Orders, Decorations and Medals

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Donald Grant) together with a very fine gold and enamel memorial portrait locket, the reverse hinged cover opening to reveal a locket of hair with inscription around ‘Donald Grant, B.C.S., born 26th Septr. 1832, murdered during the Indian Mutiny, 19th June 1857’, the reverse of the cover additionally inscribed ‘Mr. Loyd, D. Grant, Mr. Bunter, Wife & 2 Children, a Native Christian, his Wife & 2 Childn.!! Ruthlessly murdered on the 19th June 1857 by the brutal sepoys of the 56th N.I. at Humeespore. “Vengeance is mine I will repay saith The Lord”, the medal polished and one side of suspension claw damaged, otherwise good very fine £1500-2000

The following details concerning the Mutiny at Humeerpore in June 1857 are extracted from the narrative submitted by George H. Freeling, the resident joint Collector and Magistrate. Mr Donald Grant had, since early 1857, been acting as relief for Mr Freeling, who was at that time on European Furlough.

The Christian inhabitants at Humeerpore at that time consisted of Mr T. K. Loyd, Collector & Magistrate; Mr Donald Grant, Joint Magistrate; Mr W. D. Murray, a Scottish landholder; Mr James Crawford, Head Clerk; Mr W. Bunter, Judicial Clerk; Mrs Bunter; Mr & Mrs Anderson, relative of the Bunter’s, four or five children; Jeremiah, a catechist of the Church Mission Society, his wife and four children.

The troops stationed at Humeerpore were a detachment of the 56th Native Infantry, who on the 14th June, after daily alarms, subsequent to the outbreak of the Mutiny on the 10th May at Meerut, broke into revolt. For a while Messrs Loyd and Grant refused to quit their posts but, after the release of prisoners from the jail, they saw that the crisis had come and that the loyalty of the native soldiers could not be counted upon. In the ensuing panic and confusion of flight, Messrs Loyd and Grant hid themselves in the Castor fields until evening, and then, swimming with the current, reached the Humeerpore bank, near the junction of the Betwa with the Jumna, spending the day standing up to their necks in water amidst the reeds, and by night only daring to come to the shore. During this time the two men were kept supplied with food by two of Mr Loyd’s servants.

Meanwhile at Humeerpore much blood had been shed, including Messrs Murray and Crawford, and the Andersons, all butchered in cold blood. On the evening of the 18th, Messrs Loyd and Grant were discovered by three Ahirs who in turn reported their presence to the rebel subadar Ali Bux. On thus receiving news of the officers being yet alive and near, some of the sepoys went down and escorted them up, bare footed, to a tree outside the Cutcherry compound. There they were bound and made to kneel. A volley followed and Mr Grant received a bullet in his brain and died instantly; Mr Loyd three in the chest, and called out “Are not the English troops yet come?” when another volley completed the tragedy.