The Collection of Medals formed by the late Alan Wolfe

Cabul 1842 (Major Henry De La Fosse, C.B. Artillery) fitted with steel clip and bar suspension, nearly extremely fine £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late Alan Wolfe.

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Ex Tamplin Collection.

Henry Delafosse was born in Richmond, Surrey, on 11 March 1794, son of Rev. Robert M. Delafosse, B.C.L. and Jane Theresa. In 1808, at the age of 14, he was nominated for a cadetship in the H.E.I.C. and was subsequently granted a commission as Fireworker in the Bengal Artillery, arriving in India in October 1810. In February 1812 Delafosse was posted to 7/1 Battery, Bengal Foot Artillery in Java, where he served the next three years, being present in the expeditions to Palimbang, in Sumatra, in 1812, to Sambas, in Borneo, in 1813, and to Boni, in Celebes, in 1814. He returned to Bengal in the spring of 1815, and in 1816 was transferred to 6/3 Battalion at Cawnpore, and served with it at the siege and capture of Hathras in 1817, and in the Centre Division of the Grand Army, in the Mahratta Pindari campaign of 1817-18.

Over the course of the next 20 years Delafosse received postings to many units of both horse and foot artillery and received promotion to Captain in September 1827, and to Brevet-Major in June 1838, whilst in command of 3 Troop, 1 Brigade B.H.A., first at Muttra, then at Karnal. In November 1841, he went on six months leave to Calcutta, but the Troop having been ordered on service early in 1842, he hurriedly rejoined it at Ferozepore and crossed the Sutlej with it on 13 March, en-route to join General Pollock’s Field Force. He joined Pollock at Jellalabad in May and was appointed to the command of the whole of the Artillery of the Force. Moving forward with Pollock in August 1842, he was present at the engagements at Mamu Khel, Jagdalak, Tezin and Haft Kotal, at the re-occupation of Cabul and at various subsequent affairs on the return to Peshawar. For his services during this campaign he was appointed a Companion of the Bath, which was notified in the London Gazette of 27 December 1842, a month after receiving an honourable mention in Pollock’s despatch of 14th September.

Delafosse’s promotion to Major being confirmed in January 1843, he was posted at Karnal, and later Ambala and Dum Dum with various units of artillery. On 18 October 1844, he was appointed Principal Commissary and Inspector of Ordnance in the Ordnance Commissariat Department, making him Inspector of all magazines in the Bengal Presidency, with his headquarters at Allahabad. In the spring of 1845 he went on departmental duty to Ferozepore and Bahawalpur, and died in camp near Lakki-ki-Dera during the return march on 3 October 1845. He was aged 51 and left a son, Henry George Delafosse, who was one of the few survivors of the Cawnpore massacre of June 1857, and who died as a Major-General in Jersey in 1904. Sold with comprehensive research.