The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals

The rare Delhi D.C.M. pair awarded to Sergeant-Major J. H. Robinson, 8th Regiment, severely wounded in the assault of that city

(a) Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (Sjt.-Mjr. J. H. Robinson, 1st Batn. 8th Regt.)

(b) Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Delhi (Serjt. Major Jas. Hy. Robinson, 1st Bn. 8th Regt.) contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine and rare (2) £6000-8000

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 Henry Robinson, ‘Writing Clerk’, was born in Kilbride, near Arklow, Co. Wicklow, circa 1821, and enlisted into the 40th Regiment of Foot at Athy, Wicklow, on 18 February 1845. On 1 June of that year he transferred to the 8th Foot, and a year later on 18 March 1846 purchased his discharge for £20, leaving the Army at Portsmouth. Curiously, however, he re-enlisted in the 8th a month later, joining the Depot as the regiment had gone to India. Appointed Lance-Corporal, he embarked for India on 1 August and rejoined headquarters on 20 December 1846. He was promoted Corporal on 14 October the following year, Sergeant on 10 November 1848, and became Sergeant-Major on 11 February 1857.

Following the outbreak of the Mutiny, the 8th King’s joined the 5,000-strong British force on the Ridge before Delhi. At the assault on 14 September 1857, the regiment, reduced to about 250 all ranks, served in No. 2 Column, under Brigadier Jones of H.M’s 61st (qv), and stormed the breach near the Water Bastion. Robinson was wounded by a musket ball which severely fractured the lower end of the humerus of his right arm with the result that the arm was permanently crippled, and his forearm bent at a right angle to the arm.

He was sent down country and invalided, receiving his discharge as medically unfit at Chatham on 3 May 1859. He went to live in Dublin on a small pension but quickly found it hard to survive. He applied for an increase in pension but was turned down in July 1859. On 6 March 1860, however, a submission was made for the award of the D.C.M. which at this period was linked to two types of monetary award, the annuity and the gratuity. The D.C.M. with annuity was to be given to N.C.O’s with the rank of Sergeant or above, while the D.C.M. with gratuity, ranging from £5 to £15, was avaliable to all those below commissioned rank. The gratuity was paid out of a special fund set up when the D.C.M. was instituted in 1854, but by 1857 this fund was virtually exhausted, with the result that only the D.C.M. with annuity for sergeants and above was awarded and then to only 22 Sergeants for service in the Mutiny (wholly or in part). Robinson received his D.C.M. and annuity of £10, raised to £15 in 1880, for ‘his meritorious service and gallant conduct in the field more especially in the field before Delhi in September 1857’. He received an increase to his pension on 12 May 1868 bringing it to 1s.10d. per day. Robinson died from chronic gastritis in a rented room at 34 Usher’s Quay, Dublin, on 4 December 1890.

Refs: WO 97/1412; WO 146/1/30; WO 12/2597; OMRS Journal, Vol 24, No. 4 (189).