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Auction: 20003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 774

The outstanding Indian Mutiny Medal to Colonel F. J. Wise, Bombay Staff Corps, who served as an Ensign in the 26th Bombay Native Infantry during vicious fighting against the Bheels of Khandesh; this hard-fought but often overlooked campaign stabilised the Deccan and prevented the Mutiny from spreading to Bombay

Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Ensign F. J. Wise, 26th Bombay N.I.), good very fine

Francis 'Frank' John Wise was born at New Brunswick, North America (Canada) on 29 July 1838, the son of Lieutenant Francis Wise, 65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot, and his wife Sarah. The 65th Foot were involved in suppressing the Canadian rebellions of 1837-38; young Frank was baptised at Fredericton Parish Church, New Brunswick on 6 November 1838. Afterwards the family returned to England, Lieutenant Wise selling his commission in 1840.

Frank Wise received a 'classical and mathematical' education at Leamington College, the Master of which, J. Burbidge, wrote: 'Wise was a member of this school from Aug. 1849 to Xmas 1854. During the last three years & a half years of this period, he was under my constant observation & I can speak in unqualified terms of the excellence of his conduct.' He then spent two years under the private tuition of a Mr Charles Turner M.A., for whom Wise's 'conduct and application during the whole of that time was everything that I could wish.'

Wise's father desired his son to follow him into the military service, and in 1856 he was admitted to the Private Military Establishment at 9 Salisbury Place, New Road, Marylebone. The school was run by run by Messrs. Edward & Richard Staines, who recorded that 'Mr F. J. Wise was a resident pupil with us from February 19th to May 8th 1856 during which time his conduct was strictly moral and gentlemanly and his progress in all subjects perfectly satisfactory.'

On 6 May 1856, Wise sat the military examination at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, passing 'satisfactorily' in History, Geography, Arithmetic, Latin, English, Fortification and Drawing. Shortly afterwards he was recommended by the 'civil patronage' of a Mrs Montgomery of Leamington to John Lock, a director of the Honourable East India Company, who on 5 March 1857 nominated him for a cadetship in the Bombay infantry. Wise's previous military schooling negated the need for him to attend the Company's military seminary at Addiscombe, and after passing examination at East India House, Leadenhall Street, on 11 March he was granted a direct cadetship to the Bombay Army. He sailed from Southampton aboard the P&O steamship Bombay, arriving at Bombay on 22 May 1857. In the 1850s there was always a large number of unposted cadets who, on arrival, 'were attached to any regiment they chose, or that was considered proper to send them.'

Wise was first attached as a cadet to the 25th Bombay Native Infantry (B.N.I.) at Ahmedabad, later transferring to the 6th B.N.I. at Poona, learning the necessary drill and duties requisite for commanding native troops, before finally being commissioned Ensign with the 26th Bombay N.I. on 13 June 1857, his seniority in the army (and the 26th B.N.I.) dating from 13 June. He joined the 26th at the end of September 1857, when the regiment returned to Bombay following active service in Persia. Within days they were immediately dispatched to quell disturbances in the north of the Bombay presidency caused by the Indian Mutiny.

Mutiny service

During the Mutiny, Bombay was not completely free from the unrest that plagued northern India, and Ahmednagar and Khandesh were the scenes of considerable disturbance, caused by the Bheels, a tribe residing primarily in the north-east of the Bombay Presidency. A history of the Bheel Corps described them thus:

'Short, black, snub-nosed, usually ugly, but withal of a cheerful expression, they are easily distinguished from their neighbours. For it is only in a few very wild patches of jungle that the population is exclusively Bhil. In cultivated tracts they are found, a small colony on the outskirts of each village, combining in their persons the varied attributes of village police, bird-scarers and watchers of crops, general sportsmen, helots, Picts and Scots, and ordinary footpads. They are, undoubtedly, one of the chief remaining tribes of those people who inhabited the Peninsula of India before the Aryan incursion. . . though they have adopted many Hindu customs, and speak languages largely borrowed from the Hindus among whom they live . . . They live cheek by jowl with the untouchable, the scavengers, and cobblers; they are coupled with such out-casts in ordinary parlance. Yet a Bhil may enter a temple or a house without defiling it, just as a Mussulman or a Christian may.'

By the time of early British rule, the Bheel peoples had migrated to the hills and resorted to brigandry, raiding villages in the plains for food, money and livestock. Across the subcontinent, the Company found that employing regular troops to combat these various criminal gangs proved ineffective, leading to the formation of 'Local Corps' such as the Khandesh Bheel Corps in 1825, made up of the very men who took part in these raids. No easy task, as 'men who have been in the habit of plundering, murdering, robbing and looting, are most difficult to allure into the net of discipline.'

Khandesh bordered the territories of the Maharajah Holkar of Indore, the forces of whom, upon the outbreak of rebellion across northern India in mid-1857, turned against the British. This led to steadily growing unrest in Khandesh, and it was thought necessary by the Bombay government to sanction the raising of a second Bheel Corps of 1,000 men in July 1857. The Corps History reveals that Bheels fought on both sides of the conflict:

'That the mutiny in Khandesh was indirectly set in motion by the terrible events in Upper India is without doubt. That there was direct connexion is extremely doubtful, and that there was any collusion or attempt at united action between the Khandesh outlaws and the mutineers of Upper India is impossible. The indirect connexion may be inferred from the stories and rumours current over the country, from the arrival of occasional stragglers from the seat of war, and from the visible preparations of Government. . . Improvident and inconsequent, they [the Bheels] possess a strong sense of humour. Though it has been shown that they made excellent soldiers, yet it was their tradition to be "agin the Government." They were also in the condition described as "spoiling for a fight." Those whom Government employed were willing and able to fight for Government. Unemployed Bhils preferred fighting against Government to going without a fight altogether.'

The first gathering of Bheels was under the leadership of one Bhagoji Naik. This chief, who had been an officer in the Ahmednugur Police, was convicted in 1855 of rioting and obstructing the police and was sentenced to imprisonment. After his release from prison he retired to the hills spreading anti-government sentiments and returning to brigandry with a growing retinue of Bheels. These Bheels in the Ahmednugur and Khandesh collectorates, and adjoining districts, and along the Sautpoora Mountains, rose as early as September 1857, and by 8 October around 1,500 men had posted themselves on a hill at Sinnore, 20 miles south of Nassick when they were attacked by Lieutenant J. Henry, superintendent of the Ahmednuggar Police, who was killed, and his party repulsed with severe loss. At the same time Wise and the 26th Native Infantry had left Bombay by rail for Nassick and Sinnore to aid the fight against these rebel Bheels. Having joined the so-called 'Nuggar Field Force' their first engagement was on 18 October in the hills of Shamsherpur in Akola, between Bhagoji's men and a detachment of troops and police under Colonel Macan of the 26th N.I., in which two officers attached to the force, Lieutenant Graham on special police duty and Mr. P. Chapman of the Bombay Civil Service, were wounded.

On 29 November the Bheel chief Raghujee Bhangria passed through the Ahmednugur district, plundering and burning. During the end of November and December the Bheels, under Khaja Singh, in great force, and operating out of the Sautpoora Hills carried off plunder from the adjacent villages to the amount of 140,000 lacs of rupees. Towards the end of January 1858 the Bheels of Chandore were attacked by a force under Captain Montgomery, superintendent of the Ahmednugur police, in dense jungle 12 miles south-east of the town, with 'indifferent success.' Montgomery led his men three times to the charge, but was himself badly wounded, and obliged to retire. Three officers, including Lieut. Chamberlain of the 26th N.I. were wounded. On 19 February 1858 another engagement took place near the same spot, at Mahadeo Donger, when Captain Pottinger, Montgomery's replacement, defeated the insurgent Bheels and took many prisoners. The Telegraph and Courier of 9 March 1858 reported the following vivid account of the engagement at Mahadeo and the conditions in which Wise and the Bombay force were operating:

'The Bheels were speedily discerned on the summit of the hill, and the infantry were thrown out in skirmishing order, with instructions to extend as widely as possible at the base of the hill, and gradually to bring the flanks forward as they reached the heights, so as to overlap the enemy and prevent their escape. The troops advanced over a very steep and rugged ground under a brisk fire, and after nearly an hour's sharp fighting (in some cases, hand to hand) the enemy were entirely routed. Thirty-two killed were found on the hill, and twelve were afterwards discovered in the plain, where they had been slain by Captain Nuttall and his party in their attempt to escape. The number of wounded, though very considerable, has not yet been ascertained, in consequence of the jungle and ravines affording them such facility for hiding; but five prisoners in arms were taken, besides a large number of women and children. Our loss was happily but trivial. One Sepoy of the Rifles killed, and one severely and two slightly wounded. One Sepoy of the 26th also slightly wounded. The thorough surprise that was effected, not only enabled Captain Pottinger to give this bund a blow from which there is no recovering, but has established so wholesome an amount of terror throughout the disaffected Bheels, that it will be long ere they show front again in the Nuggur district.'

At this time the 26th was 'chiefly composed of Oude Brahmans and Rajpáts, and good class Mussulmans and some Mahrattas' who had almost nothing in common with the Bheels. Indeed, one officer of the regiment had nothing but praise for the sepoys he served alongside, in a letter home dated Khandesh, February 1858:

'I arrived in Bombay the beginning of September, and my regiment returned from Persia the end of that month. Rumours affecting its loyalty preceded it, but I am happy to say it has proved itself, by courage and good conduct, the excellent regiment it has always been. The late Sir Henry Havelock, and there could not be a superior judge, admired the 26th Bombay Infantry highly, and gave them no end of praise. The Europeans of Her Majesty's 78th fraternized with the men of the 26th, and used to call them the black Cameronians. Almost immediately on arrival in Bombay, the regiment was ordered on field service against the Bheels who had risen in insurrection in the Deccan and Kandesh. From the nature of the country, which is hilly, thick with jungle, and intersected with ravines, it is very difficult to get up with the Bheels; but on each occasion they have been severely handled and the bands dispersed. The 26th exhibited the most lively interest in the safety of their officers; one, a Brahman, even tried to screen me with his person when the balls were flying past; and on another occasion a Mahratta sepoy observing one of the enemy taking deliberate aim at his captain, stepped in front of him and received the shot in his own body. I am happy to say that a vacancy which occurred at the time enabled me to promote the man at once. The excellent feeling exhibited by the men towards their European officers was not confined to individuals, but was shared in by the whole body, and the abuse levelled at the sepoys by the Bheels for not deserting us was unbounded.'

The fight against the rebel Bheels continued well into 1859, long after the rebellion in northern India was declared over. In 1858 the rebels were chiefly engaged in Nasik, Khandesh and the Nizam's dominions, and gave no trouble in Ahmednugur. On 3 May that year, Wise passed the language exam for 'colloquial proficiency in the vernacular language of the men.' On 19 April 1859 he was appointed Paymaster of the 26th Native Infantry. Parties of rebel Bheels were reported to be gathering in the Nizam's territory with the intention of joining Bhagoji, and in the British-controlled districts unrest amongst unemployed Bheels again began to grow. On 26 October Bhagoji plundered the village of Korhala in Kopargaon and carried off property worth about £1,800 (Rs. 18,000). On 11 November the rebels were pursued and at Mithsagar, in the Sinnar sub-division of Nasik, a hand-to-hand fight ensued in which Bhagoji and most of his followers were killed and the rebellion finally brought to an end.

Wise's experiences fighting against (and alongside) the Bheels would stand him in good stead in the years to come. The 26th N.I. operated out of Mhow from the end of 1858, and were involved in repulsing the rebel army under Tantia Tope which attempted to invade the Deccan in 1858-59. Promoted to Lieutenant on 26 May 1860, Wise entered the Bombay Staff Corps on 1 December 1961. Over subsequent years he held a variety of important positions. He worked as the Boundary Commissioner for Khandesh & Indore in 1865, and rose to Captain in the Bombay Staff Corps on 13 June 1869. In July 1873 he joined a government committee charged with overseeing rural administration, and in November 1875 he was assigned special duty in attendance on The Prince of Wales during his visit to the subcontinent. He sat on the Bombay Railway Robberies Inquiries Committee in March-August 1878, before becoming Acting Inspector-General of Prisons in May-August 1884, Inspector-General of Police for the Bombay Presidency in January 1885, and Acting Police Commissioner in May 1889. He died at Port Said, Egypt on 8 February 1890, with the rank of Colonel; sold with copied research, photographs of the recipient, and service records.


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Sold for
£420

Starting price
£380