Sutlej Medal

 

The First Anglo-Sikh War 1845 - 1846.

 

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

 

 

The Sutlej Medal was a British Empire campaign medal presented for service during the First Anglo-Sikh War. The medal was instituted in 1846 and was awarded to officers and men of the British Army and the Honourable East India Company who served in the Sutlej campaign of 1845-46.

 

This was the first campaign medal to be issued to 'all ranks' with 'clasps', previously clasps had only appeared on the Army Gold Cross and Medal awarded to officers and while the Naval and Military General Service Medals, which were issued with clasps, covered earlier periods they were not issued until after the Sutlej Medal.

 

This medal bears the names of the battle for which it was initialy awarded on the reverse of the medal and subsequent battles on any clasps that were awarded.

 

After the issue of this medal names of subsequent battles appeared only on the clasps and not the actual medal.

 

 

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 depicts the figure of Victory holding a laurel wreath in her outstretched right hand. Additionally, the inscription; 'ARMY OF THE SUTLEJ' and the name of the battle, for which the medal was first awarded can be found below.

 

The ribbon suspender is of the swivelling ornate scroll style, attached to the medal by a claw mount.

 

The recipient's details can be found on the medal's rim impressed in tall capital letters to British and some Indian recipients and engraved in capital letters to other Indian recipients.

 

Medals impressed to Indian troops are more irregular than those to British troops.

 

 

 

The ribbon is 32mm wide and is dark blue in colour with narrow red stripes along either edge.

 

 

This medal was issued with the following clasps:-

 

 

NB: There is no clasp for the Battle of Mudki. As this was the first battle the recipient of the medal participated in would be engraved directly onto the medal, with additional battles added by clasp.

 

As there was no battle prior to Mudki, there was no need to produce a clasp for second-battle veterans.

 

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-Sikh War.

- The Battle Of Mudki.

- The Battle Of Ferozeshuhur.

- The Battle Of Aliwal.

- The Battle Of Sobraon.

- The Honourable East India Company.

- The Army Of The Honourable East India Company.

 

The First Anglo-Sikh War - The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company between 1845 and 1846. It resulted in partial subjugation of the Sikh kingdom.

 

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 Mudki - The Battle of Mudki was fought on 18 December 1845, between the forces of the East India Company and part of the Khalsa, the army of the Sikh Empire of the Punjab. The British army won an untidy encounter battle, suffering heavy casualties.

 

The main British and Bengal Army, under its commander-in-chief, Sir Hugh Gough, began marching rapidly from its garrisons at Ambala and Meerut towards Ferozepur. Although the march took place in India's cold weather season, the troops were enveloped in choking dust clouds and water and food were short. Hardinge accompanied the army, waiving his right to command.

 

The British reached Mudki, 18 miles (29 km) from Ferozepur in the afternoon of 18 December. Having commandeered grain from the village, they began preparing their first proper meal for some days.

 

An advance guard of the Sikh army, commanded by Lal Singh, Vizier of the Punjab, spotted the British cooking fires and advanced. The terrain was a flat sandy plain, with occasional villages and patches of scrub.

 

In the late evening the Sikh guns opened fire. As 30 of Gough's light guns replied, the Sikh cavalry tried to outflank both flanks of Gough's army. Although the irregular cavalry, the Gorchurras, were the elite of the Sikh army, and individually very skilled (for example, being able to spear a tent-peg out of the ground at full gallop), they were comparatively ineffective against the disciplined British and Bengal units.

 

A counter-charge by a British light dragoon regiment cut down many Sikh gunners, but in turn suffered heavy casualties from the Sikh infantry.

 

After the initial cavalry actions, the British and Bengal infantry advanced. In the gathering darkness and the clouds of smoke and dust, the advance quickly became disordered. Some Bengal infantry regiments caused casualties among the British units with confused fire.

 

Although outnumbered five to one, the Sikh infantry resisted desperately, and their gunners kept firing volleys of grapeshot until they were overrun.

 

Eventually, after two hours of darkness, the last Sikhs were driven from the field. The British returned to their camp. The British army was unused to fighting or manoeuvering at night, and the battle was nicknamed, 'Midnight Mudki'.

 

Casualties among British senior officers were heavy. Among those were two brigade commanders: 'Fighting Bob' Sale, who was mortally wounded and died on 21 December, and John McCaskill. Another senior officer killed was Major George Broadfoot, formerly the British representative to the Punjab and now on Hardinge's staff.

 

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 Ferozeshuhur - The Battle of Ferozeshuhur (also spelt Ferozeshah) was fought on 21 December and 22 December 1845 between the British and the Sikhs, at the village of Ferozeshah in Punjab.

 

The British were led by Sir Hugh Gough and Governor-General Sir Henry Hardinge, while the Sikhs were led by Lal Singh.

 

The British emerged victorious, but the battle was one of the hardest-fought in the history of the British 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.

 

The Battle Of Aliwal - The Battle of Aliwal was fought on 28 January 1846 between the British and the Sikhs. The British were led by Sir Harry Smith, while the Sikhs were led by Ranjodh Singh Majithia.

 

The British won a victory which is sometimes regarded as the turning point of the First Anglo-Sikh War.

 

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 Sobraon - The Battle of Sobraon was fought on 10 February 1846, between the forces of the East India Company and the Sikh Khalsa Army, the army of the Sikh Empire of the Punjab.

 

The Sikhs were completely defeated, making this the decisive battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War.

 

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.