THE ARMY OF INDIA MEDAL 1799-1826 TO PRIVATE (LATER SERGEANT) T. BUTLER, BOMBAY (EUROPEAN) REGIMENT AND EAST INDIA COMPANY’S ST HELENA ARTILLERY.

THE ARMY OF INDIA MEDAL 1799-1826 TO PRIVATE (LATER SERGEANT) TOBIAS BUTLER, BOMBAY EUROPEAN REGIMENT (THE POST 1857 1ST BOMBAY FUSILIERS, POST 1860 103RD ROYAL BOMBAY FUSILIERS AND POST 1880 2ND BATTALION ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS) WHO AFTER SEEING SERVICE WITH THE BOMBAY EUROPEAN REGIMENT DURING THE THIRD ANGLO-MARATHA WAR, 1817-19, INCLUDING THE ACTIONS AT KIRKEE AND POONA, NOVEMBER 1817, TRANSFERRED TO THE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S ST HELENA ARTILLERY IN 1820, SEEING SERVICE WITH THE ST HELENA ARTILLERY FOR OVER 14 YEARS, 1820-1835, BEING DISCHARGED FROM THE ST HELENA ARTILLERY FOLLOWING THAT REGIMENT’S FINAL DISBANDMENT. Army of India Medal, 1 clasp, Kirkee and Poona (officially named, impressed in serifed block capitals: T. BUTLER, EUR. REGt.). Suspender a little slack, otherwise Good Very Fine and rare to a man with confirmed service with the St Helena Artillery.

Kirkee and Poona clasp rare, only 88 to European recipients, including 40 to the Bombay European Regiment. Medal and clasp confirmed on roll

Medal accompanied by 2 pages copied St Helena Artillery discharge papers and a copy of G.C. Kitching’s brief history of the St Helena Artillery Regiment and St. Helena Infantry Regiment, “The St Helena Regiments of the East India Company” (Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, vol.25, no. 101, 1947).

Tobias Butler was born in county Clare, Ireland, circa 1797 and enlisted into the Bombay European Regiment circa 10/12/1815, seeing service with that regiment for 5 years and 228 days. Butler transferred to the East India Company’s St Helena Artillery circa 21/8/1821 and was discharged from the St Helena Artillery at St Helena on 14/4/1836, after 20 years and 125 days service with the East India Company, including 14 years and 262 days with the St Helena Artillery. Discharge papers record Butler as having seen service as a Bombardier for 1 year and 52 days, Corporal for 2 years and 195 days and Sergeant for 10 years and 183 days.

There is a discrepancy of 165 days between Butler’s total length of service with the Artillery and the total time he spent serving as a Bombardier, Corporal and Sergeant, Butler during those 165 days presumably serving as a Matross (Bombardier’s assistant) prior to qualifying as a Bombardier.

Discharge Papers note that Butler was discharged from the St Helena Artillery “upon the Corps being disbanded he is therefore discharged their service as a good character and recommended for a pension”. At the time of discharge Butler was 39 years of age and gave his trade as labourer.

The East India Company took possession of St Helena in 1659 under order from Oliver Cromwell, in order to provide the East India Company with a safe anchorage in the South Atlantic, with supplies of fresh water and food, and thereby facilitate its trade with India. Initially the island was defended by the local militia, but subsequently reinforcements arrived in the form of regular troops, the St Helena Artillery Regiment and the St Helena Infantry Regiment. Both of these regiments subsequently saw service at the Cape of Good Hope in 1795, with the guns of the St Helena Artillery facilitating the capture of Capetown. Both regiments also saw service during the calamitous campaign in Argentina of 1806-07. The St Helena Artillery and Infantry Regiments were both disbanded on 14/4/1836, being replaced as the permanent garrison of the island by detachments of the Royal Artillery and 91st Foot.

The St. Helena Charter Act of 1833 transferred the island of St Helena to the crown on 23/4/1834 and the East India Company’s regiments on the island were disbanded following the arrival of the British Army units in 1836.

Kitching notes that the St Helena Artillery was highly regarded for its skill and discipline, but that the St Helena Infantry did not attract such a steady and dependable type of man as the Artillery. Kitching also notes that the two regiments were both discharged abruptly “there was no ceremonial parade or leave-taking; the Colours were cut up and disbtibuted among the officers, and the regiments were just summarily disbanded, as it were under guard, and faded away. They were invited to take service in the British army at the Cape, but there is no record of volunteers being forthcoming. Officers and men had to find their way as best they could either to South Africa or to England, where they had to fight for their pensions.”

The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was exiled to St Helena following his defeat at Waterloo, arriving on the island in October 1815 and dying there on 5/5/1821, his funeral taking place on St Helena on 9/5/1821. Both the St Helena Artillery and St Helena Infantry provided part of the honour guard at the funeral, Butler, however, since he did not enlist into the St. Helena Artillery until August 1821, would not have been present at the funeral.