Candahar, Ghuznee, Cabul Medal

 

The First Anglo-Afghan War 1839 - 1842.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

The Candahar, Ghunzee, Cabul Medal was a British Empire campaign medal presented for service during the First Anglo-Afghan War. The medal was instituted in 1842 and was awarded to those who participated in specific actions under the command of General William Nott.

 

This medal was awarded to both Imperial and Honourable East India Company troops. This included Indians as well as Europeans.

 

 

The medal is circular 36mm in diameter and was struck in silver. The obverse of this medal bears the head of Queen Victoria and the inscription; 'VICTORIA REGINA'.

 

The reverse of this medal can differ depending upon which action or actions for which it was awarded. There are four different types including:-

 

'CANDAHAR', with the date; '1842' within a laurel wreath underneath a royal crown;

 

'CABUL', with the date; '1842' within a laurel wreath underneath a royal crown;

 

'GHUZNEE' and 'CABUL', within a pair of intertwined laurel wreaths along with the date; '1842' below; and the final version as in the ‘CANDAHAR’ and the ‘CABUL’ examples, but with the words; ‘CANDAHAR', 'GHUZNEE' and 'CABUL' within the wreath.

 

The ribbon suspender is attached to the medal by a steel clip.

 

Some medals were issued un-named. Where named, the recipient's details can be found on the medal's rim in various styles including serif capitals and running script.

 

In addition, two erroneous striking’s were made. In one; 'VICTORIA REGINA' rather than; 'VICTORIA VINDEX' appears on the obverse - in the other, the reverse reads; 'CABVL 1842'.

 

 

 

The ribbon is 40mm wide and the watered rainbow colour common to most Honourable East India Company medals. It is red on the left edge fading into white, which changed to yellow in the centre, fading back to white, until finally changing to blue at the right edge.

 

 

None were authorised for this medal.

 

NB: There are no official clasps for this medal, although a clasps stating 'Marzenia 1842' and 'Tazeane 1842' were sometimes privately added.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

 

* It should be noted that the values quoted above reflect the average price that a medal dealer may expect to sell this medal for - please see the ‘things you should know’ web page for more details about valuing medals.

 

 

This section contains information on:-

 

- The First Anglo-Afghan War.

- The Battle Of Ghazni.

- The Battle Of Kandahar.

- The Battle Of Kabul.

- The 1842 Retreat From Kabul.

- The Honourable East India Company.

- The Army Of The Honourable East India Company.

 

The First Anglo-Afghan War - The First Anglo-Afghan War (also known as Auckland's Folly) was fought between the Honourable East India Company and Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842; 4,500 British and Indian soldiers, plus 12,000 of their camp followers, were killed by Afghan tribal fighters.

 

It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Asia between the United Kingdom and Russia.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Battle Of Ghazni - The Battle of Ghazni (or Ghuznee) took place in city of Ghazni in central Afghanistan on July 23, 1839 during the First Anglo-Afghan War. An army of 21,000 British and Indian troops under the command of John Keane, 1st Baron Keane (subsequently replaced by Sir Willoughby Cotton and then by William Elphinstone) set out from Punjab in December 1838.

 

With them was William Hay Macnaghten, the former chief secretary of the Calcutta government, who had been selected as Britain's chief representative to Kabul. By late March 1839 the British forces had crossed the Bolan Pass, reached the Afghan city of Quetta, and begun their march to Kabul.

 

They advanced through rough terrain, across deserts and 4,000-metre-high mountain passes, but made good progress and finally set up camps at Kandahar on 25 April 1839.

 

On 22 July 1839, in a surprise attack, the British-led forces captured the fortress of Ghazni, which overlooks a plain leading eastward into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The British troops blew up one city gate and marched into the city in a euphoric mood.

 

In taking this fortress, they suffered 200 men killed and wounded, while the Afghans lost nearly 500 men. 1,600 Afghans were taken prisoner with an unknown number wounded. Ghazni was well-supplied, which eased the further advance considerably.

 

Following this, the British achieved a decisive victory over Dost Mohammad's troops, led by one of his sons. Dost Mohammad fled with his loyal followers across the passes to Bamyan, and ultimately to Bukhara. In August 1839, after almost thirty years, Shuja was again enthroned in Kabul.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Battle Of Kandahar - British-led Indian forces from neighbouring British India invaded the city in 1839, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, but withdrew in 1842. The British and Indian forces returned in 1878 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

 

They emerged from the city in July 1880 to confront the forces of Ayub Khan, but were defeated at the Battle of Maiwand. They were again forced to withdraw a few years later, despite winning the Battle of Kandahar.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Battle Of Kabul - The Battle of Kabul was fought from August to October, 1842, between British and Afghan forces. It was the concluding engagement of the First Anglo-Afghan War.

 

The British advanced on Kabul from Kandahar and Jalalabad to avenge the earlier Massacre of Elphinstone's Army. Having recovered several prisoners captured in that event, the British demolished parts of Kabul before evacuating Afghanistan and retreating to India.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The 1842 Retreat From Kabul - The 1842 Kabul Retreat (or Massacre of Elphinstone's Army) took place during the First Anglo-Afghan War. Following an uprising in Kabul, Major General Sir William Elphinstone negotiated an agreement with Akbar Khan, one of the sons of King Dost Mohammad Khan of Afghanistan, by which his army was to withdraw to the British garrison at Jalalabad, more than 90 miles (140 km) away. As the army and its numerous dependents and camp-followers began its march, it came under attack from Afghan tribesmen. Many of the column died of exposure, frostbite or starvation or were killed during the fighting.

 

The Afghans launched numerous attacks against the column as it made slow progress through the winter snows of the Hindu Kush. In total the British army lost 4,500 troops, along with 12,000 mainly Indian camp-followers. The final stand was made just outside a village called Gandamak on 13 January.

 

Out of more than 16,000 people from the column commanded by Elphinstone, only one European (Assistant Surgeon William Brydon) and a few Indian sepoys reached Jalalabad. A few dozen British prisoners and civilian hostages were later released.

 

Many of the British and Indians died of exposure, frostbite or starvation or were killed during the fighting. Around 2,000 of the Indians, many of whom were maimed by frostbite, survived and returned to Kabul to exist by begging or to be sold into slavery. Some at least returned to India after another British invasion of Kabul several months later, but others remained behind in Afghanistan.

 

In 2013, a writer for The Economist called the retreat '…the worst British military disaster until the fall of Singapore exactly a century later'.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Honourable East India Company - The East India Company, originally chartered as the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies, and more properly called the Honourable East India Company, was an English and later (from 1707) British joint-stock company formed for pursuing trade with the East Indies but which ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent, Qing Dynasty China, North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan.

 

Commonly associated with trade in basic commodities, which included cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium, the Company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth in 1600, making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies. Shares of the company were owned by wealthy merchants and aristocrats.

 

The government owned no shares and had only indirect control. The Company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the era of the new British Raj.

 

The company was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless and obsolete. Its functions had been fully absorbed into the official government machinery of British India and its private presidency armies had been nationalised by the British Crown.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Army Of The Honourable East India Company - The presidency armies were the armies of the three presidencies of the East India Company's rule in India, later the forces of the British Crown in India. The presidency armies were named after the presidencies: the Bengal Army, the Madras Army and the Bombay Army. Initially, only Europeans served as commissioned or non-commissioned officers. In time, Indian Army units were garrisoned from Peshawar in the north, to Sind in the west, and to Rangoon in the east.

 

The army was engaged in the wars to extend British control in India (the Mysore, Maratha and Sikh wars) and beyond (the Burma, Afghan, First and Second Opium Wars, and the Expedition to Abyssinia).

 

The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the Company until the Indian Rebellion of 1857, when the Crown took over the Company and its three armies. In 1895 the three presidency armies were merged into a united Indian Army.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.