THE INDIA GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1854-1895 WITH NORTH WEST FRONTIER CLASP AWARDED TO LIEUTENANT (LATER LIEUTENANT-COLONEL) GEORGE CAMPBELL ROSS, 16TH BENGAL CAVALRY.
£850.00
THE INDIA GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1854-1895 WITH NORTH WEST FRONTIER CLASP AWARDED TO LIEUTENANT (LATER LIEUTENANT-COLONEL) GEORGE CAMPBELL ROSS, 16TH BENGAL CAVALRY.
THE 16TH BENGAL CAVALRY WAS DISBANDED IN 1882, BUT RE-RAISED AT AMBALA IN 1885 BY THE THEN LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ROSS AS THE 16TH REGIMENT OF BENGAL CAVALRY.
India General Service Medal 1854-1895, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (officially named, impressed in upper and lower case serifed capital letters and numbers: LIEUT G.C. ROSS 16th. BENg. CAVy.). Attractively toned, Extremely Fine.
Medal accompanied by biographical sketch from Ancestry, copied extracts London Gazettes and Army Lists of the period, extract 1911 census
George Campbell Ross (1835-1916) was born 3/3/1835 in Stranraer, Wigtownshire, the son of James and Margaret Ross. He was first commissioned Cornet (by purchase), 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), 19/6/1857, promoted Lieutenant, 30/7/1858. Ross transferred to the 8th Hussars, 22/4/1859 with the rank of Lieutenant, subsequently transferring to the 8th Foot (The King’s Regiment) with the rank of Captain, 18/12/1863, and then to he 20th Hussars with the rank of Captain, 19/4/1864. Ross’s transfer from the 20th Hussars to the Bengal Staff Corps was announced in the London Gazette of 10/8/1869, seniority 11/2/1862. Ross was promoted Brevet Major, Bengal Staff Corps, 29/4/1875, Major, 19/6/1877, Lieutenant-Colonel, 19/6/1883, and was placed on the Unemployed Supernumerary List, Indian Staff Corps, 3/3/1890, retiring on 1/8/1890.
Colonel Ross is recorded in the 1911 census as a 76 year old retired Colonel, Indian Army, resident at Hillcote, Park Avenue, Wokingham Berkshire. Colonel Ross died at Finchampstead, Berkshire, 11/3/1916.
Ross saw service on the North-West Frontier during the expedition under Major-General A.T. Wilde against the Baloti Black Mountain tribes, 3rd – 22nd October 1868, the last campaign for which the India General Service Medal 1854-1895 was awarded with the North West Frontier clasp
The 16th Bengal Cavalry, originally raised in 1857 as the Rohilkhund Horse (re-titled 16th Bengal Cavalry in 1864) was disbanded in 1882, when three cavalry regiments of the Indian Army were broken up to provide additional fourth squadrons for the remaining cavalry regiments. It was subsequently re-raised at Ambala in 1885 by the then Lieutenant-Colonel Ross, when fears of a Russian invasion of India led to a substantial increase in the strength of the Indian Army, as the 16th Regiment of Bengal Cavalry, the regiment becoming the 16th Regiment of Bengal Lancers in 1890.
Colonel Ross’s son, Major Fleetwood George Campbell Ross, 2nd King Edward’s Own Gurkha Rifles, had a distinguished military career, taking part in the Relief of Pekin in 1900, the Tibet campaign of 1903-04, including the march to Lhassa. He also saw service with the Indian Expeditionary Force in France in 1914 and was killed in action at Neuve Chapelle on 2/11/1914