Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Major-General G. B. Tremenheere, Bengal Engineers, Senior Field Engineer in the Punjab, later Hon. Colonel of the 1st Cornwall Rifle Volunteers

Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Chilianwala, Goojerat (Major, Engrs.); India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (Lt. Col., Bengal Engrs.), with silver brooch buckles, in contemporary Sermon, Torquay fitted leather case, good very fine (2) £1300-1500

George Borlase Tremenheere was born near Penzance (or possibly Woolwich) on 9 November 1809, 3rd son of Major-General Walter Tremenheere, K.H., Royal Marines. He was an Addiscombe Cadet from February 1824 until December 1825, and attended Chatham during 1826. He was posted to the Sappers and Miners in July 1827 at the age of 17 and began his service in India. During the first Sikh war he joined the army then in the field, under the command of Lord Gough, and after the occupation of Lahore he was appointed Superintending Engineer of the Punjab. When war again broke out in 1848 he joined the force of Lord Gough as Senior Field Engineer, commanding the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Companies of the Bengal Pioneers. He was actively engaged at the crossing of the Chenab, at Chilianwala, and at Goojerat. Although there was not much scope for engineering in the desperate fighting at Chilianwala, Tremenheere and his officers, with the four Companies of Bengal Pioneers were in the thick of it. Promoted from Major to brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in 1849 for services during the Punjab campaign, Tremenheere next took part in the expedition under Brigadier-General Sir Colin Campbell, in February 1850, to the Kohat Pass on the North West Frontier to punish the troublesome Afridis. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1854 and Colonel in 1856.

After 24 years’ service in India, Tremenheere retired in 1856 having been promoted to Major-General. For 15 years he commanded the Western Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Rifle Volunteers and became their Honorary Colonel in July 1875. He was a Magistrate for the county of Middlesex from 1863 and undertook the secretaryship of the Indian Mutiny Relief Fund in 1857, becoming president of the fund in 1882. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society, and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which conferred on him the Telford Gold Medal for a paper on public works in India. General Tremenheere died at Treneere, Torquay, on 19 December 1896. His portrait appears in the Black and White Budget for 2 January 1897, page 4.