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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 53

An interesting Punjab Medal awarded to Captain A. W. Garnett, Bengal Engineers; severely wounded while reconnoitring a breach at the Siege of Mooltan in December 1848, Garnett oversaw the design and construction of British defences along the North-West Frontier

Punjab 1848-49, 1 clasp, Mooltan (2nd Lieutenant A. W. Garnett. Sappers and Miners), with silver top buckle, naming officially engraved in running script, an official 'Indian Mutiny' replacement, nearly extremely fine

Arthur William Garnett was born at Brompton, Middlesex in June 1829, the youngest son of William Garnett, Inspector-General of Inland Revenue and deviser of the British income tax. In 1843 young Arthur was recommended by his father to John Petty Muspratt, one of the Honourable East India Company's directors, for a military cadetship at Addiscombe. Graduating in 1846 with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, his training in sapping and mining was overseen at Chatham by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederick Smith. He embarked for India in January 1848, and was gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers upon arrival at Calcutta.

Garnett was immediately dispatched to the Punjab, where the city of Mooltan was in open rebellion against the British-imposed Treaty of Lahore. On 24 July Sir Frederick Currie, British Resident at Lahore, ordered Lieutenant-General Whish to invest the city and overthrow its populist ruler, Diwan Mulraj Chopra. Garnett, now an Assistant Field Engineer, made gabions and fascines at Shoojabad (just south of Mooltan) in readiness for the siege. He re-joined Whish's column on 21 December; a week later Whish brought his heavy guns to within eighty yards of Mooltan's walls. Garnett was severely wounded while reconnoitring the breaches caused by the British bombardment, but recovered sufficiently to oversee the scaling ladders for the main infantry assault on 2 January. Mooltan's defenders still held the citadel, and Garnett's training at Chatham came to the fore when Whish ordered saps and mines to be driven up to it. The mines were exploded on 18 January, reducing the counterscarp to rubble. Threatened with storming, Mulraj Chopra surrendered himself and his 3,000 troops unconditionally to Whish. Had it not been for the achievements of the Sappers and Miners - including Garnett - the garrison could have held out for several more weeks.

The citadel's surrender on 22 January came not a moment too soon. On the banks of the Chenab, some 450 miles to the north-east, the main British force under Sir Hugh Gough prepared to confront a formidable Sikh army led by Sher Singh. Leaving a brigade in Mooltan, Whish led his exhausted troops to Gough's aid, covering the distance in under a fortnight. It was an incredible feat of marching, over rough roads and across two major rivers. Garnett served with the Sappers and Miners in Whish's column and was present when Whish seized the fords at Wazirabad, effectively trapping the Sikh army on the open plain of Goojerat and facilitating its defeat (see Lot 549 of Spink's April 2018 sale of Orders, Decorations and Medals). Following the British victory, Garnett went forward with Sir Walter Gilbert's flying column and chased the retreating Sikhs as far as the Afghan border.

After Mooltan

With the Punjab finally annexed, Garnett was appointed to the Public Works Department as Assistant Engineer at Peshawar. In The Military Engineer in India (1935), Sandes describes how:

'…the Punjab was being opened up by roads and canals; new cantonments were being laid out, and old ones enlarged; hundreds of rivers and streams were bridged in the course of a few years, and lines of survey run in all directions. It was an era of intensive effort, and the land a paradise for the engineer who could stand the extreme heat of the northern summer. There were no civil engineers to do the work, so the young Bengal Engineer entered into it with zeal.'

With Lieutenant James T. Walker, Bengal Engineers, Garnett began a military survey of the Peshawar Valley and Trans-Indus region, covering 400 square miles by June 1849. Garnett then set his Sappers to work constructing a road between Kohat and Kotul. A company of Sikh infantry was detailed to protect Garnett's men. While completing the project, Garnett's command was surprised in camp by around 1,500 Afridi tribesmen. Twelve Sappers were killed and six wounded before they had a chance to arm themselves. Garnett stoically held the position until the arrival of a relief column from Peshawar commanded by Sir Colin Campbell.

'Fort Garnett' - The North-West Frontier

Appointed Executive Engineer at Kohat on 31 May 1851, Garnett modernised and drastically improved the city's defences, helping to secure the North-West Frontier. He also designed and built a fortress at Bahadoor Kheyl to protect the salt mines, as well as numerous cantonments, barracks and redoubts along the Afghan border; one such redoubt was named 'Fort Garnett' in his honour. He planted forests wherever practicable, constructing bridges and roads under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. The 1854 General Report Upon the Administration assigns Garnett full credit for these remarkable projects, which 'he could not possibly have done without the possession of hardihood, temper, and good judgement'. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 15 February 1854.

Garnett was appointed sole Field Engineer on Brigadier-General Chamberlain's staff for the 1855 Hangu Expedition; the following October he commanded 2nd Company, Bengal Sappers & Miners during Chamberlain's offensive against the Zaimukhts and Turis of the Miranzi Valley. For the expeditions into Eusofzaie country and the Koorum Valley, he oversaw all aspects of engineering. During the Indian Mutiny of 1857 he remained on the North-West Frontier, where his knowledge of the hill tribes was of the upmost value. On 27 August he was promoted to Captain.

During road-building excavations, Garnett took an active interest in archaeology and sent many strange fossils to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He returned to England on furlough in 1860, shortly after marrying Mary Charlotte Burnard Wood of Crewkerne. He studied dockyard design, and on his return to India in 1861 was appointed Secretary to Government, Public Works Department. He suffered a mortal attack of pleurisy on 1 May 1861, and was buried at St. Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta. Other monuments were erected to him at Kotah church, which he built, and at the church of Holy Trinity, Brompton; sold with a file of copied research.

Recommended reading:

Paget, Lieut. Col. W. H., Expeditions Undertaken Against the North-West Frontier Tribes (London, 1874).
Sandes, Colonel E. W. C., The Military Engineer in India (London, 1935).
Sandes, Colonel E. W. C., The Indian Sappers and Miners (London, 1948).
Siddons, Captain H., 'Journal of the Siege of Mooltan,' in Corps Papers of the Royal Engineers and EIC Engineers, Vol. I (1849-50), Paper XLI, pp. 419-460.

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