Medals from a Mutiny Collection

Pair: General E. M. Playfair, Nagpore Irregular Artillery Force and Madras Artillery

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Pegu (Lieutt. E. M. Playfair Madras Arty.); Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Lt. E. M. Playfair, Arty. Nagpore Irr. Force) edge nicks, nearly extremely fine, the second unique to an Officer in this unit (2) £800-£1,000

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

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Provenance: George McIlroy Collection.

Approximately 87 Indian Mutiny Medals awarded to the Nagpore Irregular Field Artillery, comprising 1 Officer (Playfair), 2 Sergeants, and 84 men - Playfair’s medal is thus unique to an Officer in this unit

Elliott Minto Playfair was born in Calcutta on 6 September 1828, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Playfair, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Madras Artillery on 11 December 1846. He was promoted First Lieutenant on 11 May 1854, and served with the 2nd Battalion Madras Infantry during the Second Burmese War, and subsequently with the Nagpore Irregular Force Artillery during the Great Sepoy Mutiny.

In May 1857 Playfair was instrumental in preventing mutiny breaking out at Nagpore, as subsequently reported in The Central Provinces Gazetteer:
‘Everything depended on the temper of the irregular infantry and artillery. The officer commanding the infantry was prostrate from wounds received from a tiger, the only other officer of the regiment was away from the station. Accordingly, Lieutenant Cumberlege, the Commissioner’s personal Assistant, who had previously been with this regiment proceeded to their lines, and took temporary command. He found that the regiment had fallen in of their own accord on their parade ground, most ready and willing to execute any orders. The battery of artillery, commanded by Captain Playfair, evinced a spirit equally good.’

The Nagpore Irregular Force remained loyal, although a report in the Derbyshire Courier, 24 October 1857, gives a flavour of the sort of challenges which Playfair encountered:
‘One of the horse battery attached to the Nagpore Irregular Force has also been executed; he was hanged on the morning of 14 October, for having offered, I here, to make over the guns of his battery to the insurgents. He was drill naik, and appeared to have great influence over the men attached to the battery, and proved to the last a consummate villain; he abused every European who went near him, and even when on the drop called the officer commanding the hill all the names he could think of.’

Playfair subsequently took part in the action at Kamo Ghat, 26 December 1857; the action at Morndah on 2 January 185; the first attack on Sohazapore, 20 January 1858, and the actions against the Ahurn rebels, May and June 1858. Promoted Captain on 27 August 1858, he saw action against the rebels under Tantia Topi, 1-2 May 1859.

Advanced Major in the Indian Artillery on 5 July 1872, Playfair was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on 1 August 1872; Colonel on 1 August 1877; and Major-General on 1 October 1882, serving for many years as Deputy Commissioned at Nagpore. He was appointed a Colonel Commandant of the Artillery on 14 June 1885, and was advanced Lieutenant-General on 31 December 1888, and full General on the supernumerary unemployed list on 25 May 1895. Having retired to St. Andrews, he died there on 29 May 1899.

Sold with a photographic image of the recipient; and copied research.

A duplicate India General Service Medal with clasp Pegu to this recipient, named ‘2nd Lieut. E. M. Playfair, 2nd Battn. Arty.’, is known to exist