CORPORAL J. JOHNSTONE, 3RD TROOP, 2ND BRIGADE BENGAL HORSE ARTILLERY, LATER STAFF SERGEANT (CARPENTER SERGEANT) TOWN MAJOR’S LIST AND OFFICIATING SUB-CONDUCTOR, BENGAL ARMY. Gwalior Star, Punniar obverse

CORPORAL J. JOHNSTONE, 3RD TROOP, 2ND BRIGADE BENGAL HORSE ARTILLERY, LATER STAFF SERGEANT (CARPENTER SERGEANT) TOWN MAJOR’S LIST AND OFFICIATING SUB-CONDUCTOR, BENGAL ARMY. Gwalior Star, Punniar obverse (officially egraved in running script: Corporal J. Johnstone 3 Troop 2nd Brigade Horse Artillery). Replacement white metal straight bar suspender attached to reverse of medal by neat vertical suspension flange,.One nut lacking from reverse on lower end of suspension flange, otherwise Good Very Fine, a rare (perhaps unique) Punniar Star to the 3rd Troop, 2nd Brigade, Bengal Horse Artillery.

Medal accompanied by brief copied biographical and service details, copied extracts East India Register and Army Lists.

James Johnstone (surname sometimes spelt Johnston) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He enlisted into the Bengal Army at Liverpool on 24/4/1838 for unlimited service, giving his trade at time of enlistment as Coach Maker. Johnstone sailed for India aboard the Repulse in 1838 and in India was initially posted for service as a gunner with the 1st Troop, 3rd Brigade, Bengal Horse Artillery. Johnstone saw service at Punniar with 3rd Troop, 2nd Brigade, Bengal Horse Artillery and was subsequently promoted Staff Sergeant (Carpenter Sergeant), Town Major’s List, 31/1/1851 and Sub Conductor, Bengal Army, February 1857.

The battles of Punniar and Maharajpoor were both fought on the same day, 29th December 1843. British Battles and Medals records the 3rd Troop, 2nd Brigade Bengal Horse Artillery being present as a unit at Maharajpoor, not Punniar. The 1st Troop, 3rd Brigade and 3rd Troop, 3rd Brigade were the only troops of Bengal Horse Artillery present at Punniar as units. Johnstone was therefore, presumably, as was commonplace at the time, seconded for service from the 3rd Troop, 2nd Brigade, to one of the two troops of the 3rd Brigade present at Punniar (perhaps the 1st Troop, 3rd Brigade, which Johnstone first saw service in on arrival in India) and his Punniar Star is therefore rare (possibly unique) to the 3rd Troop 2nd Brigade BHA.

There is a Lieutenant J. Johnstone, 68th Native Infantry, possibly the same man, recorded in Captain T.C. Anderson’s “War Services of Officers of the Bengal Army” (first commissioned Ensign), 20/7/1858, who saw service with the Trans-Gogra Field Force in 1858 and 1859 (entitled Indian Mutiny Medal), and who subsequently saw service with the Assam Light Infantry (recorded as serving with that regiment in teh 1861 Indian Army List, but then being on furlough). This medal perhaps worthy of further research to establish whether the Conductor James Johnstone of the Bengal Ordnance Commissariat Department and the Lieutenant J. Johnstone of the 68th Native Infantry were actually one and the same man.