Ghuznee Medal

 

The First Anglo-Afghan War 1839 - 1842.

 

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

 

 

The Ghuznee Medal was a British Empire campaign medal presented for service during the First Anglo-Afghan War. The medal was instituted in July 1839 and was awarded to all those who participated in the storming of the fortress of Ghuznee, Afghanistan - also known as the Battle of Ghazni - between 21 and 23 July 1839.

 

This was the second medal to be awarded to all ranks of the British Army for a specific campaign - the Waterloo Medal being the first. It was struck in 1839 on the orders of Shuja Shah Durrani, the Shah of Afghanistan, to show his appreciation to the British forces who had restored him to his throne by storming the fortress.

 

 

The medal is circular, 37mm in diameter and was struck in silver. The obverse of this medal depicts the fortress of Ghunzee with the inscription; ‘GHUNZEE’ below.

 

The reverse depicts a mural crown surrounded by a laurel wreath and the date; ’23 JULY 1839’. 

 

The ribbon suspender is straight with a ring passing through a smaller loop attached to the top of the medal.

 

The medal was issued un-named. In later years many were privately engraved or impressed in varying styles on the reverse or along the rim. Many naming styles exist and it is generally thought that regiments had batchs of medals named by a silversmith at one time.

 

 

 

The ribbon 38mm wide and is crimson and green in colour.

 

 

None were authorised for this medal.

 

NB: Although no clasps were authorised for this medal a number of un-offical clasps exist. These were later additions obtained by the recipient.

 

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 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 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.