Beschreibung:

The important Indian Mutiny medal to Donald Grant Bengal Civil Service, who was twice shot and beheaded while officiating as Joint Magistrate at Humeerpore on 19 June 1857; no graves nor memorial were ever erected to the civilians who perished in the district and it was left to Grant's grieving mother to produce an emotional mourning locket in which she commemorated all those brutally murdered Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Donald Grant together with a very fine gold and enamel memorial portrait locket, the reverse hinged cover, enamelled with black cross within a wreath, opening to reveal a locket of hair with inscription around ‘Donald Grant, B.C.S., born 26th Septr. 1832, murdered during the Indian Mutiny, 19th June 1857’, the reverse of the cover additionally inscribed ‘Ruthlessly murdered on the 19th June 1857 by the brutal sepoys of the 56th N.I. at Humeespore. Mr. Loyd. D. Grant. Mr. Bunter. Wife & 2 Children, a Native Christian, his Wife & 2 Childn.!! “Vengeance is mine I will repay saith The Lord”, the medal a little polished, otherwise very fine, the locket extremely fine (2) £1,500-£2,000 Footnote Donald Grant was born in Calcutta on 26 September 1832, the son of John Grant Apothecary General to the East India Company and his wife Elizabeth Nicholson Agnes née Hayes. John joined the Indian Medical Service on 7 October 1816, retired on 11 September 1857, and died in London on 14 April 1862; he started and edited the Indian Journal of Medical Science 1834-36; with J. R. Martin edited Jackson's Formation, Discipline and Economy of Armies, wrote Jackson's biography and was one of the founder members of the Calcutta Medical School. Donald Grant was educated at the Proprietary Grammar School, Kensington, and East India College, Haileybury, from September 1850 to June 1852, where his special ability as an author was noted with no fewer than 14 articles being written for the Haileybury Observer. On arrival in India he was appointed Assistant to the Magistrate and Collector, Agra, and later Joint magistrate and Deputy Collector second grade, Furruckabad. At the time of the mutiny he was Joint Magistrate and Collector at Humeerpore (Hamirpur) relieving George Hamilton Freeling who had returned to England on sick certificate and bereavement furlough. Head of the 5th District Allahabad Division at Hamirpur was Thomas Kirkman Loyd the Magistrate. The other Christian inhabitants at Humeerpore at that time consisted of Mr W. D. Murray, a Scottish landholder; Mr James Crawford Head Clerk; Mr W. Bunter, Judicial Clerk; Mrs Bunter; Mr & Mrs Anderson, relative of the Bunters, with four or five children; Jeremiah, a catechist of the Church Mission Society, his wife and four children. The only official report covering the tragic events that took place at Humeerpore was the Narrative of Events compiled by George H. Freeling, the previous joint Collector and Magistrate of this district. Establishing the chronological order of events, so long after the events, proved problematic. The narrative Freeling wrote was considered the best that could be achieved under the circumstances. He gathered dozens of depositions from the local population but self preservation and hearsay made it difficult for Freeling to take many of them seriously. However one deposition found in the National Archives of India, New Delhi, gives a revealing account of the deaths of Loyd and Grant and closely follows Freeling's account. The troops stationed at Humeerpore were a detachment of the 56th Native Infantry, who on the 14th June, after daily alarms, broke into revolt. For a while Messrs Loyd and Grant refused to quit their posts but, after the release of prisoners from the jail, they saw that the crisis had reached breaking point and that the loyalty of the native soldiers could no longer be trusted. Deposition No. 86 from Thakoordeen from the Pergannah Ghatimpore forms part of a letter sent by Mr G. Probyn to Mr C. B. Thornhill, Officiating Commissioner 4th