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

The Second Afghan War medal to Colonel Richard Corbett, Royal Horse Artillery, who was dangerously wounded at Ahmed Khel

Afghanistan 1878-80, 2 clasps, Ali Musjid, Ahmed Khel (Capt. R. Corbett, R.H.A.) a little polished, otherwise very fine and a unique combination of clasps to an officer £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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Richard Corbett was born on 9 May 1844, and entered Woolwich as a Gentleman Cadet on 1 July 1861. He was commissioned Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 1 September 1863, and became Captain in March 1876. Throughout the first campaign of the second Afghan War and during part of the second campaign, he served with ‘E’ Battery, 3rd Brigade, R.A., being present at the start of the war at the capture of Ali Musjid on 21 November 1878, as part of the 1st Division of the Peshawar Valley Field Force. ‘Reaching the Shagai ridge about noon, the battery took up a position on the heights from which it went into action, the fire of four guns being directed on the Fort, and that of the other two on the works on the hill to the enemy’s right. Though the wind was strong, the battery managed to make fair practice. During the day it fired 98 rounds of shrapnel, and 48 rounds of common shell; its only casualty was 1 officer’s horse killed by a round shot.’ At the conclusion of the first campaign Corbett’s battery was one of the first to commence the arduous march back to India. It eventually reached Campbellpur having suffered severely from the excessive heat of the season and the pestilential climate of the country traversed.

On the renewal of hostilities in the autumn of 1879, E/3 was ordered up from Campbellpur to Kohat and served for the rest of the campaign in divisions at that station, at Thal and at various outposts, as a unit of the Kurram Division. In March 1880, however, Corbett received his ‘jacket’, being appointed to ‘A’ Battery, ‘B’ Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery. Shortly after Corbett joined, A/B, R.H.A. was ordered to march from Kandahar to Kabul as a unit of the Ghazni Field Force. On 19 April fanatical opposition was encountered at Ahmed Khel and the battery was ‘prominently engaged and rendered important service’.

‘Fire was opened by the battery at 1,600 yards, but the enemy advancing rapidly, this range was decreased until case shot was used, and immediately afterwards, shrapnel reversed. The Ghazis charging almost to the muzzles of the guns, and the Infantry on the left falling back, the battery was retired some 90 yards, when the front attack of the enemy having failed, the fire was divided between parties on the left, and parties of cavalry on the extreme right. On this day one officer and one man were wounded.’ The officer, one of only nine British officers wounded at Ahmed Khel (none were killed) was Corbett - and ‘dangerously’ at that.

Mentioned in despatches and promoted Major by Brevet, Corbett became Major in his corps in May 1883, half Colonel in August 1891, and Colonel four years later. Between August 1898 and his retirement in October 1901, he served as Colonel on the Staff of the Artillery at Woolwich. Colonel Corbett died in London on 17 May 1907.

Refs: List of Officers of the Royal Artillery, June 1852 to June 1914; The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880 (Shadbolt); The Second Afghan War (Hanna).