service against the Mohmands on the North West Frontier 1863-64, including the engagement at Shubkudder, when he was the only officer of his regiment present, in command of a detachment of 95 N.C.Os and men.
Jennings next saw active service out in Egypt, when, in the rank of Major, he was present at Tel-el-Kebir, services that won him a “mention” (London Gazette 2 November 1882 refers) and appointment to the Fourth Class of the Order of Osmania, in addition to being given the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel. A year or two later he was back in action on the North West Frontier, when he served as a Staff Officer in the Hazara Expedition of 1888.
His subsequent service as Deputy Adjutant-General at Fort William, Calcutta 1892-95 led to his appointment as a Sub-Commander of a Second Class District in Bengal - in the rank of Major-General - and in May 1896 he was created C.B. Jennings was latterly given command of a First Class District in the Oudh, became Colonel of the 6th Prince of Wales’s Cavalry in 1904 and was advanced to full General in the following year. He was created a K.C.B. in 1909. The General died at Bournemouth in August 1922.
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