Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare 4-clasp Indian Mutiny medal awarded to Gunner W. Boyle, Bengal Artillery

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 4 clasps, Delhi, Relief of Lucknow, Lucknow, Central India (Gunner W. Boyle, 1st Batt. Bengal Artillery.) light contact marks, very fine £3,000-£4,000

Provenance: B. Ritchie Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, March 2005.

Four-clasp medals were awarded to only 50 European recipients, all serving with the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, Bengal Artillery.

William Boyle was born in the Parish of St Anne’s, Dublin, and attested for unlimited service in the East India Company’s Artillery at Newry on 23 April 1847, aged 21 years 9 months. He joined the E.I.C. recruit depot at Warley Barracks, Brentwood, Essex, on 13 May 1847, and was there allocated to Bengal. He embarked for India on the Dartmouth, arrived at Calcutta on 24 October 1847, and was posted as a Gunner to the 3rd Company 1st Battalion Bengal Artillery. He volunteered to the Royal Artillery in May 1861 and served with 16 Brigade, rising to the rank of Sergeant but, after various misdemeanours and two courts martial, was finally discharged as a gunner on 25 June 1867.