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

The Naga campaign medal to Major W. J. Williamson, C.I.E., Political Officer on the Naga Hills Expedition 1879-80

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Naga 1879-80 (Major W. J. Williamson) naming possibly officially re-impressed, good 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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William John Williamson was born on 7 September 1842, and was commissioned Ensign in the Bengal Infantry on 7 June 1861. He became Lieutenant on 2 May 1862, Captain on 3 October 1873, and was appointed to the Bengal Staff Corps on 14 October 1867. In the state of Assam, Williamson held appointments of Inspector General of Police and Prisons, Commissioner of Abkari Revenue, and Superintendent of Stamps. He was appointed Political Officer on the staff of General J. L. Nation, for the expedition against the Naga Hills tribesmen in November 1879, for the purpose of avenging the murder of the District Officer Mr Damant.

Williamson acted as guide to the party under Major H. M. Evans in the attack on Konoma on the 22nd of November. In the fierce fight that followed, several British officers were badly wounded, including Lieutenant R. K. Ridgeway (Ritchie 2-90) who was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross. Williamson, together with the other Political Officer, Major T. B. Michell, who had taken over from Mr Damant, managed to persuade the Nagas to agree to British demands. The surrender terms were extremely lenient in view of the murder of Mr Damant, but as part of the peace settlement the Nagas returned Mr Damant’s head, which was reburied at Kohima. There it lay beneath the site of the bitter fighting which took place around the Kohima Bungalow in 1944, and today, on a plaque in the Kohima War Cemetery, is an account of how Mr Damant’s head lies buried amongst the British, Indian and Gurkha dead.

Ref: Hodson Index (NAM).