Beschreibung:

Awards to Civilians from the Collection of John Tamplin The historic pair to Major Sir Louis Cavagnari, K.C.B., C.S.I., Minister and Plenipotentiary at the Court of Kabul, massacred there with his Staff and Escort in September 1879, in defence of the British Residency, an incident which caused outrage and the immediate renewal of hostilities in the Second Afghan War India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Jowaki 1877-8 (Major P. L. N. Cavagnari, Bengal Staff Corps); Afghanistan 1878-80, 1 clasp, Ali Musjid (Maj. Sir P. L. N. Cavagnari, K.C.B., C.S.I.) obverses a little polished, otherwise good very fine (2) £6000-8000 Footnote Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari was born in France on 4 July 1841, eldest son of Major the Count Adolphe Cavagnari, by his marriage with Caroline, daughter of Hugh Lyons Montgomery of Laurencetown, county Down. The Count Cavagnari, belonging to an ancient and noble family of Parma, served with the French forces under the Emperor Napoleon, and subsequently became Private Secretary to Prince Lucien Buonaparte. His son, though born in France, was brought up from an early age in England, and was educated at Christ’s Hospital in London, from 1851 to 1856. Having passed the necessary examinations at Addiscombe, he became a direct cadet of the East India Company on 9 April 1858, and was appointed an Ensign in the 67th Native Infantry on 21 June. Arriving in India on 12 July, he joined the 1st Bengal European Fusiliers and served with that regiment through the Oudh campaign of 1858-59, being present at the capture of five guns from the Nussirabad brigade on 30 October 1858 (Medal). Promoted to be Lieutenant on 17 March 1860, in July 1861 he was appointed to the Staff Corps, and gazetted an Assistant Commissioner in the Punjab, a post he continued to hold for five years. Possessed of remarkable energy, indomitable courage, and a genial character, he soon acquired distinction in the frontier service, and was ultimately appointed Deputy Commissioner of Kohat. He held political charge of the Kohat district from April 1866 until May 1877, when he was named Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar. During this period he acted as Chief Political Officer with the Kohat forces under General Keyes in the Bazoti expedition, and was present at the surprise and destruction of the village of Gara on the 27th April 1869. He again served in the same capacity in the Waziri expedition of April 1869, and again in the blockade of the Kohat Pass Afridis in 1875-77. In the course of these operations his marked ability brought him prominently to the fore, and his name was constantly on the public tongue. Up and down the frontier, from year to year, he added achievement to achievement, till his restless energy became a by-word amongst the turbulent hill-tribes, who were made by him to feel that their mountain strongholds were powerless to shelter them from any due retribution. For the services he rendered he received, on several occasions, the thanks of the Secretary of State for India, the Governor-General and Council, and the Punjab Government. In January 1877, on the Imperial title being proclaimed at Delhi, Cavagnari was appointed a Companion of the Star of India. In May 1877 Captain Cavagnari was transferred from Kohat to Peshawar; and in the Jowaki expedition of that year he was again to the fore. The Sapiri expedition of February 1878, was, with the consent Of Government, arranged and carried out by him. Its objective was the capture of the principal and leader of the band of robbers who, in December 1875, had attacked and killed several native workmen near the English fort of Abazai, a raid known as the Swat Canal outrage. With this purpose in view, Cavagnari procured fifty men of the Corps of Guides, made a rapid night march, and surprised the object of his search in a mosque in Sapiri, capturing both him and his son. Cavagnari immediately afterwards undertook, too, the Skhakat expedition of February 1878, and the Utman Khel expedition