THE INDIAN MUTINY MEDAL AWARDED TO CORPORAL J. MOIR, 1ST MADRAS FUSILIERS (1ST BATTALION ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS), WHO WAS WOUNDED ON 16TH OCTOBER 1857, DURING THE FIRST RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. Indian Mutiny Medal, 1 clasp Defence of Lucknow

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THE INDIAN MUTINY MEDAL TO CORPORAL J. MOIR, 1ST MADRAS FUSILIERS (THE POST 1860 102ND ROYAL MADRAS FUSILIERS AND POST 1880 1ST BATTALION ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS), WHO SAW SERVICE DURING THE FIRST RELIEF OF LUCKNOW, AFTERWARDS SEEING SERVICE WITH THE BESIEGED GARRISON UNTIL IT WAS RELIEVED ON 23RD NOVEMBER 1857, BEING WOUNDED IN ACTION DURING THE SIEGE, ON 16TH OCTOBER 1857, DYING IN INDIA ON 15/8/1859. Indian Mutiny Medal, 1 clasp Defence of Lucknow (officially impressed: CORPl. J. MOIR, 1st. MADRAS FUSrs.). Clasp slightly buckled, otherwise Extremely Fine.

Medal accompanied by copied extracts 1841 British Army Worldwide Index, Indian Mutiny Medal roll, and Indian Mutiny Casualty List extract.

There is only J. Moir listed on the Indian Mutiny Medal roll, 2246 Corporal John Moir, 1st Madras Fusiliers.

John Moir enlisted into the East India Company’s Army at London circa 1840 and is recorded in the 1841 Worldwide Index as a recruit stationed at the East India Company’s London Depot. He saw service in India as 2246 Private/Corporal 1st Madras Fusiliers. Medal roll and casualty list both record 2246 Corporal John Moir as having been slightly wounded at Lucknow 16/10/1857, the medal roll additionally noting that Moir died on 15/8/1859.

For a detailed day by day account of the siege of Lucknow based on the diaries of two British women resident in Lucknow throughout the siege, a Mrs Harris, the wife of a cleric, and Adelaide Case, the wife of Colonel Case of the 32nd Foot, killed in action during the siege, see “Ladies of Lucknow” (Leonur, 2009). Although Adelaide Case’s diary entries for 16th – 17th October 1857 do not provide details of the casualties sustained by the Madras Fusiliers on 16th October, the regiment undoubtedly saw some considerable action on that day, the casualty roll recording Moir as being one of 8 men of the regiment wounded or killed on that date, at least one of whom was wounded by grapeshot, which perhaps indicates that the casualties were men engaged in an attack on a besieging artillery emplacement, perhaps in an attempt to spike its guns.

Corporal Moir’s Mutiny Medal was among the hardest won of that campaign, since he would have been amongst the men of the wing of the 1st Madras Fusiliers who formed the vanguard of the first relief force, leading it in an epic series of engagements and in the final attack that led to the entry into Lucknow of the first relief force, which in turn found itself besieged with the original defenders in Lucknow for a further four weeks. The following account of the exploits of the Madras Fusiliers during the first relief of Lucknow has been extracted from H.C. Wylly’s “Neill’s Bluecaps”, the regimental history of the 1st Madras Fusiliers.

The 1st Madras Fusiliers, at sea en route from Persia to India when the Indian Mutiny broke out, played a prominent part in its suppression. Under Lieutenant Colonel Neill, whose surname, along with the headgear that the Madras Fusiliers wore during the campaign, gave the battalion it’s nickname, “Neill’s Bluecaps”, the regiment was first engaged in suppressing he mutinous 37th Bengal Native Infantry at Benares on 4th June 1857, and afterwards, on 6th and 7th June, two detachments from the regiment, numbering 50 and 57 men respectively, marched to the relief of the fort at Allahabad. Lieutenant Colonel Neill followed with 44 more men on 9th June, covering the seventy miles to Allahabad in two night marches. Conditions in the fort were at a low ebb, and Lieutenant Colonel Neill was soon prostrate with sickness. Even so, he continue to direct the movements of his regiment himself from a stretcher, conscious all the time that Cawnpore and Lucknow, with their garrisons and camp followers, were being threatened by the mutineers. On 20th June a Cawnpore relief force, under Major Renaud of the Madras Fusiliers, comprising 200 men of the 84th Foot and 200 men of the Madras Fusiliers, along with two guns manned by invalid gunners, and 120 Irregular Cavalry, was organised. On the same day Brigadier General Havelock arrived at Allahabad to take command of the Lucknow relief force. On 3rd July Captain Spurgin’s Company of the Madras Fusiliers, with two guns, embarked by river steamer for Cawnpore, acting as Major Renaud’s flank guard (en route, Spurgin’s Company disembarked on the left bank of the Ganges and engaged a force of mutineers, who were repulsed with the loss of one field gun, which was captured by three Privates of the Madras Fusiliers). On the same day that Spurgin and his men left Allahabad, news reached that fort of the massacre at Cawnpore. On 7th July Havelock’s force, barely 2,000 strong, and including 376 Madras Fusiliers, began moving towards Lucknow. Of those in the relief force, only the Madras Fusiliers as a unit were completely armed with the new Enfield rifle, leading to their acting as the vanguard in all the engagements and assaults that were to follow, Captain Grant’s Company of the Madras Fusiliers being placed at the very front of the advance. On 12th July Havelock’s force joined up with Renaud’s Cawnpore men, who were being pressed by a 4,000 strong force of rebels on the Cawnpore Road. As Havelock’s force moved steadily closer to Lucknow it fought a series of engagements, on each occasion driving the rebels from the field and capturing many field guns and artillery pieces in the process, including: Futtehpore, 12th July 1857 (eleven guns captured, rebels scattered without the loss of a single British soldier) at Aong and Pandoo Nudhi, 15th July (rebels scattered, four guns captured) and on the Cawnpore Road, 16th July, when a party of 40 Madras Fusiliers became detached from the main body, was attacked by rebel cavalry, formed a square and drove off their attackers. On the same day Havelock, with 900 men only available (his guns and Sikh troops isolated in the rear), attacked a rebel force some 10,000 strong. Not hesitating for a moment, despite the disorganised situation, he drove the rebel force from the field and seized a hilltop position a half mile from Cawnpore. By this stage Havelock’s force had marched 126 miles in the hottest season of the year, in full marching order, fought four pitched battles against rebel forces that were far superior numerically and captured 23 pieces of enemy artillery. But all had been to no avail. Cawnpore, its garrison and camp followers, women and children, lay before them, massacred.

Neill, by now promoted Brigadier General, remained at Allahabad with 200 men of the Madras Fusiliers as Havelock marched on Cawnpore. At Allahabad Neill arranged for the river steamer Bramaputra to cover the right flank of Havelock’s advance. Aboard the vessel were 100 men of the Madras Fusiliers, two nine-pounders and a five and a half inch mortar. As Havelock and the Bramaputra neared Cawnpore, news from the other besieged garrisons became even graver. On 13th July a letter reached Allahabad confirming the death on 4th July of Sir Henry Lawrence, commander of the Lucknow garrison. Neill removed the remainder of his force forward and joined Havelock at Cawnpore on 20th July. The relief column left Cawnpore on the same day, leaving Neill at Cawnpore with two companies of Bluecaps to hold the river crossing. During the following weeks Havelock’s force took part in a further series of engagements, including: 29th July at Unao, when a 6,000 strong rebel force was dispersed with the loss of all fifteen of its guns, Havelock subsequently complimenting the Madras Fusiliers in despatches for their “dashing and forward conduct” during this action later the same day at Bashiratgant the relief column dispersing another rebel force and capturing four more guns on 8th August, a party of fifty Madras Fusiliers with two guns was dispatched by steamer to disperse a mutinous band of the 42nd Bengal Native Infantry, who were attempting to rally local rebels and attack the relief force. On 12th August, Havelock’s force fought a further action at Unao. By 26th August, the remnants of Havelock’s much diminished force, 750 Europeans and 250 Sikhs, advanced towards Bithur, which was strongly defended by rebels and was described by Havelock himself as “one of the strongest positions I have ever seen”. Nevertheless Havelock’s force took the town and all of the enemy’s guns, in an action that involved intense house to house street fighting. On 15th September Major General Sir James Outram joined the relief force’s lines of communication at Cawnpore. Profoundly impressed by Havelock and his men’s achievements, Outram waived his right to take up command of the relief force, publishing in a General Order his reasons for not wishing to do so “The Major-General .. .. in gratitude for and admiration of the brilliant deeds of arms achieved by General Havelock and his gallant troops, will cheerfully waive his rank on the occasion, and will accompany the force to Lucknow in his civil capacity, as Chief Commissioner of Oudh, tendering his military services to General Havelock as a volunteer.” On 18th September a bridge was laid over the Ganges, and during the two following days Havelock’s by now reinforced relief force crossed over to the Oudh bank of the river. On 21st September they engaged a rebel force at Mangulwar, and on 23rd September the relief force reached the Alam Bagh, a small palace or hunting lodge of the kings of Oudh, some two miles from Lucknow. There the relief column confronted and defeated a rebel force some 12,000 strong, capturing five guns. On 25th September the final assault on Lucknow by Havelock’s force began, the wing of the Madras Fusiliers present forming part of the brigade that led the advance, taking the Charbagh Bridge on the way into the city at the point of the bayonet, and over-running a battery of enemy artillery at the opposing end of the bridge. Then, fighting their way through the narrow streets of the outskirts of Lucknow, drawing their guns with them by hand as they negotiated the numerous deep trenches cut across their path, fired at continuously from loopholes and the rooftops of houses, the relief force fought their way into the besieged Residency. One third of the relief force entered the Residency on 25th September and another third on the following day. The welcome that the relief force received on making their way into the Residency compound from the besieged garrison and camp followers, who by now were well aware, not only of the fate that had befallen their comrades at Cawnpore, but also of the fall of Delhi, was tremendous “Their hearts found expression in a burst of deafening cheers the garrison caught up the cry and from every pit and trench, and battery, from behind the roofless and shattered houses, the notes of triumph and welcome echoed and re-echoed. Women crowded up to shake hands with the men who had fought twelve battles to save them and the Highlanders, with tears streaming down their cheeks, caught up in their arms the wondering children, and passed them from one to another. Anxious questions were tenderly answered kinsmen long separated met once more old comrades fought their battles over again and the garrison, as they told their own tale, and learned with pride the admiration which their struggle had aroused, heard in their turn, with reverent sympathy, how and at what cost they had been relieved.” The Madras Fusiliers’ former commanding officer, Brigadier-General Neill, himself fell at the very moment of victory, shot from his horse by an enemy sniper, just as he was directing the men of his old regiment through the gates of the Lucknow Residency. Once the first relief force had entered Lucknow, however, its members found themselves in turn besieged with the original garrison for a further two months. During that period the Madras Fusiliers took part in numerous sorties against enemy gun positions and played a leading role in the defence of the Lucknow Residency, until it was finally relieved by Sir Colin Campbell’s second relief force on 23rd November 1857 (this second relief force included the other wing of the Madras Fusiliers, some 411 strong). The Madras Fusiliers continued to serve for the remainder of the mutiny, only returning to Cawnpore on 9th December 1858. By then the regiment was much depleted, and only some 300 strong, despite numerous large drafts of recruits during the previous three months. This remnant was in a woeful condition and faced the prospect of a long journey back to Madras. Initially it was intended that the regiment would march to a railhead to begin their journey south. However, at this point Sir Colin Campbell intervened, and came to the assistance of the regiment. Determined to avoid imposing a lengthy route march on the regiment, particularly given the condition the men were in, he wrote to the Governor-General of India that “The Madras Fusiliers have a right to every indulgence that can be invented for them. It would be quite right that they should travel down in boats, like gentlemen.” On departing Calcutta, capital of the Bengal Presidency, the Madras Fusiliers received a rousing send-off from the Presidency that they had done so much to save, the Madras Fusiliers being personally sent off by the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, who received the regiment with public honours at a parade before Government House, before they made their way down to their transports. As the regiment sailed out into the Bay of Bengal it received royal 21-gun salutes from both Calcutta Fort and H.M.S. Pearl, the Madras Fusiliers arriving back in Madras on 22nd February 1859.