The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals

The Chitral campaign medal Naik Sham Singh, 14th (Ferozepore Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry, wounded at the Koragh defile and awarded the Order of Merit

India General Service 1895-1902, 1 clasp, Defence of Chitral 1895 (1577 Naick Sham Sing, 14th Bl. Infy.) the clasp a contemporary copy, see note below, good very fine
£1500-2000

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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Collection

Ex Carline collection 1910, Fayle collection 1921, and Hawkes Field collection 1950, in all cases with clasp ‘Defence of Chitral’.

It should be noted that whereas the men of the 14th Sikhs who were besieged at Chitral Fort earned the clasp ‘Defence of Chitral’, the men of the regiment who accompanied Captain Jones and were present at Koragh defile are strictly entitled to the clasp ‘Relief of Chitral’. However, a small number of medals to these gallant Koragh men have been on the market over the years with the clasp for ‘Defence of Chitral’. In this particular instance it would seem to be a case of ignorance by some Edwardian dealer or collector, who has replaced the ‘relief’ clasp with one for the defence, probably hoping to extract a better price. There are many today, however, who understand that the Koragh men are many fewer than those who took part in the defence, and their medals are highly prized. Whilst there are no actual medal rolls in existence today, the Koragh men are easily identified - if they were not killed, they survived to win the Order of Merit. In either event their names are meticulously recorded.

In 1892 Aman-ul-Mulk, the ‘great’ Mehtar of Chitral, a small state on the North West Frontier, and the father of dozens of children of whom only two were considered important, was assassinated. The second son, Azful-ul-Mulk, seized the throne only to be murdered by his uncle, Sher Azful, a fugitive soldier of fortune at the court of Amir Abdur Rahman in Kabul, who in turn was was defeated and deposed by Azful-ul-Mulk’s elder brother, Nizam-ul-Mulk. Surgeon-Major (later Sir George) Robertson was sent in as political agent and acknowledged Nizam-ul-Mulk’s right to the Mehtarship. But the latter was murdered in 1893 by another brother, Amir-ul-Mulk, who seized the Mehtarship, and to complicate matters further the state was invaded by Umra Khan, the ambitious ruler of Jandol. Robertson returned to Chitral and temporarily recognised Amir-ul-Mulk in January 1895, but in March he put Amir-ul-Mulk under surveillance and recognised a younger brother, the boy Shuja-ul-Mulk, as the rightful Mehtar. The British then declared against the ‘invader’ Umra Khan who in the meantime had been joined by Sher Azful from Kabul, and numerous engagements ensued. Lieutenant S. M. Edwardes, ‘a smart athletic officer’ of the 2nd Bombay Grenadiers, and Lieutenant J. S. Fowler, R.E., were besieged in Reshun; and Robertson with a small force of 14th Sikhs and 4th Raghunath Light Infantry were besieged for seven weeks in Chitral Fort, until relieved by Colonel Kelly.

The 7th of March 1895, found Sham Singh with Captain C. R. Ross’s detachment of 100 rifles of the 14th Sikhs at Buni. Ross, ‘an officer gallant almost to the verge of eccentricity’, on hearing that Edwardes and Fowler were in difficulties at Reshun, immediately decided he must rescue them, and next morning marched from Buni with his subaltern, Lieutenant H. J. Jones, sixty rifles, including Sepoy Sham Singh, and a large number of native porters. At about midday they came to the deserted hamlet of Koragh. A few Chitralis were seen scrambling away up the hillside, who Ross wrongly assumed were harmless villagers ‘afraid of his Sikhs’. The chief porter pointed out that simple villagers would hardly flee from British troops without reason, and further added that he knew that the enemy, Chitrali supporters of Sher Azful, had been at Koragh during the night. Angrily, Ross refused to listen, and, insisting there was no danger, led his detachment into the Koragh defile half a mile further on.

‘The defile is the result of the river cutting its winding course through terrible cliffs. A goat, scuttling along the high ridges, might start a thunderous avalanche of boulders down the unstable slopes. At the lower end of this frightful gorge the pathway begins to ascend from the river above some caves and zig-zags upwards. There the point of the advanced guard was fired upon, and hundreds of men disclosed themselves and set the very hillsides rolling down. Obviously the soldiers were in a trap. Everything depended on their getting out again, at whatever cost, before the exits were closed. The opposing force consisted entirely of Reshun villagers, poorly armed but incalculably favoured by their position.’

Ross sent Jones with ten men to take possession of Koragh, but the subaltern found the entrance to the defile was impassable due to Chitralis firing from several previously empty sangars. He sent word of this back to Ross who thereupon withdrew the men into two caves beneath the path and close to the river. Jones and his party rejoined him and during the night they made another attempt to get out of the defile at the entrance and were on the point of success when Ross recalled them to the caves. The caves were occupied all of the next day, the 9th, and defended against a large number of Chitralis who threw up a sangar on the opposite bank and maintained a continuous fire.


That night Ross and his Sikhs tried to escape by scaling the hillside, but were brought up short by a precipice which they considered impassable and returned to the caves, minus one Sikh who had fallen over the cliff. Ross, now realising that he must cut his way out at all costs, started at 2 a.m. on the 10th and rushed along the defile losing men on all sides. Behaving with reckless gallantry he charged a sangar a little off the track, killing two or three Chitralis with his revolver at close quarters before being stunned by a stone and shot dead, while a spent bullet or rock smashed into Sham Singh’s left foot.

Jones and seventeen Sepoys, including the limping Sham Singh, fought their way through to the plain on the Koragh side of the defile, ‘where two consecutive masses of charging swordsmen withered up and melted before them, teaching the Chitralis their bitter mistake in attacking Sikhs shoulder to shoulder on open ground. But three more men were killed, and the remaining fourteen, ten of whom, including Jones were grievously wounded, crawled painfully into Buni at six o’clock in the morning.’ Sixty soldiers had entered the defile and only fourteen had returned. The twenty or thirty Sikhs who failed to follow Jones out of the gorge returned to the caves, where, fortified only by the opium which they habitually carried they continued to hold out. After about a week the emaciated Sikhs agreed to surrender if their lives were spared. The Chitralis accepted the terms, and at once slaughtered all those unable to walk. The rest were imprisoned in a house at Kalak, and next morning, by the order of three kinsmen of Sher Azful, the Sikh soldiers were brought out on by one and hacked to death by the notoriously brutal Broz tribesmen. Only one Sepoy escaped, he having been reserved to fulfil the desire of a Chitrali headman to kill an infidel in cold blood, but, who, when it came to it, bottled out.

Sham Singh and the other thirteen Sikh survivors were admitted to the Indian Order of Merit, ‘For gallantry and devotion to duty exhibited by them in the action at Koragh, in Chitral, on the 10th of March 1895.’ Lieutenant Jones was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Refs: Deeds of Valour of the Indian Soldier (Hypher); Chitral, The Story of a Minor Siege (Robertson).