Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Maharajpoor Star 1843 (Lieutenant William Tinley H.M. 39th Regt.) fitted with a replacement silver bar suspension, good very fine £300-£400

William Newport Tinley was born in 1819 and was commissioned Ensign in the Royal African Colonial Corps on 15 November 1839. He transferred to the 39th Regiment of Foot on 31 December 1839, and was promoted Lieutenant, by purchase, on 11 June 1841, serving with the regiment in the Gwalior campaign of 1843, including the battle of Maharajpoor on 29 December 1843. He was promoted Captain on 27 May 1853, and was awarded the Royal Humane’s Society’s Silver Medal for his action on 9 August 1853:
‘During the morning of 9 August 1853 Mortimer Flynn (27), a Private in the 39th Regiment, got into difficulties while bathing in Cork harbour and sank in some ten feet of water. Captain Tinley, who was based at Fort Camden, Cork, was himself going out to bathe, when, shortly after passing the barracks, he spotted Flynn struggling in the water. He ran down to the rock at the edge of the water and jumped in full dressed. Having swam to where Flynn had last appeared, Tinley managed to grab his hair and thus pull his head above the surface. He then held him and swam back to the rock were other soldiers from the guard room helped take the unconscious Flynn ashore and into the guard room to recover. No medical assistance was available.
Details of the rescue were quickly brought to the attention of the Royal Humane Society by Lieutenant W Greesham and Lieutenant J Dixon, both of the 39th Regiment, as well as others. The Society initially considered the circumstances at its committee meeting on 21 September 1853 who then referred it on to their General Court. They approved the award of the Society's silver medal to Captain Tinley. The Society sent Tinley's medal to the War Office on 6 April 1854 for them to arrange its presentation.’ (R.H.S. Case no. 15,419 refers)

Tinley saw further service during the Crimean War, going out to the Crimea with a draft of the 39th Regiment aboard H.M.S. Princess Royal, sailing from Queenstown on 13 January 1855. He was present at the siege of Sebastopol and the attacks on the Redan of 18 June and 8 September 1855 (entitled to a Crimea Medal with clasp Sebastopol and Turkish Crimea Medal - these medals, together with an unnamed Maharajpoor Star, were sold at auction in November 2014). He retired from the Army on 20 May 1864 and died at Bruff, County Limerick, on 8 February 1874.

Sold with copied research.

Note: At least one other Maharajpoor Star named to this man is known to exist.

For the medals awarded to the recipient’s brother, see Lot 197.