Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The unique 4-clasp Army of India medal to Lieutenant-Colonel William Cunninghame, Deputy Quarter-Master General on Sir Arthur Wellesley’s Staff, who was present at the capture of Seringapatam for which he received the gold medal


Army of India 1799-1826, 4 clasps, Assye, Asseerghur, Argaum, Gawilghur (Captn. Wm. Cunninghame, Depy. Qr. Mr. Genl.) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming, extremely fine £10,000-£14,000

Brian Ritchie Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2004.

Approximately 87 clasps for Assye, 48 clasps for Asseerghur, 126 clasps for Argaum, and 110 clasps for Gawilghur, issued to European recipients. Only 23 medals issued with four clasps, this being the only medal with Assye in combination with Asseerghur issued to an officer and therefore unique.

William Cunninghame was born in Edinburgh in about 1763 or 1764, the younger son of James Cunninghame of Hyndhope and his wife Euphemia, sixth and youngest daughter of Rev. William Robertson, the historian. He enlisted into the Honourable East India Company’s army in 1781, aged 17 years, embarking from England aboard the Earl of Chesterfield on 26 June 1781. On arrival in India he was appointed an Ensign in the Madras Presidency, becoming Lieutenant in November 1788, and Captain in September 1798.

Cunninghame took part in the campaign against Tipu Sultan in 1799 and was at the capture of Seringapatam, for which he subsequently received the gold medal. During the Mahratta War of 1803-04, he served on the staff of Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) with the rank of Captain as Deputy Quarter-Master General; correspondence between the two is known to exist. He took part in Wellesley’s famous victory at the battle of Assye in September 1803 (where he was wounded according to unsubstantiated accompanying research); and with Colonel Stevenson’s force at the capture of Asseerghur in October 1803, presumably in some special capacity. Having re-joined the main force under Wellesley again, Cunninghame was next engaged at the battle of Argaum in November 1803, and at the siege and capture of the fortress of Gawilghur in December 1803.

It is noted that Cunninghame served for thirty years in India with only one spell of leave home in 1801. He retired in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel on 29 June 1808, and returned to his native Edinburgh, where he died, unmarried, on 20 April 1851.

A portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Cunninghame painted by Raeburn, together with a letter to him from Wellington, was presented by his great-great-great niece to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, Museum, in August 1958.

Note: Cunninghame’s name is spelt ‘Cunninghaeme’ in error on the published roll. One other medal with this combination of clasps has been confirmed to Fifer John Jones, 12th Madras N.I. but only the two latter clasps are confirmed on the published roll (see D.N.W. 4 July 2001).