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

The Gwalior and Sutlej campaign pair to Major C. E. Mills, Bengal Horse Artillery, Orderley Officer to Sir Henry Hardinge and later his A.D.C.

(a) Maharajpoor Star 1843 (1st Lieutt. & Brevt. Capt. C. E. Mills, 2d Troop 3d Brigade Horse Artillery) fitted with original brass hook suspension

(b) Sutlej 1845-46, for Moodkee 1845, 2 clasps, Ferozeshuhur, Sobraon (Capt. C: E: Mills Artillery) light contact marks, otherwise good very fine £1200-1500

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.

Charles Ernest Mills, the son of Captain A. F. Mills, 1st Foot Guards, and grandson of Sir Thomas Mills, a Town Major of Quebec, was baptised at Handley, Dorset, on 22 October 1809. He was educated at Woolwich and was nominated a Cadet for the Bengal Artillery by G. E. Prescott, Esq., on the recommendation of his father. He attended Addiscombe from August 1824 till December 1825, and arrived in India on 22 October 1826. As a Second Lieutenant he joined the 12th Company, 6th Battalion, Bengal Foot Artillery, in December, and served with that unit for the next two years. In 1828 he was transferred to the 2nd Troop, 2nd Brigade, Horse Artillery. He became Lieutenant in May 1833, and, in January 1836, he was appointed Assistant to the General Superintendent of Operations for the Suppression of Thuggee in the Lower Doab. In August 1838 he was selected for political employ in Afghanistan, but when that fell through he resumed his work in rooting out practitioners of the ritual murder cult. The following month the Government recorded their ‘satisfaction to learn that through the active exertions of Lieut. Mills the attempt has been very successful to suppress a system of murdering parents for the sake of their children, practised by a fraternity amounting to about three hundred whose depredations are supposed to be confined to the Upper Doab, Rajpootana, and the Delhi territory.’

In August 1842 Mills was appointed to officiate as Assistant to the Agent to the Governor-General for the North West Frontier. He returned to regimental service in December 1843 with 2/3 Horse Artillery then under orders for active service in Gwalior. After service at the battle of Maharajpoor on the 29th, he was re-appointed to his former administrative post as Assistant to the Governor-General’s Agent. On his promotion to Captain in July 1845 he joined the 3rd Company, 5th Battalion, Foot Artillery, and was later employed, on the eve of the First Sikh War, in collecting supplies for Sir Hugh Gough’s Army of the Sutlej.

When the Sikhs crossed into British territory on 11 December 1845, Mills joined Gough’s force which was accompanied in its advance by the Governor-General, Sir Henry Handinge, to whom Mills acted as orderly officer at the battle of Moodkee. Two days later, Hardinge, as second-in-command of the Army of the Sutlej, appointed him to his personal staff, but since his name was transferred that same day to the rolls of the 1st Troop, 1st Brigade, Horse Artillery, he elected to join his troop where his services were more urgently required. Accordingly, he commanded this troop in the bloody battle of Ferozeshuhur on 21 - 22 December 1845. At the end of the month he was appointed Honorary Aide-de-Camp to Sir Henry as Governor-General.

In January 1846, he was nominated Superintendent at Ambala, but continued in his staff appointment for the remainder of the Sutlej Campaign being present at the defeat of the Sikhs at Sobroan on 10 February which ended the war. His services were warmly acknowledged by Hardinge in General Orders announcing the victory at Sobraon (London Gazette 1 April 1846). On 3 April he was promoted Major by Brevet, having been appointed the previous month to the post of Deputy Commissioner and Political Assistant in the Cis-Sutlej Territory. On 29 December 1846, while holding the latter appointment, Major Mills died at Ambala.

Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); Officers of the Bengal Army, 1758-1834; Soldiers of the Raj; IOL L/MIL/10/27 & 40.