The defence of Kelat-i-Ghilzie in 1842
Peter Duckers looks at a rare, early medal for a demanding defence
The Afghan War of 1839-42 established the basic principle that British soldiers would receive basic war medals to reward and commemorate their campaign service. This is one of the early medals.
The Afghan War of 183942, along with the China campaign of 1840-42, at last established the basic principle that British soldiers - and not just their East India Company counterparts - would receive basic war medals to reward and commemorate their campaign service. The system, begun in 1842 with the award of a medal for the capture of Ghazni in 1839, was the beginning of our current practice of making such service awards.
Indeed, considering that specifically British soldiers (as opposed to Indian) had not been given any campaign medal since Waterloo in 1815, the First Afghan War produced something of a flood of awards - one for Ghunzee 1839, two versions for the Defence of Jellalabad and no fewer than four different types for the reconquest campaign of 1842. One more early medal associated with the Afghan War is the rare award given to those who took part in the defence of the fortress-city of Kelat-i-Ghilzie in 1842.
After the disastrous conclusion to Britain's invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, with the inglorious retreat from Kabul and the massacre of General Elphinstone's army in 1842, the only British-Indian forces actually left in Afghanistan were General Nott's weak force far to the south at Kandahar, General Sale's brigade under siege at Jellalabad and unable to fight its way out, and those at Kelat-i-Ghilzie, a fortress the road between between Kabul and Kandahar, 80 miles north east of the latter.
The garrison of the fortress, commanded by Captain John
Halkett Craigie, Bengal Native Infantry, must have felt especially isolated and abandoned after the withdrawal of British forces from the north in the Winter of 1841. It numbered only 932 men, of whom only 55 were Europeans (mainly officers and Bengal artillery personnel) and 877 Indians. The defence force, all of the East India Company establishment with no British component, comprised:
569 loyal Afghan infantry in the form of Shah Shuja's 3rd Infantry Battalion
Three companies (247 officers and men) of the 43rd Bengal Native Infantry
86 personnel of 4 Co., 2nd Battalion. One officer and 43 men were Europeans
23 officers and men of the 2nd and 3rd Bengal Sappers and Miners
7 miscellaneous British officers eg surgeons, transport and commissariat
The small garrison worked on the strengthening of the fort's defences, during bitterly cold weather, from November 1841 as British fortunes in Afghanistan waned. From January to May 1842, the garrison was closely besieged and under constant fire, their circumstances compounded by severe cold and a lack of supplies, medicines and foodstuffs. Battle casualties aside, most of the garrison were in a very weakened state by the end of the siege.
Finally, on 19 May 1842, a force under Colonel Wymer was ordered out by General Nott from Kandahar to relieve the isolated garrison and evacuate the post, after slighting the defences. Before the relief force arrived, the garrison repulsed one final major attack by 6,000 Afghans on 21 May 1842. A few days after this, on 26 May, the garrison was finally relieved and the whole force returned to Kandahar. Some of the garrison also earned one of the other
medals for the 1842 campaigns but many of those who had survived the siege died of their injuries or the results of privation in the weeks that followed.
A testament to the distinguished service of the Indian troops is shown by the fact that Shah Shoja's 3rd Infantry Battalion ('completed to 800 Privates') was actually taken into the Bengal Army establishment, to be known as 'the Kelati-Ghilzie Regiment', its regimental colour featuring the actual colours of the medal ribbon. Designated the 12th Pioneers in 1903, the regiment merged with the 2nd Bombay Pioneers in 1922, finally being disbanded along with the rest of the Bombay Pioneer corps in 1929.
The defence of the fortress was wellrecorded in the Indian and British press at the time and drew great praise for the courage and tenacity displayed by the garrison over a long period and under difficult circumstances. In view of this, as early as 4 October 1842 it was announced by the Governor General, Lord Ellenborough, that the garrison would receive a special medal from the East India Company to honour and commemorate their gallant service.
The medal was designed by the famous William Wyon, a figure well-known to coin and medal collectors, and was awarded only in silver. There would be with no variation in metal according to rank, as with earlier East India Company awards, though bronze specimens are known. It was 1.4in (33mm) in diameter, a size which became just about standard with British campaign medals thereafter and bore on its obverse a wreath topped by a mural crown (as used on the early version of the Jellalabad medal) surrounding a shield carrying ‘KELAT-I-GHILZIE’ in three lines. The reverse carried a trophy of arms bearing a plaque with ‘INVICTA MDCCCXLII’ (Unconquered, 1842). Presumably since the medal was solely an EIC award with no British troops receiving it, it did not bear the profile and titles of the monarch.
The ribbon followed the pattern of other Afghan War and early Indian medals (like those for the Scinde and Gwalior campaigns of 1843), being known as The Military Ribbon of India or more familiarly as Sunrise in the East. It would later occur to the authorities that issuing several different campaign medals with the same ribbon would only cause confusion! The ribbon hung from a straight bar suspension attached to the medal by an iron clip and hinge, though altered types are seen. The medal is named - though unnamed examples are found - in a variety of types of thick or thin engraved running script.
Since the medal was awarded to fewer than 1,000 recipients in the first place, and especially since those to Indians
(ie the majority of awards) have a low survival rate, the Kelat-Ghilzie medal is rarely seen and therefore costly. Basic examples to men of 4/2 artillery, for example, retail at around £5,000, with those to Indians often more, while those to officers are especially rare and much more expensive. The medal is not often seen in a group, single examples being the norm and, when it is accompanied by other medals, it is of course correspondingly expensive. Early miniatures of the medal exist but they are rare, since presumably so few men (and mainly officers) would have purchased one.
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