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

The Indian Mutiny medal to Captain John Cockerel, Hodson’s Horse

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Lieut. I. Cockerell, 1st Regt. Hodson’s Horse) nearly very fine £500-600

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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John Cockerell, the son of John Cockerell, D.L., J.P., of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and Putney, and his wife Joanna Mary, eldest daughter of Brigadier-General Catlin Craufurd, 91st Highlanders, was born on 12 June 1831. His grandfather, Samuel Pepys Cockerell was Surveyor to the H.E.I.Co.’s Home Service, and designed Sezincote House, a unique example of the architecture of Akbar, and the only Moghul building that has survived in Western Europe, as a private commission for his brother, Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Bart., who amassed a considerable fortune in India and later entered Parliament. Considering that the majority of John Cockerell’s kinsmen attended the Civil College at Haileybury, it may be assumed that he was either ‘too idle or too stupid’ for the Civil Service and was nominated like other rejects to the cavalry, for which nothing so vulgar as training was required. Appointed Cornet on 20 September 1848, he embarked for India in the Indus that same day, and arrived at Fort William on 10 November following. Posted to the 4th Bengal Light Cavalry at Cawnpore on 16 December 1848, he was promoted Lieutenant on 1 August 1849.

At the outbreak of the Mutiny Cockerell must have learnt with horror and rage the news of the murder of his cousin, Henry Edmund Cockerell, of the Bengal Civil Service. One night in mid June 1857, Henry, who had chosen to remain at his isolated post in the Banda district longer than was wise, decided there was nothing more he could do to enforce the Company’s authority over the surrounding country. He ordered his syce to saddle his horse, and set out to seek the protection of the Nawab of Banda. But on reaching the Nawab’s palace, he was treacherously pulled from his horse and hacked to pieces by the Nawab’s retainers.

On 15 December 1857, John Cockerell, whose regiment was showing signs of disaffection and was ultimately disbanded, was attached to Hodson’s Horse. His ‘Record of Services’ states: ‘Served with Hodson’s Horse in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Present at the action of Khoolagunge and re-capture of Futteghur’. His career with Hodson’s Horse, however, was short lived, for on 23 January 1858 he was placed at the disposal of the Government of the Central Provinces for employment with the Police Cavalry and, having been granted the local rank of Captain, was appointed Commandant of the Divisional Battalion at Benares in April 1858. On 12 January 1860 he became Captain in the 2nd Bengal European Light Cavalry (afterwards the 20th Hussars), and on 19 April 1864 exchanged into H.M.’s 8th Foot, from which he promptly sold out. Cockerell married Henrietta, daughter of Henry Torrens B.C.S., and died at Brighton on 27 May 1877, outliving his younger brother Rowland Vyner Cockerell, B.C.S., who died by falling into a crevasse near Simla in 1873.

Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); IOL L/MIL/10/67; IOL L/MIL/10/45; IOL L/MIL/10/65: IOL L/MIL/10/98; WO 76/550; WO 76/130 f. 76.