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Auction: 24003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 30

Candahar Ghuznee Cabul 1842 (H. C. Rawlinson), contemporarily engraved naming, straight bar and steel clip suspension, very fine

Given the lack of a regiment or rank on the Medal, it is difficult to attriubute, but the delicate care which was taken in the engraving likely a wealthy recipient. Furthermore, the career of Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson proposes him as the potential recipient.

Henry Creswicke Rawlinson was born in 1810 and in 1827 began his military career as a cadet in the East India Company's Army, first stationed in Bombay and later sent to Persia in 1833. Rawlinson became known as the 'Father of Assyriology' for his contributions to the successful deciphering of cuneiform script, which he worked on while stationed in Persian and Iran as an army officer.

In 1841, Rawlinson joined the British military contingent in Afghanistan and was stationed in Kandahar as a political agent, and successfully organised the defence of Kandahar. He was posted to Baghdad in 1843 by the East India Company, where he worked as British consul. Rawlinson attained the rank of Major-General in his military career and was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1889. Among his many accolades and titles, Rawlinson was a Baronet, a member of the first India Council, a crown director of the East India Company, Minister to Persia, a Member of Parliament, President of the Royal Asiatic Society and of the Royal Geographical Society, and much of his collection of antiquities is now housed at the British Museum, of which he was also a trustee.

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Estimate
£240 to £280

Starting price
£240