Pair: Surgeon J. A. Purefoy-Colles, Bengal Army

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Asst. Surgn. J. A. P. Colles, M.D., C Batt. 2nd Ryl. He. Bde.); India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (Assist. Surgn. J. A. P. Colles) housed in a fitted leather case, the lid inscribed, ‘Surgeon J. A. Purefoy-Colles, M.D., Bengal Army’, nearly extremely fine and better (2) £650-£750

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, March 2007.

John Armstrong Purefoy-Colles was born on 15 September 1834. Training at St. Steven’s Hospital, Dublin, he gained the L.R.C.S.I. in 1854, graduated as a M.D. at St Andrew’s in 1857 and gained the F.R.C.S.I. in 1869 and L.K.Q.C.P. in 1870. He entered the Bengal Army as an Assistant Surgeon in January 1858. Purefoy-Colles served with a detachment under the command of Captain G. Cleveland, Commanding the Moradabad Levy, during the operations in Trans-Gogra, April-May 1859, against Gujada Singh and other rebel chiefs and was present at the affair in the Durzi-ka-Kua Jungle, near Gonda, on 12 April 1859. He edited the Indian Medical Gazette during 1867. Advanced to Surgeon in January 1870, he died at Dinapur on 8 February 1873.

Sold with a portrait image of the recipient wearing his medals.