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Auction: 22003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 14

Sold by Order of a Direct Descendant

The Seringapatam Medal attributed to Colonel T. D. Broughton, Honourable East India Company's Bengal Army, who saw many years of service 'out East' and became a noted writer and artist on Indian subjects

Honourable East India Company's Medal for Seringapatam 1799, 48mm, silver, Soho Mint, contained in a yellow-metal frame, glazed with lunettes and fitted with a yellow-metal straight suspension bar, with matching two-pronged buckle as worn, a most attractive example, nearly extremely fine

Thomas Duer Broughton was born in 1778, the eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Broughton of Bristol, was educated at Eton and later appointed Cadet on the Bengal Establishment of the Honourable East India Company. Soonafter seeing action at the Siege and Capture of Seringapatam (4 May 1799) he appears to have later been appointed Commandant of the 'Cadet Corps', formed with the purpose of instructing these young officers in their duties upon their arrival in India (The United Service Magazine, Vol. 20, p.143, refers). In 1802 he obtained a Staff post as Military Resident with the Marathas - a position likely requiring a great deal of tact and diplomacy, this being on the eve of the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803-05) in which a young Arther Wellesley was to make his name.
During these years, he clearly became fascinated with Indian and Eastern culture, later publishing a book entitled: Letters Written in a Mahratta Camp During the Year 1809, descriptive of the character, manners, domestic habits, and religious ceremonies of the Mahrattas (1813); he additionally collected Hindi poems and published a further work a year later: Selections from the Popular Poetry of the Hindoos (1814). Going on well-earned furlough to England at the end of 1811, Broughton returned to India in August 1815 and was then appointed to command at Java, which had been captured from the Dutch in 1811. The above-mentioned source adds of his time here: "The usual limits of a memoir such as this will not allow us to follow this distinguished officer through the details of a long military career. Suffice to say that in the command of posts and battalions he was more than once honoured with public thanks from the Governor, and with affectionate and gratifying addresses from the officers under his command." However, his period of service on Java was extremely limited as the island was returned to the Dutch under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.

It appears that he then returned to India and resumed military service, being advanced Lieutenant-Colonel in 1822 and full Colonel in 1829. Whilst on a visit home to England, Broughton fell ill and died at Dorset Square, London, on 16 November 1835.

For the Medal of his younger brother, please see Lot 10.

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Sold for
£1,100

Starting price
£800