Beschreibung:

The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals The campaign pair to Lieutenant Duncan Charles Home, V.C., Bengal Engineers, Hero of the Kashmir Gate at the assault of Delhi who was killed in an explosion shortly afterwards (a) Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Mooltan, Goojerat (2nd Lieut. D. C. Home, Engrs. 3rd Cy. Sappers) (b) Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Delhi (Lt. D. C. Home, Bengal Engrs.) the first with some edge bruises and surface marks, very fine, the second nearly extremely fine (2) £6000-8000 Footnote Ex Roger Perkins Collection (Sotheby, December 1990) who acquired the medals directly from the family in 1982. The catalogue states that the “Cross, unfortunately, was lost in the 1920’s. The children took it out of the house while ‘playing soldiers’ and it was lost in a field. Intensive searches then and later failed to locate it. After so many years it seems unlikely that it will ever be recovered.” Duncan Charles Home, the third son of Major-General Richard Home, Colonel of the 43rd Bengal Native Infantry, and Frances Sophia, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Fraser 7th Light Cavalry, was born at Jubbulpore, Central Provinces, on 10 June 1828. He was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, from January 1841 to 1843, and afterwards for one and half years by Messrs. Stoton and Mayor at Wimbledon. He attended Addiscombe from 1845 to 11 December 1846, on which day he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers, but undergoing the usual course of instruction at Chatham did not sail for India until 20 June 1848. He arrived at Calcutta in the Barham in the middle of October, and within a few days was despatched to the Upper Provinces to do duty with the headquarters of the Corps of Sappers and Pioneers then employed in operations before Mooltan. He was present at the siege and capture of that place and was afterwards present with the corps at the battle of Gujerat. He was subsequently posted to the 3rd Company of Sappers at Lahore. In October 1849 he was appointed to the Public Works Department, and became Assistant Executive officer, third division, Ganges Canal, until April 1852, when he was placed at the disposal of the Superintending Engineer, Punjab Circle, for employment in the Civil Engineers Department, being appointed Assistant to the Executive Engineer of the Bari Doab Canals at Malikpur. A year later he was appointed Executive Engineer of the first division of the Bari Doab Canal, and on 15 February 1854 was promoted Lieutenant. He was serving in this capacity at Madhopur when the Mutiny broke out in May 1857. The insurrection did not at first affect him in his duties, but he was soon ordered to raise three companies of Punjab Sappers (or Pioneers) for service at Delhi from the Mazbi Sikh workmen employed on the Grand Trunk Road. He received the order one morning and the companies marched away the following evening under Lieutenant H. W. Gulliver, Bengal Engineers. At the beginning of July, Home raised two more companies of Punjab Sappers, and was later himself summoned to augment the small number of Engineer officers on the Ridge. Home arrived at Delhi in August and on the 22nd was appointed a Field Engineer in orders. As part of the plan for the final asault on 14 September, Home and Lieutenant Philip Salkeld, also of the Bengal Engineers, were assigned to lead the Explosion Party which was to blow in the Kashmir Gate in advance of Colonel Campbell’s No. 3 Column. At day break just as the British siege guns had ceased firing, Brigadier Nicholson gave the order to advance, leading Nos. 1 and 2 Columns himself from the Kudsia Bagh, while No. 3 Column issued from the vicinity of Ludlow Castle. Two hundred skirmishers of the 60th Rifles ran out to cover the storming columns, and instantly the walls of Delhi blazed with rebel musketry. At the front of No. 3 Column, Home and Salkeld led forward their detachment which, carrying ladders and powder bags, comprised three British N.C.O’s