Ahmed Khel (1880) clasp on Afghanistan medal

[mrjohngilbert]

My ancestor was at Ahmed Khel on April 19th, 1880. I have his bronze (not silver) Afghanistan Medal with the Ahmed Khel clasp (no other clasps). The edge writing on the medal is as follows:

13315 2nd CORPL. E. ASHWORTH. BEN; S.& M.

Which I parse as follows, 13315 is his serial number, and is a non-officer's number. He is a 2nd Corporal. His name is Edward Ashworth, and his unit is the Bengal Sappers and Miners, which is part of the Bengal army and not the "British" army proper. That explains why the medal is not silver - UK units received the medal in silver while Indian units received the medal in Bronze.

Per the official account of the battle (The second Afghan war, 1878-80: official account By India. Army. Intelligence Branch, Sir Charles Metcalfe MacGregor )(available on Google books) two companies of the Bengal Sappers and Miners were at this battle - the 4th and the 10th. Per the Hart's Army list for this period, the tenth is listed as being Pontooneers, while the 4th is not differentiated from the other companies of sappers and miners.

I have not been able to find out which of the two companies Edward was in, or any other details at all of his service. The Bengal units generally have UK officers and only a few UK enlisted specialists - and I am very curious what role 2nd Corporal Edward Ashworth filled.

If anyone can suggest further avenues of research to follow, I would be very thankful. Also, is it possible to buy a new ribbon for the medal? The original ribbon is almost completely rotted and faded.

Thank you!

John Gilbert

[paul wood]

My ancestor was at Ahmed Khel on April 19th, 1880. I have his bronze (not silver) Afghanistan Medal with the Ahmed Khel clasp (no other clasps). The edge writing on the medal is as follows:

13315 2nd CORPL. E. ASHWORTH. BEN; S.& M.

Which I parse as follows, 13315 is his serial number, and is a non-officer's number. He is a 2nd Corporal. His name is Edward Ashworth, and his unit is the Bengal Sappers and Miners, which is part of the Bengal army and not the "British" army proper. That explains why the medal is not silver - UK units received the medal in silver while Indian units received the medal in Bronze.

Per the official account of the battle (The second Afghan war, 1878-80: official account By India. Army. Intelligence Branch, Sir Charles Metcalfe MacGregor )(available on Google books) two companies of the Bengal Sappers and Miners were at this battle - the 4th and the 10th. Per the Hart's Army list for this period, the tenth is listed as being Pontooneers, while the 4th is not differentiated from the other companies of sappers and miners.

I have not been able to find out which of the two companies Edward was in, or any other details at all of his service. The Bengal units generally have UK officers and only a few UK enlisted specialists - and I am very curious what role 2nd Corporal Edward Ashworth filled.

If anyone can suggest further avenues of research to follow, I would be very thankful. Also, is it possible to buy a new ribbon for the medal? The original ribbon is almost completely rotted and faded.

Thank you!

John Gilbert

How very strange, the practice of awarding bronze medals was not adopted until the 1885-87 Burma Campaign and the only people to receive them were Indian Army non-combatant troops, such as sycees, bearers, Bhistis etc. which previously did not receive any medallic recognition (there are a few incidents of non-combatant troops receiving privately engraved medals at the regiments expense but these are as rare as rocking horse manure). Combatant troops in both the British and the Indian Army whether British or Indian ALWAYS received silver medals. The bronze medal was relatively short lived. The last campaign it was awarded for was the Abor campaign of 1911-12 and the last bronze medal awarded where the was an Identical silver was of course the BWM which was awarded to various foreign labour corps. Would be very interested to see an image of the medal in order to establish its credentials. There was of course the bronze Kabul to Kandahar Star which was awarded to all combatant troops who took part in the Kabul to Kandahar march.

All the best,

Paul

[peter monahan]

For years, before the advent of computerized lists and books, one of the 'Bibles' for British medal collecting was Major L. L. Gordon's British Battles and Medals. I no longer collect, so have kept only a fourth edition [1971] but that contains a fascinating notation: "ten men of the P.O.W. Sappers and Miners" were awarded the Ahmed Khel bar. I'm sure the source you cite is more accurate - Gordon was notoriously careless of Indian units - but it suggestsan odd unit disposition. Presumably the 10 were specialists of some sort, possibly Europeans.

Gordon goes on to say that:

"This medal, sanctioned on 19th March, 1881, was apparently struck both in silver and bronze, although the later must be very rare indeed.

No explanation whatever can be offered for the existence of the bronze medal."

He goes on to say, as Paul did above, that extracts from General Order No. 723 dated 16th September, 1887 seem to imply that the Burma campaign of 1887 was the first time bronze medals had been generally issued "since the days of the Honourable East India Company". The implication is that the HEIC did issue bronze medals for some campaigns, though a quick flip through his book doesn't reveal any obvious examples. In which case, you may have a handful of rocking horse dung there! A doubly rare medal: to a European in a largely Indian force and a perivate issue by his unit or John Company.

I hope you will let us know if you get further information on this fascinating medal.

Peter

[Odin Mk 3]

I must admit I've never come across a bronze version of this medal - very unusual. You mentioned getting hold of some new ribbon - that is fairly easy in the UK so if you can't hold hold of a piece then send me a message with your address and I'll send you a piece as I have some here.

[mrjohngilbert]

I could be wrong, it might be silver. I had read someplace that it was supposed to be bronze. It is fairly dark from tarnish, but it doesn't seem shiny enough to be silver - it really looks more like dirty modern US clad coinage to me.

Many apologies for the misread of the metal, I will see if I can find a way to get an image of it (I am visiting relatives for the holidays). Thank you all for the replies.

The Bengal Sappers and Miners later spawned units of both the Indian and Pakistani armies, but neither seem to have old records available for research.

John Gilbert