The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Delhi (Lieutt. Hugh Chichester 3d Co: 3d Bn. B. Arty.) naming officially engraved in running script, and housed in a fitted red leather display case, toned, nearly very fine £400-£500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria.

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Hugh Chichester was appointed Ensign in the Bengal Artillery on 13 June 1856; and was promoted Lieutenant on 27 April 1856; Captain on 24 March 1865; Major on 23 November 1872; Lieutenant-Colonel on 26 May 1880; Colonel on 26 May 1884; and Major-General (retired) on 9 December 1886. He served throughout the suppression of the Indian Mutiny, including the actions of the 30 and 31May 1857, on the Hindun, at the battle of Budleekeserai, the siege of Delhi (Mentioned in Despatches with “especial approbation and thanks for zeal, ability, and coolness in situations of great danger”), and at the battle of Bareilly.

Chichester is quoted in Reminiscences of the Indian Mutiny, by Major-General J. T. Harris this:
‘On June 9 [1857] a great friend of mine, Hugh Chichester, a subaltern of the Royal Artillery, came to my fly-infested tent. He was full of the news that during the night the artillery had erected a battery in front of Hindoo Rao’s for an 18-pounder and an 8-inch howitzer, and he wanted me to go up to the ridge with him to see it. This was great and exciting new, and, perhaps naturally, we imagined that Delhi was going to be taken at once. Neither Chichester not I had ever seen a real battery, and we had scarcely got into it and had time to think what a small thing it was before every gun in Delhi opened fire on us- from the Cashmere, the Moree, the Lahore, and other batteries.’

For the recipient’s son’s Queen’s South Africa medal, see Lot 538.