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Auction: 24003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 35

Punjab 1848-49, 1 clasp, Mooltan (Lieut. A. C. Plowden, 7th Irregular Cavy.), some light contact marks and polishing, otherwise very fine

Alfred Chichley Plowden was born and baptised at Calcutta in August 1819, the sixth son and youngest of eight children of Richard Chichley Plowden and his wife Sophia. His father Richard was born in Calcutta in 1782, the son of the director of the Honourable East India Company, and later joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1799 and worked as a writer in the service of the East India Company. Richard and Sophia were married on 22 August 1803 at Calcutta. Richard later died and was buried at the Cape of Good Hope in 1825, and Sophia died in 1837.

Plowden was nominated for the East India Company Bengal Infantry by the director of the East India Company on the recommendation of his mother, at which time he was residing at 10 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, and passed the selection committee on 29 March 1937. He was made 2nd Lieutenant on 13 June and arrived at Fort William on 8 July, where he joined the 32nd Bengal Native Infantry at Aligarh the following month, later being was posted to the 50th Native Infantry on 12 January 1938. Plowden married his first wife Caroline Elizabeth Nicoll at Benares, India on 10 September 1840 and was shortly after advanced Lieutenant on 3 October. He was later attached to the 3rd Light Infantry in October 1842 at Cawnpore, and in November 1844 was put in charge of the 64th Native Infantry recruitment depot at Aligarh ahead of being attached to the Bundelkhand Police Battalion in 1846.

Plowden served as a Lieutenant with the 7th Irregular Cavalry throughout the Punjab campaign, with whom he was present at the siege and surrender of Multan in 1849. The second Anglo-Sikh war was sparked in 1848 when the British political agent accompanying the newly appointed British-backed governor was murdered upon his arrival in Multan, sparking an open rebellion. Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes led British troops to supress the revolt, and was joined in August by forces of the East Indian Company's Bengal Army under the command of General Sir William Whish. They were further reinforced in November after having had to raise the siege after the rebellion of Sher Singh Attariwalla's Khalsa troops, originally part of Whish's men. The British commenced their attack on 27 December 1848, using heavy artillery guns were to blast breaches in the fortress walls. The British breached the city on 2 January 1849, with the close quarters combat resulting in heavy casualties of both soldiers and civilians, nevertheless, the Sultan Muraj refused to surrender until 22 January.

Plowden was made Adjutant following the end of the Siege of Multan and was later promoted Captain (London Gazette 11 December 1855, refers) and placed in charge of the Sudder Bazaar at Benares. He was furloughed to Europe on 10 April, later returning to India upon the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny when he was placed in charge of a brigade of Ghurkha allies in Oudh in the operations following the fall of Lucknow in 1858. Reproduced below is an excerpt of a despatch by Captain Plowden, published in the London Gazette on 7 May 1858:

'Captain A. C. Plowden, I Military Charge of a Division Goorkha Force, to Captain MacAndrew, Secretary to Military Commissioner. Before Lucknow, March 11, 1858,

SIR, I have the honour to report, for the information of Brigadier-General MacGregor, C.B., particulars of an action in which the advanced division of the Goorkha force under my military charge, was engaged, on the 5th instant, against a force of the enemy, amounting to 4000 men, under the command of Nazim Mehndee Hoossein, which resulted in a loss to the rebels of nearly 600 killed, and the capture of 1 gun, whilst the casualties on our side were 1 killed and 16 wounded, 2 of the latter having since died.

Having received information that the rebels had taken up a strong position on the Kandoo Nuddee, and had erected a battery by the side of the bridge on the Lucknow road, for the purpose of disputing our passage; moreover, that they had advanced across the bridge, I proposed a plan of attack, which was approved of by General Kurruck Bahadoor, and successfully carried out.

The division, consisting of the strength as per margin, advanced in quarter distance columns, at deploying distances, 5 regiments, forming the first line, and 2 on either flanks as a reserve.

On viewing the enemy, who was posted in detached parties extending from our left to right front, I halted the columns and deployed into line. I was much deceived as to the nature of the ground between us and the enemy; what at first appeared to be level, with a few fields of cultivation in front of the Right Brigade, afterwards proved to be deep ravines, with bush jungle, though the ground in front of the left brigade was a plain facing the enemy's battery. At this point our guns opened; after a few rounds from the right, or Brigadier Run Singh Bahadoor's Brigade, which caused the enemy in front to retire into the ravines, the advance was sounded. The Right Brigade had scarcely advanced fifty yards, when the enemy opened a sharp fire of musketry from a jungle on our right front; presuming he was in greatest force in that direction, I requested Brigadier Run Sing Bahadoor to make an oblique movement in that direction, which at once brought him in contact with the rebels. The brigade rushed gallantly into the jungle with a loud cheer, formed a line of skirmishers, and forced the rebels to make a rapid retreat. The Goorkhas were quite at home in this mode of warfare; their pursuit was so rapid through the ravines that numbers of the rebels were very soon overtaken, shot, and cut down. Many instances of individual bravery on the part of the Goorkhas were brought to my notice; there were several who each cut down three or four of the enemy. The pursuit was followed up for two miles, when the enemy having disappeared through a thick jungle, the "assembly" was sounded, and we formed our camp on the Nuddee.'

For his 'distinguished gallantry' in this engagement, Plowden was praised by the Governor-General of India in a notification published in the London Gazette on 7 May 1858. In 1859, Plowden became the Private Secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal but was shortly afterwards furloughed to Europe on 24 October 1860 on sick certificate for a period of two and a half years. Just a year later however, on 16 February 1861 Plowden was promoted Major and appointed to the Bengal Staff Corps (Edinburgh Gazette 9 December 1862, refers). An 1861 Census records Plowden as living with his wife Caroline Elizabeth in Brighton, but he was sadly to be widowed upon her death in London in 1863. On 3 July 1864 Plowden was advanced Lieutenant-Colonel (London Gazette 28 March 1865, refers) and appointed to the Stud department. Plowden was remarried to Louisa Page on 3 June 1865 at Buxar, India and was soon after on 13 June promoted Colonel, with his Colonelcy not appearing in the London Gazette until 12 January 1869.

Plowden was furloughed to Europe for the final time in 1874 and retired on his Colonel's allowances in 1875. He died at his residence at Kensington, Middlesex on 3 January 1876 at age 57. Colonel Plowden was survived by his wife Louisa, who herself died the following year, and their only child Mary who had been born in 1869 at Buxar; sold together with copied research.

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Estimate
£300 to £500

Starting price
£300