Orders, Decorations and Medals

Honourable East India Company Medal for the Suppression of the European Mutiny at Monghyr 1766, silver with small ring for suspension, 39 mm, Britannia seated on a podium before three palm trees, her left arm resting on a shield bearing the head of Medusa, an owl? at her feet, artist’s initial ‘K’ in exergue; Reverse: ‘Non Nisi Digno,’ and below ‘MDCCLXVI,’ all within a wreath, very fine and very rare

The Mutiny amongst the European Officers stationed at Monghyr in 1766 was caused by their dissatisfaction at not receiving full Batta allowance to which they felt they were fully entitled. Lord Clive proceeded to Monghyr by forced marches with two Sepoy battalions under Captain F. Smith. Confronting the mutineers, Captain Smith warned them that if they did not peaceably disperse he would fire upon them. This firmness caused the mutineers to waver, when Sir Robert Fletcher got an opportunity of addressing them in language suitable to the occasion, and the men returned to their duty. The following morning, after addressing the European officers at a General Parade, Lord Clive turned to the Sepoys, and praised them for their loyal conduct and the devotion they had exhibited to the “East India Company.” Finally he gave instructions that honorary rewards should be distributed amongst the native officers, and ordered double pay to be issued to the men for the months of May and June, 1766.

Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, in his paper on the East India Company’s Medals, and the war services for which they were given, for the Military Department of Fort St. George, states that “the only event for which the medal could have been struck was as a reward for services performed in quelling a mutiny amongst the European troops at Monghyr, in May, 1766.” Examples of this excessively rare medal were held in the collections of Colonel Murray and Mr. W. Phillips.