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

The unique Army of India medals to Drummer William Colston, 2/15th and 31st Bengal Native Infantry, later Fife Major in his regiment and Key Sergeant at Allahabad, the only recipient of a 7-clasp medal

(a) Army of India 1799-1826, 7 clasps, Allighur, Battle of Delhi, Laswarree, Battle of Deig, Capture of Deig, Nepaul, Bhurtpoor (Drummer W. Colston, 2nd Battn. 15th N.I.) long hyphen reverse, locally impressed naming

(b) Army of India 1799-1826, 7 clasps, Allighur, Battle of Delhi, Laswarree, Battle of Deig, Capture of Deig, Nepaul, Bhurtpoor (...mr. Wm. Colston, 31st N.I.) short hyphen reverse, officially engraved naming, the edge of the medal and side of each clasp carriage impressed with small French silver import mark, fitted with silver ribbon buckle, the second with attempted erasure of rank, some edge knocks, otherwise very fine or better £20000-25000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals.

View
Collection

The first medal (15th N.I.) was in the Whitaker collection in 1935, sold to Spink in 1959. Acquired by J. B. Hayward & Son, circa 1978, from whom it passed into the collection of Phillip Kamil, of New York, and thence into the Ritchie collection. The second medal (31st N.I.) was for many years held in a collection in France until sold at auction in Paris in 1986. This is the medal that, according to the medal roll, was ‘sent to India 20 April 1853’, one of a batch known to include short hyphen reverse medals with officially engraved naming.

William Colston was a Eurasian orphan boy raised by the Lower Military Orphanage, established at Alipore, Calcutta, in 1784 to care for the orphans of soldiers. In 1798 he was posted as a Drummer into the 15th Native Infantry, then aged 15 years and recorded as being 5ft 6in tall, with black hair, dark complexion, blue eyes, a native of Bengal. Musicians in the Company’s armies were invariably the Eurasian children of private soldiers and William Colston was no exception, starting his military career as a Drummer and ending up as Fife Major of the 31st Native Infantry. By 1833 he had become Key Sergeant at Allahabad Garrison, a job reserved for superannuated good service soldiers, and he is still listed there in 1843.

Drummer William Colston, the only seven clasp recipient of the Army of India Medal (no other gained more), served throughout the Second Mahratta War with the 2/15th Bengal Native Infantry, firstly in the Hindustan Campaign of 1803 and afterwards in the 1804 campaign against the combined forces of Holkar and the Rajah of Bhurtpoor, which culminated in the unsuccessful siege of Bhurtpoor. He then served in the Nepaul War campaigns of 1814, 1815 and 1816 under Major John Greenstreet (Ritchie 2-5), and following the reorganisation of the Army in 1824, by which the 2/15th N.I. was re-numbered the 31st N.I., he gained the entitlement to his seventh clasp at the capture of Bhurtpoor in 1826. In the final storm of that place on 18 January of that year, the 31st N.I. suddenly unfurled the old battle-worn colours of the 2/15th N.I., which Colston and other veterans had followed close to the summit of the ramparts with great but hopeless gallantry twenty-one years earlier, when Lord Lake had attempted to carry the same fortress.



The 31st N.I. became one of the most distinguished regiments in the Indian Army. It remained loyal during the Mutiny and in 1858 was renamed the 2nd Regiment of Native Light Infantry. In 1877 it received the additional title of the Queen’s Own, and underwent another change of name to become the Queen’s Own Second Rajput Regiment. It survived to Independence as the 1st Battalion, 7th Rajputs.

Refs: IOR L/MIL/5/55; N/I/20f227; N/1/26f7; N/1/36f96; Poor Relation: the making of a Eurasian community in British India 1773-1833 (Christopher Hawes).