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Auction: 23003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 22

The Second Mahratta War medal to Sergeant John Rea, 94th Foot (Scotch Brigade), later 59th Foot, who was wounded twice in the leg, at Gawilghur in 1803 and at Chandore in 1804, and severely hurt by the springing of a mine at Fort Cornelis in 1811

Army of India 1799-1826, 3 clasps, Asseerghur, Argaum, Gawilghur (J. Rea, 94th Foot) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming edge bruise and light contact marks, otherwise good very fine and rare

Provenance:
Murray Collection 1882.
Needes Collection 1940.
Moultry Collection 1954.
Glendining's 1965.

It should be noted that the recipient is additionally entitled to the Military General Service Medal, clasp Java, as a member of the 59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot, but this does not appear to have ever been seen at auction. 33 members of the 94th Regiment of Foot claimed the Army of India Medal with this number and combination of clasps.

John Rea was born at East Perth, Perthshire, circa 1778, and enlisted into the 94th Regiment of Foot (Scotch Brigade) on 25 April 1798. He served with the 94th throughout the 2nd Mahratta War of 1803-04 and was wounded twice in the left leg - once at the storming of Gawilghur in 1803, and once at Chandore in 1804. The 94th received orders to leave India in July 1807 but Rae volunteered to the 59th Foot, whom he joined on 25 September 1807. He was present with the 59th at the taking of the Isle of France in 1810 and at the capture of Java, where he was severely hurt by the springing of a mine at Fort Cornelis on 26 August 1811. He also participated with the Flank companies of the 59th in the campaign in Bundelcund (1817-18) under the Marquis of Hastings.
Discharged from the 59th with the rank of Sergeant at Dinapore, Bengal, on 24 October 1821 but subsequently reverted to the rank of Corporal, Rea landed at Gravesend in July 1822 and was finally discharged from the Army on 20 August 1822. He died at Perth on 30 December 1864.

Campaigning in India during this period was notoriously harsh and unforgiving, and it is worth noting an eye-witness account of the important part played by the 94th (Scotch Brigade) at the Siege and Capture of the fortress of Gawilghur in 1803. Mountstuart Elphinstone (at that time a diplomat attached to Sir Arthur Wellesley's army) wrote:

'The advance of the 94th was silent, deliberate and even solemn. Everybody expected the place to be well defended. As we got near we saw a number of people running on the rampart, near the breach. I was amazed they did not fire: our cannon fired over our heads. We got to the breach where we halted, and let the forlorn-hope, a sergeant's party, run up: then we followed, ran along and dashed up the second breach and huzzaed. Perhaps the enemy fired a little from some huts by the second breach: I did not see them do that. I saw some of them bayoneted there. We kept to the right after entering the second breach and soon after the troops poured in, so that there was no distinguishing forlorn-hope or anything. We huzzaed and dashed up the second breach and leaped down into the place. Such of the enemy as stood were put to the bayonet, but most of them ran off to the right and down a narrow valley which led to a gate. Here they met Colonel Chalmers coming on with half the 78th.
The 94th pressed behind, firing from above and a terrible slaughter took place. After this we endeavoured to push on, when to our astonishment we discovered that we had only gained a separate hill, and that the fort lay behind a deep valley, beyond which appeared a double wall and strong gates. I thought we should have to entrench ourselves and wait till guns could be brought up to breach the inner walls. The 94th followed the road down and crowded around the gate. The first wall was joined to a steep hill and the 94th began slowly and with difficulty to climb up one by one. Beyond the first wall was a narrow rocky road, overtopped by a steep rock, and another wall and gate, over which those who climbed the first wall would have to go, which the steepness and height of the wall made impossible. While the 94th were climbing over, the enemy kept up a fire from their works: in the meantime our people poured in at the breach and covered the hill opposite to the enemy. They fired on the enemy and the valley was filled with such a roar of musketry as can hardly be conceived. The sight cannot be described. At last our men got over and opened the first gate. Scaling ladders were brought, got up the hill and applied to the second wall. The enemy fled from their works: we rushed over the wall, and the fort was ours.'

Lieutenant Blakiston, also with Wellesley's army at Gawilghur and who later published the book: 'Twelve Years Military Adventures in Three Quarters of the Globe', adds further fascinating details. Immediately after the storming of the first breach, which 'was taken in two minutes with little resistance. A column of troops were seen to issue from the inner fort. This was immediately charged by the grenadiers of the Scotch Brigade and repulsed with great slaughter.' Then, when the lower fort had been taken: 'two sepoy battalions were drawn up on a height fronting the wall of the inner fort, on which they commenced such an incessant and well-directed fire that none of the enemy durst show their noses above the parapet. Under cover of this fire the light company of the Scotch Brigade placed their ladders against the wall and we were soon master of the last defences of the fort. Captain Campbell placed the first ladder and was the first man on the inner ramparts. The light company then charged forward to the gate of the inner fort, opened it and admitted the rest of the battalion and the foremost of the sepoys.'

There was one final fight for the 94th inside Gawilghur, as Lieutenant Blakiston thus records: 'Scarcely had the gate been opened to admit the remainder of the storming party, when a body, looking more like furies than men, having their long hair cast loose over their shoulders and brandishing their swords, came rushing from behind some buildings and fell furiously upon the 94th. These, however, received them with that coolness and determination for which undisciplined valour however desperate, can never be a match. The contest was nevertheless sanguinary to both sides, for these desperadoes sold their lives dearly. One fellow in particular, it was told, having got his back to a wall killed and wounded several Europeans before he could be despatched. Among this party was the Killedar: also the Commander-in-Chief of the Berar Rajah's infantry.'

In his General Order of December 15th Wellesley, after recording that 'the gallantry with which the attack was made by the detachment has never been surpassed', went on to add his 'special thanks to Captain Campbell of the 94th who led the light infantry of the Scotch Brigade to the escalade of the inner fort by which the capture was finally assured.' Wellesley wrote that he: ...'had seen several places taken by storm, but never any in which so little irregularity was committed or so little plundering. In an hour after the storm', - added Wellesley - 'the troops marched out with as much regularity as if only passing through.' The defeat at Argaum, followed by the startling surprise and storming of Gawilghar, a fortress that all India had believed to be absolutely impregnable, ended the war. It was a knock-down blow to the enemy, coming as it did, as the sequel to the rout of Scindia's northern army in November. Within two days of the capture of Gawilghar, the Bhonsla Rajah of Berar sued for peace and accepted the British terms: a fortnight later Scindia did the same.

In the two principal actions of the Khandeish campaign in October 1804 - the taking of Holkar's fortresses of Chandore and Galnah, the centres of Holkar's power in Khandeish - the 94th took the leading part. The Chandore stronghold, 85 miles west of Aurungabad, comprised a walled pettah, or outer town, and towering above it - 1,600 feet above the plain - the main fort on a steeply-scarped rock with high embattled walls all round. The pettah was stormed on 8 October with little opposition to the pickets of the 94th and 74th, and the fort was bombarded during the next day to occupy the enemy's attention while a place to attempt an escalade up the rock was being searched for. A likely point was found, and at 3 a.m. on 10 October the storming party, the flank companies of the 94th, 150 of the pickets and 300 Madras sepoys, started to climb up and escalade. They reached the walls at dawn, planted their ladders silently, and taking the Mahratta garrison by surprise carried the fort at the point of the bayonet within a quarter of an hour. The 94th had one drummer and six rank and file wounded - no other casualties.

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Sold for
£9,500

Starting price
£4800