Medals from a Mutiny Collection

The Indian Mutiny Medal awarded to Commander G. O’Brien Carew, C.I.E., Indian Navy, later Deputy Director of Indian Marine, who commanded a Detachment of the Indian Naval Brigade during the Mutiny

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Lt. Comg. G. O’Brien Carew, In. Nl. Bde. H.M.P.V. Calcutta) nearly extremely fine and rare to unit £800-£1,000

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

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Provenance: Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, October 1996 (when sold alongside the recipient’s 1st type C.I.E. breast badge).

George O’Brien Carew ‘joined the Steam Frigate Moozuffer, Indian Navy, in 1846 as Midshipman [Seniority 16 September 1846], and has consequently served a period of nearly seventeen years, fifteen of which have been actual service in India and China. Has held the rank of Mate [from 21 February 1852] and Lieutenant [Seniority 21 September 1855] in the Indian Navy for more than eight years; was three years on the China Station in the H.E.I.C.S. Semiramis [1851-1853], and while so employed was present in two boat actions against Malay pirates on North East Coast of Borneo.

Subsequently he commanded a brigade of seamen and a battery of Field Artillery in Bengal, and was actively engaged against the enemy through the arduous campaign of the Indian Mutiny, for three years. The only time he has been absent from duty upon sick or other leave, was after the fatigue and exposure of marching against, and engaging the enemy under a burning sun in the summer of 1858, when his constitution was so severely shaken that he was ordered to England for two years. Returning to India before the expiration of his leave, he has since held command of two of H.M's Indian Navy Ships and at present is in command of H.M's Steamer Coromandel, which vessel he lately took round to Shanghai with troops.

He has twice received Notice of Government for service performed during the Indian Mutiny [a commendation from the President in Council June 1858] for his part when commanding No. 2 Indian Naval Brigade in the combined attack upon the rebels in the jungle of Peeror on 11 and 12 May 1858 under the orders of Colonel Corfield, and also praise from the Governor General in Council (October 1859) for the manner in which the Naval Guard performed their duties with great credit at Alipore Prison whilst forming the 10th Indian Naval Brigade under his command.’ (the recipient’s ‘Memorial’, submitted in anticipation of the impending abolition of the Indian Navy, dated 27 June 1863 refers).

Her Majesty’s Pendant Vessel Calcutta was the base vessel at Calcutta from which the detachments forming the fourteen Indian Naval Brigades were administered during the Great Sepoy Mutiny. The strength of each of these Detachments amounted to approximately 4 Officers, 2 Warrant Officers and 100 Petty Officers and seamen. Of the fourteen Detachments, or Brigades, only No’s. 3, 4 and 7 qualified for the Indian Mutiny Medal. Only 19 Officers, including O’Brien Carew, are shown on the medal roll for these three Brigades.

A History of the Indian Navy by C. R. Low gives the following account of O’Brien Carew’s service during the Mutiny:
‘One of the first detachments of the Indian Naval Brigade to land for service at Calcutta, if not the first, was No. 2 Detachment, drawn from the Auckland which had done such good service in China, and commanded by Lieutenant George O’Brien Carew, First Lieutenant of that ship. In consequence of representations made by this officer to a member of the Governor General’s Staff, that there was onboard his ship a body of seamen drilled to use the field-pieces and rifles equally well. Lieutenant Carew’s first duty was to disarm the native artillerymen belonging to No. 20 Horse Filed Battery (Captain Hungerford), and then he set to work drilling his men, who soon became thoroughly efficient under their smart commander, who had always been regarded as a promising officer at the Gunnery Establishment at Butchers Island. He said, “I felt quite at home with the battery, but one hundred and twenty horses belonging to it I left entirely in the hands of their Captain, who was attached to the battery with me, and it was agreed between us that he should drill and manoeuvre when limbered up, but when unlimbered for action I should take command being the senior officer.

During this critical time it was well that the large station of Barrackpore, within sixteen miles of Calcutta, was commanded by that fine old soldier, Sir John Hearsey, by whose bold bearing and able measures mutiny was stamped out at its inception. Lieutenant Carew’s position was one of great anxiety until the arrival of H.M.’s 84th Regiment from Burmah, and other troops of the China Expedition, and he then had the unpleasant duty of blowing from his guns some of the mutineers. “Very many an anxious night I have spent by my battery ready at a moment to limber up and march against the men whom we all knew were only waiting a signal to attack us. Now all anxiety had passed, and stern retaliation upon those who caused it, was left for my battery to make; but even while I admitted the justice of the punishment I could not but feel admiration for the coolness and courage displayed by the men who, lashed to my guns, with the port fires lighted ready at the word to destroy them, could await that moment without the play or twitch of a nerve or muscle in face or body.

On the second occasion of my having to execute some of the native officers, while waiting for the conclusion of General Hearsey’s address to the assembled troops, one prisoner lashed to the gun nearest to me, said in a calm tone. ‘Sir, may I speak to the Adjutant of my Regiment?’ I immediately dispatched one of the guns crew to make known his request. Upon the Adjutant arriving he thanked me, and said ‘There are some rupees due to me for pay. Will you send them to my wife?’ mentioning her village. To which the Adjutant replied ‘No, all property of the mutineer is forfeited to the Government’. The next moment I saw the signal from the Major of Brigade, who gave the word that sent him to eternity.”

In April 1858 Lieutenant Carew, after repeated applications received permission to proceed up country, and was directed to join Brigadier Caulfield, who was operating in the Jugdespore district. On the 11 May Corfield attacked the mutineers and wrote from Camp Peeroo the following day, “I beg to state that I have every reason to be satisfied with the Indian Naval Brigade, under Lieutenant Carew, who worked their guns admirably”.

Lieutenant Carew was taken ill with fever, and after vainly struggling against the disease, was forced, on 28 May to resign the temporary command of his battery. Brigadier Corfield said, “He has proved himself both a most useful and zealous officer and his men are in a fine state of discipline.”He was sent down in a dawk gharee to Barrackpore and Sir John Hearsey took him into his own house where he was tended with assiduous care by the family of the gallant General, one of whose daughters became his wife. When he was restored sufficiently to voyage to England, a letter of 22 June 1858 from Captain Campbell (the senior officer of the Indian Navy) arrived. “Is it possible for you to do any duty? We are hard up for officers, at present I am at my wits end”. Accordingly Lieutenant Carew proceeded to Fort William where he assumed command of No. 10 detachment of the Indian Naval Brigade, consisting of one hundred men, raised to guard Alipore Jail, which contained a large number of convicted mutineers awaiting transportation for life to the Andamans, an anxious duty, as the prisoners were desperate characters.’

In 1864 an expedition sailed from Bombay on 21 January to lay the marine portion of the Indo-European Telegraph, commanded jointly by Sir Charles Bright and Colonel Stewart. O’Brien Carew commanded the Indian Naval force. At the conclusion Colonel Stewart wrote, ‘I may say of the performance of your duties, whether as senior Naval Officer with the Expedition or as commander of one of the steamers most actively employed, that nothing could be more satisfactory, or the results more completely successful.’ While Sir Charles wrote, ‘The fact that with nine steamers and five sailing vessels engaged in laying the Persian Gulf telegraph cables we have had no hitch, accident or delay of any kind in carrying out the work in the various sections of the line, is of itself sufficient testimony of the efficiency with which the service has been performed by yourself and the other officers of the Bombay marine appointed to the work’.

For his services O’Brien Carew received the thanks of the Resident Persian Gulf for his political duty. Following the abolition of the Indian Navy he was employed by the Government of Bombay in various posts until the formation of the Indian Marine Service, when he was given the rank of Commander, and appointed Deputy Director, with the charge of the Indian Marine Dockyard at Calcutta. He received the thanks of the Secretary of State for India for the services rendered by him during the Abyssinian Expedition, 3 January 1869, and later received the thanks of the Bombay Government for services rendered in the Malta Expedition in 1878. Created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire on 23 May 1884, he retired on 30 November 1887, and died in Eastbourne in January 1900.

Sold together with the recipient’s Bestowal Document for the C.I.E.; newspaper cutting containing the recipient’s obituary (including a photograph of the recipient); and copied research.