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The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals The important Third Mahratta War medal specially sanctioned to Sir Richard Jenkins, G.C.B., Resident at Nagpore 1810-27, who was present at the battle of Seetabuldee and the capture of Nagpore, and later a Director and Chairman of the Honourable East India Company Army of India 1799-1826, 1 clasp, Seetabuldee & Nagpore (Rd. Jenkins. Esqr. Rest. at Nagpoor) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming, fitted with contemporary silver ribbon buckle, very fine, a rare and important medal £12000-15000 Footnote Only 19 clasps for Seetabuldee & Nagpore issued to European recipients, this being unique to a civilian. In announcing the Queen’s assent to the award of the “India Medal” to the Government of India in March 1851, the Hon. Court of Directors specified at Clause 7 that ‘It is our intention to present the Medal granted for Kirkee and Poona to the Honourable Mount Stuart Elphinstone, and the Medal for Seetabuldee and Nagpoor to Sir Richard Jenkins, G.C.B., in testimony of their services during the military operations in those actions respectively.’ Elphinstone’s medal was sold at Glendining in October 1981, and at Spink in March 1997. Richard Jenkins was the eldest son of Richard Jenkins of Bicton Hall, Shropshire, and was born at Cruckton, near Shrewsbury, on 18 February 1785. He was nominated a Writer on the Bombay Establishment in 1798 and arrived in India in 1800. Having made his mark at the Company’s College at Fort William, he entered the Governor-General’s office and, in 1804, was appointed First Assistant to Webbe, the British Resident at the court of Doulat Rao Scindia of Gwalior. At about this time he became a close friend of the young Resident at Nagpore, the scholar and bon viveur Mountstuart Elphinstone, whose ‘love of literature and sport’ he shared. Without necessarily referring to his linguistic abilities Elphinstone wrote: ‘Jenkins understands all languages perfectly.’ In 1804, amid British concern over the power struggle for control the Mahratta Confederacy, Webbe was taken ill and died, whereupon the responsibility for British interests at Scindia’s court devolved on Jenkins, who was duly appointed Acting Resident, pending the arrival of Webbe’s successor, Colonel Close from Poona. At length Scindia’s hostile posturings forced Jenkins to sever diplomatic relations, and he prepared to withdraw his embassy. But Scindia prevaricated and at the end of January 1805, before Jenkins could depart, a body of the Scindia’s Pindarries rendered him and ‘his associates virtually prisoners’. They were released nine months later on the demand of Lord Lake as a condition to the opening of the negotiations which led to the treaty of November 1805. In 1807, Jenkins was appointed to take charge of the Residency at Nagpore, when Elphinstone was despatched on a mission to Afghanistan, and later became Resident on Elphinstone’s appointment to Poona in 1810. At this time Jenkins first suggested, in several communications to Lord Minto, the annihilation of the predatory Pindarry gangs who, issuing ‘like wild dogs from between the feet of their nominal masters’, the Mahratta princes, laid waste great stretches of countryside. Jenkins’ design was later adopted by the Marquis of Hastings who invited the Mahratta princes to join in the suppression of the Pindarries. Naturally, this step was viewed with dislike in the Mahratta capitals and ultimately led to the start of the Pindarry, or Third Mahratta War in 1817. Earlier that year at Nagpore, Appa Sahib, the regent of the Berar and Nagpore, seized the throne after murdering his ward. Initially Appa Sahib, the Bhonsla, proved friendly to the British and entered into a subsidiary treaty but his intrigues with the Peshwa at Poona naturally aroused Jenkins’ suspicion. As had happened with Elphinstone at Poona, the tension mounted intolerably at Nagpore, and for many weeks Jenkins lived under the shadow of the Bhonsla’s d