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Auction: 19002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 9

(x) The Indian Mutiny Medal awarded to Surgeon R. W. Macauley, Probyn's Horse, late King's Royal Rifle Corps and Bengal Medical Service, whose promising medical career was cut short by his premature demise off the coast of China in 1860

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Delhi (Asst. Surgn. R W Macaulay. H.Ms. 1st. Bn. 60th. Rifles), nearly extremely fine

Robert Welbank Macaulay was born on 4 March 1823, the son of Dr. Alexander Macauley, an Edinburgh Physician. Educated at the University of Edinburgh he graduated on 20 March 1845, the Professor of Military Surgery offered the following reference:

'He has acquitted himself most satisfactorily at the several examinations of the days; by the promptitude, accuracy and intelligence of his answers to the questions put to him relative to the Diseases of soldiers and seamen; and I have further reason to know that Mr. Macauley has cultivated the other branches of his professional studies with zeal, industry and success.'

Dr. James Syme, Professor of Clinical Surgery was equally complimentary, noting that he was 'deserving of confidence', whilst Dr. Handyside, Acting Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary noted:

'He has thoroughly enjoyed of being under the superintendence and counsel of his father, Dr. Macauley. I have much confidence in recommending him as highly fit to undertake any profession and mil (sic) appointment that may be committed to him.'

At around this time his father published A Dictionary of Medicine and Surgery and A Dictionary of Medicine, Designed for Popular Use: Containing an Account of Diseases and Their Treatment, Including those Most Frequent in Warm Climates. Macauley was keen to add his own insights to the former, subsequent editions being revised and in great measure re-written by the son. One particular definition involved that of Eruptive Diseases:

'The Spring and Summer, not in sympathy with the ripening fruit, but in consequence of the heat of the weather increasing the determination of the blood to the surface. Moles should not be meddled with.'

The updated edition received considerable praise:

'The careful study of such a book as the present would be of great use to the Civil Service in India, especially as introductory to the perusal of works on medical jurisprudence. In a country like India, where unblushing perjury is the rule, and truth is the exception, it constantly happens that, in criminal cases, a magistrate is first misled, and his time wasted, by a mass of statements and lies, which a little knowledge of medicine and medical jurisprudence would have enabled him at once to set aside as irrelevant and frivolous.'

Appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Bengal Medical Service on 27 February 1845, Macauley departed Southampton for India on 8 March 1845 - a little under 2 weeks before his official graduation date - furnished with a fourth reference from Dr. Hills, Cupper to Guy's Hospital, noting his proficiency in that particular branch of medicine.

He went on to serve with the 1/60th King's Royal Rifle Corps and Probyn's Horse - 1st Sikh Irregular Cavalry, utilising his invaluable medical knowledge during the Indian Mutiny and Capture of Delhi. Promoted Surgeon and later serving with the Honourable East India Company, Macauley served in China from 1859-60, but died of dysentery aboard the Military Hospital Ship S.S. Mauritius on 15 July 1860, off the China Coast at Ta-Lien-Wan Bay. Unmarried, his estate was administered by his father, then residing at 18 Alfred Place, West Brompton, London; sold with copied references, attestation documents and roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930.


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Sold for
£500