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

The Cabul and Punjab campaign medals to General H. C. Van Cortlandt, C.B., employed in the military service of Ranjit Singh - ‘The Lion of the Punjab’ - from 1832, and in the British Service following the annexation of the Punjab at the conclusion of the second Sikh War

(a) Cabul 1842 (H. C. Van Cortlandt) contemporary engraved naming, fitted with steel clip and silver bar suspension

(b) Punjab 1848-49, 1 clasp, Mooltan (Mr. H. C. Van Cortlandt, Irr. Auxy. Force) officially impressed naming, good very fine £2000-2500

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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These two medals were purchased circa 1988 at the Norwich Castle Museum sale of the collection of Colonel R. B. Jay, who died on 23 June 1964, and who was the author of Men whose Fathers were Men. Van Cortlandt’s C.B., Sutlej and Mutiny medals and his two jewelled Sikh decorations were in the Murray collection, sold in 1926, and are now in the Patiala collection in India, together with his father’s 4-clasp Army of India and Cabul 1842 medals. The two Sikh decorations are described by Tancred in Medals and Honorary Distinctions (p. 303) and illustrated in colour by Spink in their War Medal Record (Vol. II, Frontispiece).

Henry Charles Van Cortlandt was the natural son of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Clinton Van Cortlandt and ‘an Indian woman’. His grandfather, Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt of New York was a prominent Loyalist at the time of the American War of Independence and his father saw extensive service in India with the 27th Light Dragoons and H.M’s 31st Foot, gaining a 4-clasp Army of India medal for the second Mahratta War and the medal for Cabul 1842.

The date of Henry Charles’ birth is variously given as 1811, 1813 or 1814. The Biographical Index in the India Office however states that he was baptised at Meerut on 2 February 1813. ‘Inheriting at once the best characteristics of East and West’, he was educated in England and returned to India to seek his fortune in the military service of Ranjit Singh - the fabled ‘Lion of the Punjab’. Having emerged as the principal leader of resistance to the Afghans, Ranjit Singh realised that if he was to fulfill his ambition of creating a unified independent Sikh state he would need to do two things. Firstly, to establish an army based on the European system, and secondly, to avoid conflict with the British. Accordingly, he hired a number of foreign officers to advise on military matters. Van Cortlandt’s contemporaries in the Sikh service included an American artillery specialist; two French officers, Allard, a cavalryman, and Court, an artilleryman; two Italians, Ventura, who trained the infantry, and Avitible, an artilleryman who became governor of Peshawar. So successful was Ranjit Singh’s training policy that he soon created, according to the Sikh historian Fauja Sing Bajwa, a superb military machine ‘very nearly equal to the well trained and disciplined army of the English East India Company’.

Van Cortlandt took to the field with the Sikh army in several campaigns on the northern and north western frontiers of the Punjab, being present at the assault and capture of Fort Chumaitte in Huzaiah and the occupation of Dornd and Suttee. He was in action against Dost Mahomed Khan at the battle of Jamrood, near Peshawar, in January 1837, when Ranjit’s foremost General, Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa, was defeated and slain by the Afghans. In January 1841, during the period of anarchy that immediately followed the death of Ranjit’s successor, Nao Nehal Singh, he was employed under Maharajah Sher Singh in the siege of Fort Lahore, and in the spring of the following year, having been made Colonel, served with the Sikh Auxiliary Contingent which co-operated with the British at the forcing of the Khyber Pass. On the termination of the First Afghan War, he returned to Lahore where he was put in charge of Maharajah Sher Singh’s eldest son, but he was soon afterwards ordered away on duty. During his absence, in September 1843, Maharajah Sher Singh and his son were murdered by Sardar Ajit Singh.

Van Cortlandt’s whereabouts in 1844-45 is something of a mystery. George William De Rhé-Philipe, the indefatigable researcher and author of the biographical section of Soldiers of the Raj, who, as Senior Clerk of the Indian Military Department at the turn of the century, had unrivalled access to official sources, wrote the following, quoting some now unknown source, and adding his own comments in parentheses: ‘Nothing is known of his movements during the two years ensuing, but it is asserted that he was on leave at Mussoorie when the first Sikh War broke out (which was certainly not the case), that, “not being allowed to return to Lahore” (whatever that may mean), he proceeded to Ferozepore; and finally, that “he was employed with the British Army as Political Agent, and in that capacity was present at the battles of Ferozeshahr and Sobraon.”

It is possible that there may be some little element of truth in these statetments, but it does not appear on the surface, and while, on the one hand, no reliable authority has been found in support of them, on the other, the extreme improbability of a person of unknown character and of questionable status being employed in such a position of trust and confidence and of delicacy as that of “Political Agent” is painfully accentuated by the recorded fact that, he and other officers of the Sikh service being actually at Ferozepore on the 29th September, their presence there was regarded with suspicion by the Political Agent, who asked Major Broadfoot to obtain sanction “for turning these foreigners out of the cantonments.”’ It is known, however, that Van Cortlandt received the Sutlej medal for these two actions and that it was named to him as ‘Col. in Maj.-Genl. Sir J. Littler’s Division’ (Vide Murray Collection 1926, Sotheby, Lot 618).

Following the defeat of the Sikhs and the readjustment of the administration of the Punjab under Henry Lawrence in the spring of 1846, Van Cortlandt was admitted to the service of Sikh Durbar at Lahore with the rank of General and appointed to the charge of the Dera Ismail Khan district. At about the same time Lawrence sanctioned Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes’ plan for the subjugation of the vassal province of Bannu, and in the following cold weather season two columns, one from Peshawar under Lieutenant George Reynell Taylor, of the 11th Bengal Light Cavalry, the other from Lahore under Van Cortlandt, set out into that wild territory and destroyed some 400 forts. In 1846 Van Cortlandt was decorated with two jewelled stars by the Sikh Durbar. The centre of each star bore an enamelled figure, one with the portrait of the boy Maharajah Duleep Singh, the reverse inscribed in Persian ‘Granted by Maharajah Duleep Singh, Bahadoor, in recognition of good services and faithfulness of fourteen years’, and the other, the portrait of his Council of Regency, Rajah Lal Singh, this inscribed in Persian ‘1903 (i.e. 1846 A.D.) Granted by Rajah Lal Singh, Bahadoor, in recognition of good services and faithfulness, to General Cortlandt, Sahib’.

On the death of the Hindu governor of the Punjab’s southernmost district of Mooltan, his heir, Mulraj, refused to pay the traditional accession fee to the Sikh Durbar and consequently offered to resign. His resignation was accepted in Lahore and a new Sikh governor appointed. The Sikh governor, accompanied by Vans Agnew of the Bengal Civil Service and Lieutenant Anderson, commanding an escort which included a Gurhka regiment in Sikh service, reached Mooltan on 20 April 1848. The party was initially well received but on leaving Mulraj’s fort one of his retainers attacked Vans Agnew with a sword. Mulraj rode off, whereupon the escort went over to the Mooltanis, and the Sikh governor designate was thrown in prison. Though wounded, Vans Agnew and Anderson managed to reach the comparative safety of their lodgings and despatch two letters explaining what had happened before a mob attacked the building and murdered them both. One letter was addressed to Herbert Edwardes, who was commanding a mixed force of Sikhs, Poorbeahs and Pathans, some forty miles away on the other side of the Indus in Derajat, and the other to Van Cortlandt, who was still commanding troops a hundred and fifty miles away in Bannu.

Edwardes immediately sent his letter from Mooltan on to Van Cortlandt, with a request that he should bring a Mohammedan Regiment to join him at Derajat. Van Cortlandt arrived with the Soorbhan Khan Regiment and six horse artillery guns in May. Meanwhile the Mooltanis had taken to the field, but were still separated from Edwardes and Van Cortlandt by the Indus. Lord Gough had been informed of the revolt, but was loath to become involved. The hot weather was approaching and he was unwilling to commit British troops to a campaign in one of the hottest places in India. The leave season had also started and the Bengal native regiments were consequently up to 25 per cent under strength. But most importantly he agreed with the Governor-General that the revolt was an internal affair which must be settled by the Sikh Government.

It was therefore decided by the Sikh Durbar that three columns should move against Mooltan. The main one, 5,000-strong, under Shere Singh, would advance along the Ravi from Lahore, while to the west and east two further columns would advance under Jewahir Mull and Imam-ud-Din respectively. A fourth column of Mohammedan troops, known as Daudpatras, on loan from the Nawab of Bahawalpur, and accompanied by Lieutenant Edward Lake, would also advance on Mooltan from the south. Back at Derajat, Edwardes and Van Cortlandt had called for more troops from Bannu, and a force, part Dogra, part Mohammedan and part Sikh, was despatched. While it was on its way, there was trouble in Bannu and Lieutenant Taylor, whom Van Cortlandt had left in charge, recalled it. Only the Dogra element obeyed the order, and it seemed as if the Sikhs and Mohammedans might go over to the Mooltanis. ‘However they had not reckonned on Mrs Van Cortlandt, who was accompanying the force. She had the guns accompanying them turned on the recalcitrant Sikhs and Mohammedans, who thereupon obeyed orders and went back to Bannu.’ (Van Cortlandt had married his formidable wife, Susanna née Turner, on 22 May 1836. They had three daughters, all of whom married British officers, and two sons, one of whom died an infant and was buried at Ferozepore in 1845.)

On 15 June 1848, Van Cortlandt and Edwardes crossed the Indus and marched to the Chenab. Two days later they moved south to the ferry at Kineri and, early on the 18th, Edwardes crossed with his Pathans in order to join up with the Daudpatras, who were facing eight to ten thousand Mooltanis and ten guns, under Rung Ram, drawn up on a ridge. When Edwardes reached the Daudpatras, he found their initial attack had been beaten back and that they were in a state of considerable confusion. He impressed upon them that it was vital to hold on until Van Cortlandt’s regulars, and especially his guns, could be brought across. This he told them, with regret, would take seven hours. Having endured a six and a half hour artillery bombardment from the Mooltani guns, the Daudpatras decided that they had had enough and their eighty year-old commander ordered them to retire. The Mooltanis followed up and ran into Edwardes’ Pathans who had been lying out of sight on the left flank. Rung Ram then turned his artillery on them, and the situation became critical. Fortunately Edwardes’ trusted Pathan lieutenant, Foujdar Khan, was at hand. He collected his mounted Pathan officers and led a small but desperate cavalry charge causing the advancing Mooltanis to falter. At that moment Van Cortlandt arrived with one of his leading Mohammedan regiments and launched a counter-attack and captured a Mooltani gun. The Pathans rose up and rushed forward, inspiring the Daudpatras to return to the fray. The Mooltanis fell back in confusion and were completely beaten.

With the Sindh Sagur Doab between the Chenab and Indus secured, Edwardes and Van Cortlandt advanced on Mooltan. Lake arrived and took virtual command of the Daudpatras, and the force, now consisting of some 18,000 men and some twenty guns, was joined on 30 June by Imam-ud-Din, who had sent all his Sikhs away and had only Mohammedans under his command. On 2 July, a day of intense heat, Mulraj’s troops were encountered at the village of Suddoosam. Lieutenant Edwardes, in overall command, deployed General Van Cortlandt’s two regular regiments at the centre of his line. The Daudpatras were posted on the right and the Pathans on the left, but, being somewhat unsure of Imam-ud-Din’s men, he positioned them on the extreme left. Having had the better of the artillery exchange, Edwardes now ordered the infantry to advance. Van Cortlandt’s regiments broke into the enemy position, and the Mooltani’s retreated after Mulraj, who, having fallen off his elephant, had decided to make good his escape. But Mooltani troops were thwarted in this direction when they discovered Mulraj had blown up a bridge in the rear in order to prevent them from following his example.

The victory at Suddoosam seriously depressed the Mooltanis and the Gurhka regiment which had formed part of the escort to Agnew came over to Edwardes. Furthermore the news of the success is thought to have been instrumental in delaying the main Sikh uprising. Van Cortlandt went on to take part in the operations before Mooltan where Edwardes was joined by the column under Shere Singh, and here, during the first siege, he was responsible for preventing a most disastrous occurrence. It was always customary for Edwardes to dine with his officers and it was usual for Shere Singh and some of his senior officers to visit him after dinner. On the night of 12 September, Shere Singh, who was under considerable paternal pressure ‘to do his duty as a Sikh’, arrived as usual but with an especially large retinue, and took his seat next to Edwardes. ‘Van Cortlandt, who was sitting at the foot of the table and had long experience of handling Sikhs, immediately smelled a rat, slipped out and collected a number of loyal Pathans, with whom he surrounded the tent. He then came back and tried to convey to Shere Singh exactly what he had done. The latter looked rather embarrassed and shortly afterwards took his departure. Edwardes and Van Cortlandt felt that there had been a plot to seize Edwardes and his officers and carry them off, presumably as hostages, before Shere Singh deserted. In any event the following morning he and his army went over to Mulraj.’

There is little doubt that Edwardes’ achievements in the Punjab were outstanding, but ‘In praising Edwardes’, it has been written, ‘one must pay tribute to that wily old warrior Van Cortlandt, who supported him so well, to Lake who led the Daudpatras, and to Edwardes’ loyal Pathan lieutenant, Foujdar Khan. Edwardes was the captain of the team, but he could not have won his victories without their help.’

Upon the arrival of regular forces under Major-General Whish, Van Cortlandt went on to serve in both sieges of Mooltan. On 12 September, by which time the Chief Engineer had already began expressing his doubts as to whether Mooltan could be captured with the forces initially available to Whish, he supported an attack with two of his horse artillery guns on some buildings overlooking the British first paralell. Little opposition was expected as it had been reported that these buildings were not occupied at night. The intelligence was faulty and the attacking force under Colonel Pattoun, of H.M’s 32nd, met with a sharp repulse. ‘The men afterwards complained bitterly that they had not been well supported by the native troops’, though ‘everyone agreed that Van Cortlandt’s two guns had given them all the support they could’. The attack on the buildings was resumed in strength on the 12th and during this action, which saw a spirited Mooltani counter-attack, Van Cortlandt captured the hamlet of Jumoondar ke Kirree. Regrettably however some of his men were hit by the fire of H.M’s 32nd and others, unable to tell friend from foe.

On 1 November Van Cortlandt was temporarily thrown on the defensive, as Private Waterfield (See Lot 62) of the 32nd recorded in his Memoirs: ‘This morning ... the enemy ... once more crept out of their shell. They harassed Edwardes, van Cortlandt and Bhawal Khan so very much that they sought the protection of the main army.’ Six days later Van Cortlandt was present at the action near the village of Soorajkhoond, which was pressed to clear the enemy from an entrenched position on the eastern side of the city. And finally he was present at the capture of the Mulraj’s fort within the city walls on 22 January 1849. Mulraj was duly tried for the murders of Vans Agnew and Anderson and found guilty, but owing to extenuating circumstances was only condemned to life imprisonment. Van Cortlandt was thanked for his services by the Government of India and ‘honourably mentioned’.

Following the annexation of the Punjab at the conclusion of the Second Sikh War, Van Cortlandt was at last received into the British service, and employed in a civil capacity as Deputy Commissioner of Gugera. On the outbreak of the Mutiny in May 1857, he was sent to Ferozepore with instructions to raise companies of Sikhs for service in the Hurriana administrative district. He delegated the task of raising ‘Van Cortlandt’s Levy’ to Captain C. C. Bloomfield, which corps subsequently became the 31st Bengal Infantry in 1861, the 31st Punjabis in 1903, and the 2nd Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment, from 1922 until 1947, when it was allocated to Pakistan. At the head of the Levy, and in command of the Hurriana Field Force, he defeated bodies of rebels at Onda, Khyra-Kee, Mungalee, and Jamalpoor during operations north west of Delhi. On 23 August 1857, an unusually quiet day on Delhi Ridge, Colonel Keith Young wrote to his wife: ‘All is quiet as possible, and there has not been a letter in from any direction that I have heard of except from Hissar, where General Van Cortlandt has been thrashing some of the rebels well; but as he corresponds direct with Lahore, you will, I have no doubt, see an account of the business in the Chronicle ere this reaches you. I know little more than that a large party of scoundrels, both horse and foot, have been well punished’

At the end of October Van Cortlandt was gazetted ‘temporary Colonel in the Army during such period as he might continue in command of the irregular levies he had raised’. Having finally convinced the British authorities of his bona fides, he was awarded a C.B. in recognition of ‘his eminently useful services’. In April 1858, he was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Hissar administrative division where he remained for the next three until transferring to the same position in the Mooltan division. He was subsequently promoted Commissioner of the latter division in 1865, and after some three years service retired to Europe in March 1868. General Van Cortlandt died at his residence, 10, Onslow Crescent, South Kensington, on 15 March 1888.

Refs: Hodson Index (NAM); IOL N/1/9/F172; Dictionary of Indian Biography (Buckland); Soldiers of the Raj (de Rhé-Philipe); Memorials of the Life and Letters of Sir Herbert Edwardes (Mrs Edwardes); War Medal Record; The Sikh Wars (Cook); The Memoirs of Private Waterfield; The Great Mutiny (Hibbert); Delhi - 1857 (Norman).