Medals from a Mutiny Collection

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Lieut. W. B. Shawe, Gr. Mily. Pol.) very fine £400-£500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from a Mutiny Collection.

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Provenance: George McIlroy Collection.

William Butler Shawe was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Shawe, Madras Light Cavalry, and was nominated for the Honourable East India Company’s Army by General Sir James Lushington. Commissioned Ensign on 8 June 1949, he was posted to the 60th Bengal Native Infantry on 1 February 1850, and was promoted Lieutenant on 15 January 1855. During the Great Sepoy Mutiny he served on General duty at Allahabad from November 1857, and was District Superintendent of Supplies at Cawnpore from 13 May 1858. He was appointed Commandant of the Gorruckpore Military Police Levy on 6 September 1858, and saw action during the latter stages of the Great Sepoy Mutiny with this unit against the rebels in the jungles near Gorruckpore, October to December 1858.

Whilst with the Gorruckpore Military Police Levy, Shawe was mentioned in the report by Lieutenant-Colonel G. King, 13th Light Infantry, Commanding at Gorruckpore, dated 21 November 1858:
‘I left Gorruckpore on 19 November for the purpose of dispersing a body of rebels under the command of Budhoo Sing, whose numbers were variously estimated from 500 to 800 strong, and who were reported to have taken up a strong position in a dense jungle, about 16 miles east of Gorruckpore. After a march of about 17 miles we came upon their position, which had evidently been abandoned with the utmost precipitancy, as I found the camp fires burning, and the food of a large number of men in a state of preparation. A few bullocks and ponies, a quantity of native powder and cartridges, and a number of entrenching tools, had all been abandoned in the haste of departure. On examination I found a wide ditch and embankment had been laid out, and, given the density of the jungle, there can be no doubt that had time been allowed to complete the defences, it would have been a formidable one. Finding that pursuit in such ground was useless, I withdrew the party, after burning the camp and destroying the powder, and returned to Gorruckpore, leaving 35 Europeans, 150 Native Levies, and half the troop Madras Native Cavalry, all under Lieutenant Shawe, to level the works thrown up by the rebels.’

Promoted Captain on 8 June 1861, Shawe was posted to the 3rd Bengal Native Infantry on 30 July 1862, before transferring as a Wing Officer to the 2nd Native Infantry. Promoted Major on 8 October 1867, he took command of the 2nd Native Infantry on 15 April 1869, and was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on 29 October of that year. Promoted Colonel on 29 October 1874, he served in Afghanistan 1878-79 (entitled to a no clasp medal), before retiring to the U.K. in 1882 as Colonel Commandant of the 2nd Native Infantry. He was promoted Major-General on 23 August 1884 and Lieutenant-General on 20 September 1887, and having been placed on the supernumerary unemployed list in October 1888, was promoted to full General on 22 June 1894. He died at Southsea in 1905.

A regimental historian, Shawe compiled and published The History of the 2nd Bengal Infantry in 1871. In 1881 he changed his surname by Deed Poll to Butler-Shawe.