A Collection of India General Service Medals 1854-95

A rare Hunza 1891 group of three awarded to Volunteer W. P. Appleford, 1st Punjab Volunteer Rifles, Assistant-Engineer of the road making contractors Spedding & Co, who volunteered his services to Durand’s force on the march to Nilt

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hunza 1891 (4009 Pte. W. P. Appleford, 1st Punjab Volr. Rifle Corps); India General Service 1895-1902, 1 clasp, Relief of Chitral 1895 (Voltr. W. P. Appleford, 1st Pjb. Voltr. Rfls.); Delhi Durbar 1911, unnamed, mounted as worn, extremely fine and extremely rare (3) £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of India General Service Medals 1854-95.

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Only 23 clasps for Hunza 1891 to European recipients. See Where Three Empires Meet, by E. F. Knight, the definitive account of the Hunza Expedition, for mentions of Appleford - ‘Spedding was appointed Chief Engineer to the Force, with the local rank of Captain, and Appleford was Assistant-Engineer.’ Delhi Durbar not confirmed.

‘No one on the frontier believed in the possibility of a peaceful settlement of our differences with Hunza and Nagar. These states were arming. Confident in the strength of their defiles, and of their power to seize Chalt, and to defeat Kashmir troops as of yore, they meditated seizing the Chaichar Parri, and possibly besieging Nomal. A spy of theirs had been captured near Nomal, and gave valuable information as to the intended move. The tribesmen were collecting for a dash, and the time was come to advance. The detachment of the 5th Gurkhas reduced by losses from frost bite to a little over a hundred and eighty men, and the two guns of the Hazara mountain battery were accordingly moved to Chalt, and the improvement of the road behind them was undertaken. Mr. Spedding, the head of the firm of contractors which was making the road from Gilgit to Kashmir, had placed his European staff and a body of picked Pathan labourers at my disposal, and they did splendid work on the road, and subsequently advanced with the force as far as Nilt.’

‘I had a thousand rifles and two guns. There were a hundred and eighty of the 5th Gurkhas, the backbone of the force, four hundred Gurkhas and Dogras of the Kashmir Body Guard Regiment, two hundred and fifty Dogras of the Kashmir Ragu Pertab Regiment, a hundred and fifty Punyali levies, and a small detachment of twenty men of the Twentieth Punjab Infantry, my personal escort, half with a gatling gun and half attached to the Punyalis to stiffen them, and the seven-pounders of the Hazara mountain battery. A larger force could not have been fed in the country, a smaller could not have undertaken the job. Opposed to us I counted on finding some four or five thousand men indifferently armed, but very skilful and dangerous enemies behind stone walls.’ (Ref Algernon Durand, The Making of a Frontier).