Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A large double page hand tinted original The Illustrated London News engraving, dated 16 August 1879, depicting the Death of Major Wigram Battye in the Battle of Futtehabad on 30 April 1879, mounted and framed, very good condition £50-£70

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals for the Second Afghan War 1878-80.

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Major Wigram Battye, of the Queen’s Own Corps of Guides, was fatally shot in the chest during the mounted charge by the Guides and the 10th Hussars at the Battle of Futtehabad on 30 April 1879, during which Lieutenant Walter Hamilton, upon whom the command of the charge then devolved, was awarded the Victoria Cross. It is said that Battye’s men, Pathans of the North-West Frontier tribes and Sikhs, refused to allow the ambulance staff to touch his body, insisting on carrying it themselves back to camp.