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

The Indian Mutiny medal to Colonel William Wilson, Bengal Horse Artillery

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 2 clasps, Delhi, Lucknow (Lieut. W. Wilson, Bengal Horse Arty.) fitted with silver ribbon buckle, contact marks and edge bruising, otherwise nearly very fine £800-1000

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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Ex Tamplin collection, Sotheby, February 1985.

William Wilson was the son of William Wood Wilson, Bookseller, of Fulford, Co.York, and was born on 14 May 1831. He was educated at Rugby under Arnold, and later by Messrs. Stoton and Mayow of Wimbledon. He was nominated for a Cadetship in the Bengal Artillery by the chairman of the East India Company, Sir Henry Willock, on the recommendation of Abraham Wildey Robarts, M.P. He was examined and passed on 4 February 1846 and entered Addiscombe two days later. On 10 December 1847, he was granted a commission as a Second Lieutenant and following his arrival in India, served in 3 and 1 Battalions, Bengal Artillery. Promoted First Lieutenant on 3 March 1853, he next served in 3 Brigade and later in 6 Battalion. At the time of the Mutiny he was with 3 Company, 7 Battalion, but was transferred to serve with 2 Troop, 1 Brigade, Horse Artillery, at Delhi.

He was in the city on 11 May, when the European residents were massacred and the Magazine was blown up by Lieutenant Willoughby and his party. The explosion shook the city and could be heard distinctly thirty miles away at Meerut. Wilson fled the city with the Europeans, and soon after joined the force advancing on Delhi from Meerut under Archdale Wilson which engaged the rebels in the first set piece actions of the Mutiny fought on 30 and 31 May on the Hindun River. On the 30th the rebel forces, nominally commanded by the King of Delhi’s son, Mirza Mughal, were decisively beaten and on returning to Delhi were so jeered and taunted that they returned to the attack next day when they were again routed in a battle mainly conducted as an artillery duel.

Following the junction between the troops from Ambala troops and those from Meerut, Wilson was present at Badli-ki-Serai on 8 June and at the immediate occupation of Delhi Ridge from which the British had been driven nearly a month before. On 25 August, he was present with the force, under Brigadier John Nicholson, which foiled the enemy’s efforts to intercept the arrival of the siege train at Najafgahr, and, in September, he took part in the siege and capture of the city. He was also present during the siege and capture of Lucknow in March 1858, and thereafter served in the Rohilkhund Campaign which drove the Maulvi of Fyzabad into Oudh. For his services at Shajahanpur in Rohilkund he was mentioned in Brigadier John Jones’s desptach of 3 June 1858 (London Gazette 17 September 1858).

Promoted Second Captain on 27 August 1858, he was granted the Brevet rank of Major with effect from the following day. After the Mutiny he served in 7 Battalion and later 5 Battalion, then 24, 25 and 4 Brigades. He became 1st Captain in 1865, and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, Bengal Artillery, on 4 February 1874, and finally Brevet Colonel on 1 October 1877. Colonel Wilson died on 26 November 1878 at Heath House, Pirbright, aged forty-seven.

Refs: Rugby School Register; Hart’s Army List; Somerset House Wills.