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Auction: 26003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 32

The outstanding China Medal awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Reid, C.B., 6th Madras Native Infantry, who took his decoration for gallantry at the Battle of Chin-Kiang-Fu, July 1842, when he led his men in action '...fighting almost inch-by-inch' and assumed command of the unit after the death of its C.O.; he was latterly Quartermaster-General of the Madras Army

China 1842 (F. A. Reid, Captain, 6th Madras Nat. Infantry.), very fine

[C.B.] London Gazette 24 December 1842. Award for gallantry for the Battle of Chin-Kiang-Fu, July 1842, when he led the Eastern Column to the North-East Gate and headlong into the Manchus in the Guardhouse. In the action Colonel Drever was killed in action and Reid assumed command of the unit. As recalled in The Chinese War:

'A gate leading from a ramp in the inner gate-way having been at length forced, Captain Reid charged through it at the head of a party of his men and bayoneted the soldiers who were still attempting a vain resistance.'

Francis Archibald Reid entered the Madras Army in 1819 and was made Lieutenant in the 6th Madras Native Infantry in August 1820. Advanced Captain in November 1834, Major in August 1845 and was Lieutenant-Colonel from August 1853-April 1859. Quartermaster General from October 1849-October 1861, he was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 44th Native Infantry from 1860 until his death at Phoineas House, Beauly, Inverness on 10 November 1862.

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Estimate
£1,000 to £1,500

Starting price
£800