Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

The Gwalior and Sutlej campaign pair to Lieutenant-General Sir John Littler, G.C.B., who commanded the 4th Infantry Division at Ferozeshuhur

(a) Maharajpoor Star 1843, unnamed, fitted with reverse pin fitting and contemporary silver bar suspension and ribbon buckle

(b) Sutlej 1845-46, for Ferozeshuhur 1845 (Major Genl. Sir J: H: Littler K:C:B: 36th Regt. N.I) with pin to reverse of scroll suspension and fitted with ornate contemporary ribbon buckle and top suspension brooch, very fine (2) £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals.

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John Hunter Littler was the eldest son of Thomas Littler, and was born on 6 January 1783 at Tarvin, Cheshire, where his family had been seated for some generations. His maternal grandfather, John Hunter, was a Director of the Honourable East India Company. He was educated at under the Reverend Dr Davenport at the Grammar School near Acton, Nantwich, and having secured a Cadetship in the Bengal Infantry, was commissioned Ensign in the 10th B.N.I. on 19 August 1800. On his way out to India, his ship, the East Indiaman Kent, was taken by a French privateer in the Bay of Bengal and Littler found himself set adrift by his captors in a tender. He nevertheless arrived safely in India and joined his regiment in which he was promoted Lieutenant in November 1800. During the Second Mahratta War, Littler served in Lake’s Hindustan Campaign, and, in 1811, was present at the capture of Java where he remained until 1816. Having been promoted Captain in 1812, he did not see active service for over thirty years.

Littler married, in 1827, Helen Olympia Stewart, the daughter of a Lieutenant-Colonel who claimed the right to a Scottish peerage. The follwing year Littler transferred to the 14th N.I. with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and, in 1839, he obtained the Colonelcy of the 36th N.I. which he held until his death. In 1841, he became Major-General and two years lated was appointed to the command of the Agra Division. In late 1843, after the decision had been taken to disarm the Mahratta army in Gwalior, a feat which was thought possible without recourse to arms, Littler joined the 12,000 strong army under Sir Hugh Gough as a brigade commander and crossed the border into that state. On 29 December, the army advancing in three columns on the capital unexpectedly came up against a strong force of Mahrattas entrenched in and around the villages of Maharjpoor and Shikarpoor. Having organized his line, Gough issued his only order of the day - ‘On and at them!’ Thereafter it was purely a ‘soldiers’ battle’. Littler commanded the left of the advancing line composed of H.M’s 39th Foot and the 56th N.I.; Brigadier Wright commanded the centre, and General Valiant, the right. Advancing for over a mile across broken ground and sustaining heavy losses H.M’s 39th took the lead and, sixty yards from the Mahratta position, loosed off a volley and rushed the enemy’s first line which contained twenty-eight guns. The Mahrattas came out to meet them and a tangled mêlee ensued, but gradually, as other regiments came up the enemy was driven back.

By this time Littler’s wing had crossed over to the right and Valiant’s to the left and without pausing for rest and, still in disorder, the forward units ‘bowed their heads’ and pushed on to the Mahratta second line 1200 yards away over ground intersected with ravines and littered with impedimenta abandoned by the enemy. No sooner than this line had been carried than the attacking troops moved against the enemy’s camp some two miles away at Chaunda. As they came within range, they were subjected to another galling fire from the Mahratta guns, but at length the enemy were put to rout. Littler, Wright and Valiant were all wounded in this action and Littler also had two horses killed under him. For his services in the Gwalior Campaign he received the thanks of Parliament and was created a Knight Commander of the Bath on 2 May 1844.

Littler was next appointed to command of the frontier garrison at Ferozepore, which like those at Ambala and Ludhiana, was being gradually strengthened in view of the militant attitude of the Sikh military caste, the Khalsa, which since the death of the great Ranjit Singh had become a latter-day Praetorian guard. The weak Sikh leaders hoped for a deafeat of the Khalsa at the hands of the British in order that their rule might go unchallenged, and to ensure a military defeat they were prepared to betray the Khalsa to the British who could be expected to offer them appropriate rewards. This duplicity then might perhaps explain the arrival of Colonel Henry Van Cortland (qv) at Ferozepore in September 1845.

By early December 1845, hostilities were imminent and Littler was sending out frequent light cavalry patrols. On the 11th a detached Sikh army under Tej Singh started to cross the Sutlej at a point fourteen miles to the north east, and by the 12th some 12,000 men were on the Ferozepore side. Littler formed his troops into two brigades and a reserve, and at midday on the 12th ordered the 2nd Brigade to take up a position on the left flank covering the north eastern approaches to the cantonment and city. He ordered the 1st Brigade to stand astride the road running east to Ludhiana on 2nd Brigade’s right, and instructed the artillery to take up positions at intervals in between. The 27th N.I were left occupying the city, and the 63rd N.I. guarding the families and sick in entrenchments in the cantonment. Littler also sent half a battery of guns and some irregular cavalry to watch the road from Lahore to Ferozepore where it crossed the river.

Meanwhile the Governor-General, General Sir Henry Hardinge, a hardened veteran of the Peninsula and Netherlands campaigns, had been inspecting the Ludhiana Division when he heard the news of Sikh invasion. He declared war at once and ordered the Army of the Sutlej to concentrate at the point of danger, Ferozepore. On the 12th, the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Hugh Gough, set out from Ambala with Sir Harry Smith’s division, and by forced marches covered 114 miles in five days. On the fifth day, 16 December, they joined Hardinge and the Ludhiana Division. The Sikhs, in the meantime, established a camp at Attaree only seven miles from Ferozepore and made frequent demonstrations towards the city over the next three days. Littler moved out to meet them, but on every occasion the Sikhs retreated towards their heavy guns, whereupon Littler’s troops withdrew, as he was under orders not to stage a main attack. Lal Singh, the Sikh prime minister and paramour of the Queen Regent, Jindan, then arrived at Attaree with 14,000 regular cavalry and masses of irregulars, to the accompanient of an eighty gun salute, increasing the total enemy force to 60,000. Lal Singh, sent a message to Captain Peter Nicholson, Littler’s Political Agent at Ferozepore, saying that he wished to prevent an attack. Nicolson told him that he should show his sincerity by withdrawing his cavalry some twenty miles away towards Moodkee, knowing that Gough and Hardinge were fast approaching that place. Lal Singh did so with the result that the battle of Moodkee was fought on the 18th.

On the 19th Littler received news of the victory at Moodkee from the Governor-General who suggested that he should move out to meet him at Sultan-Khanwalla, ten miles from Ferozepore and just short of Lal Singh’s new position at Ferozeshuhur, but only if he could do so without risk. Littler was about to do this the next day when Tej Singh’s troops made one of their demonstrations towards Ferozepore, obliging him to show a front. By the time this had been done it was too late for Littler to keep his appointment with Hardinge, which was extremely fortunate as the Governor-General had remained at Moodkee, and any advance would have placed Littler’s division between Tej Singh’s 40,000 men, and Lal Singh’s force, which was still in considerable strength. Nevertheless, shortly before midnight another message arrived from the Governor-General ordering Littler to risk a flank march of twelve miles, and to meet him next day near Ferozeshuhur. Littler slipped out of Ferozepore’s south easterly exits with the bulk of his force at 7 a.m. next morning, leaving only a skeleton encampment of 1,000 men, with picquets and buglers much in evidence, to deter Tej Singh who, ignorant of his departure, continued to mask Ferozepore.

Gough and Hardinge, meanwhile, advanced on a broad front towards Ferozeshuhur, and having made a quick reconnaissance of the Sikh position, the former received word from Littler that he would be late. The Commander-in-Chief decided that he would start without him, and rode over to Hardinge who was sitting down to breakfast, and announced confidently, “Sir Henry, if we attack at once, I promise you a splendid victory.” Hardinge, who had waived his right to supreme command, disapproved and the two Generals retired behind a clump of trees to argue, out of sight but not out of hearing of their staffs. Considering how hard the Sikhs had fought at Moodkee, Hardinge was ultimately heard to declare, “Sir Hugh, I must exercise my civil power as Governor-General and forbid the attack until Littler’s force has come up.” Sir Harry Smith observed that this decision was ‘a most fortunate interdiction for British India’. Littler arrived at one o’clock but it was not until four o’clock on this, the shortest day of the year, that the battle began. Gough’s plan, if it could be called that, was basic. He placed three divisions in a line; Littler on the left, Wallace in the centre and Gilbert on the right. After a fierce artillery duel the British and Indian infantry of Littler’s division advanced, on Littler’s premature order.

‘As they emerged from a belt of semi-jungle, blasts of grapeshot splattered them; once they were in range, the Sikhs hit them with musket fire. The division came up unevenly. Reed’s brigade moved ahead of Ashburnham’s, whose three native battalions had disintegrated at the sight of a well. ‘No power,’ reported Ashburnham, ‘could restrain the thirsty sepoys from running out to drink.’ Reed, [Colonel Thomas Reed (qv)] meanwhile, gave his men the order to charge too soon. [H.M’s] 62nd came close to seizing their objective when the concentrated fire brought them to a halt. Reed’s two sepoy battalions seemed to melt away. Without consulting Littler (who was near him), Reed ordered the brigade to retire. One officer cried, ‘India is lost!’ The entire division pulled back out of range. Littler felt himself disgraced; Gough had waited half a day for this force which was put out of action in less than half an hour.’ Again Littler had a horse killed under him.

Coordinated attacks by other units, however, eventually succeeded in driving the Sikhs out of their camp after a night of hard and confused fighting, but at dawn it transpired that Gough’s problems were far from over as Tej Singh, having heard the sound of firing, now appeared on the scene. Fortunately the Sikh commander-in-chief was perturbed by the loss of Lal Singh’s camp, and after a half-hearted confrontation was happy to withdraw.

Littler was enraged over his division’s performance at Ferozeshuhur, and on 25 December sent a despatch to the Adjutant-General blaming Reed and the 62nd for the debacle. His report was eventually published but it did not carry Gough’s authority as he had hoped. At the close of the war Littler was appointed to the command at Lahore, and thanked by Parliament. In 1849, he was advanced in the Order of the Bath to Knight Grand Cross and appointed a Provisional Member of the Council of India and Deputy-Governor of Bengal. While at Calcutta, he was presented with a service of plate and an address by the inhabitants in recognition of his long and valuable services. In 1851, he returned home with the rank of Lieutenant-General and retired to his seat at Bigaden, Buckfastleigh, near Totnes, in Devon, where he died on 18 February 1856. The General was afterwards interred alongside his ancestors at Tarvin, in Cheshire.

Refs: Dictionary of National Biography; Remember You Are An Englishman (Lehmann).