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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 277

Pair: Major-General W. C. Russell, Bengal Artillery, Commissary Captain of the Allahabad Arsenal during the Indian Mutiny - it was he who was famed for having ensured it did not fall to the Mutineers

Sutlej 1845-46, for Ferozeshuhur 1845, 1 clasp, Sobraon (Lieut. W: C: Russell 1st Brigade H: Ay.); Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Commy. Captn. W. C. Russell. Ordce. Dept. Allahabad Al.), very fine (2)

M.I.D. London Gazette 14 July 1859. This entry offers detailed praise for the services and bravery of Russell.

William Carmichael Russell was born on 11 August 1824 and was educated at Bedford School. Having first been commissioned into the Bengal Artillery in June 1842, he served during the Sikh War (Medal & clasp).

It was however, during the Indian Mutiny, that Russell made his name. At the time of the outbreak of conflict, he was Commissary Captain of the Allahabad Arsenal, including the 16th-century Akbar's Fort. The city was the new centre of Government of the North-Western Provinces, and throughout the whole of the Mutiny in 1857-58 it remained the only part of Allahabad that remained in British hands from start to finish. Despite its treasury being plundered, the Fort itself was '...saved by a very close shave'. Rather than lose it to the rebels, Russell had elaborately wired the Fort and distributed the magazine throughout so that, had it been captured, the insurgents would have found the coveted Fort and Arsenal little else but an empty mass of blackened ruins. He was duly 'mentioned' and it seems rather unusual that for his gallant services over a prolonged period that he did not earn any decoration. He was also praised by Field Marshal Lord Roberts in Forty-one years in India From Subaltern To Commander-In-Chief. Retired in March 1878, the Major-General died at Shirley, Southampton on 10 February 1905.

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Sold for
£1,900

Starting price
£550