A Collection of Awards to the Scinde Rifles

India General Service 1854-95, 2 clasps, North West Frontier, Bhootan (Asst. Surgn. R. Brown, 6th Punjab Infy.), good very fine £350-400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the Scinde Rifles.

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Robert Brown, who was born in December 1833, was appointed M.R.C.S. in 1853 and joined the East India Company’s employ as an Assistant Surgeon in the Bengal Presidency in July 1858.

Posted in that capacity to the 6th Punjabis, he was present in the Kabul Khel Waziri campaign on the North-West Frontier in 1859-60 (Medal & clasp), following which he was attached to the 9th Irregular Cavalry at Mooltan. It was, however, with the 43rd Light Infantry that he participated in the operations of the Bhootan Field Force in 1864-66 (clasp).

Having then served as an Assistant Civil Surgeon at Sylhet, he was appointed Political Agent at Manipur in December 1867, in which post he remained employed up until his death in August 1876. Brown was the author of a number of extensive reports, among them the ‘The Exploration of the Angami Naga Country in 1873-74’ and ‘A Statistical Account of the Native State of Manipur, 1874’, copies of which are included in an accompanying file of research.