Indian Mutiny Medal 1857-58

two clasps, Defence of Lucknow, Lucknow, impressed CAPT. W. MCG. KEATS, 84TH REGT., good extremely fine and toned, in an old fitted case

(lot 4) the auction Sotheby's £2,000-3,000

The lot is offered with copies of letters written by Captain Keats from India (taken from originals in the Keats family papers).

WILLIAM MCGEACHY KEATS was born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, on 19 October 1824, the youngest son of the Rev. Richard Keats BA (1791-1858), vicar of Wiveliscombe. He was a great-nephew of Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats G.C.B. (Pitman, p 45, and Raikes), and a nephew of Admiral William Abraham Keats (see preceding lot). Following in the family educational tradition, William attended Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon from October 1833 until December 1836 when he went to Winchester College.

On 9 January 1834 his father was presented with the living of Northfleet, Gravesend, Kent, by King William IV (Fisher, p 132 No. 2155 and Holgate, p 9). Northfleet would have held a particular resonance for the family when the Rev. Richard Keats was translated to the parish, since it was from Thomas Pitcher’s Northfleet yard that H.M.S. SUPERB had been commissioned in 1795 and launched in March 1798. In 1834 Admiral Sir Richard Keats G.C.B., Governor of Greenwich Hospital and a lifelong friend of the King, was approaching the end his life; it is conceivable that the relocation of the Rev. Richard Keats was influenced by these factors as well as by the convenient proximity of Greenwich and Northfleet (London Gazette, 19118, 10.1.1834, p 56).

Shortly before his eighteenth birthday, William McGeachy Keats was purchased an ensign’s commission in the 75th Regiment of Foot, then stationed at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa; his commission was dated 14 October 1842 (London Gazette, 20150, 14.10.1842, p 2792). In the spring of 1843, the regiment sailed for England, being stationed in Plymouth, South Wales and Bristol until September 1845. It was subsequently posted to Ireland, being stationed by detachments in Waterford, Birr, Athlone and Dublin (Gardyne, passim). Whilst in Ireland Keats was promoted lieutenant, without purchase, on 21 April 1846 but he then exchanged, eighteen months’ later, with a lieutenant in the 84th (York & Lancaster) Regiment of Foot. The exchange took effect from 26th November 1847 (London Gazettes, 20596, 21.4.1846, p 1439, & 20799, 26.11.1847, p 4339), entailing Keats leaving his regiment in Dublin and sailing halfway across the world to Secunderabad in the Indian Presidency of Madras, where the 84th had been stationed since February 1847.

Keats arrived in India on 23 June 1848 and joined his new regiment in Secunderabad, where it remained before being posted to Trichinopoly in January 1850. In January 1854, the 84th was posted to Rangoon, in Burma, and while there Keats married Harriet O’Brien, the sister of a fellow officer, Lieutenant David O’Brien, on 22 October 1855 (Bombay Times …). Early in 1857, the first intimations of mutiny in some regiments of the Bengal Army began to be received and the government in Calcutta ordered the 84th to deploy to Bengal with all possible haste. The regiment arrived at Chinsura on 20 March 1857, immediately marching to Barrackpore to oversee the disarming of 19th and 34th Bengal Native Infantry on 31 March before being swept up as part of larger British formations that were hurriedly created to suppress the rebellion in Bengal and parts of northern India conventionally known until recent years as the ‘Indian Mutiny’ (Wylly, passim).

Keats served in one of the two companies of the 84th that were incorporated into the force formed under the command of Brigadier Henry Havelock and tasked, initially, to relieve the besieged garrison at Cawnpore and then to march on Lucknow, which was also under siege. This operation involved Keats seeing service at the battles of Unao, 29 July 1857, Bushiratganj, 5 August 1857, Burbeaki Chowki, 12 August 1857, Mangalwar, 21 September 1857 and Alambagh, 23 September, 1857, as Havelock’s force fought its way – at the hottest time of the year, through torrential rains and with an increasing casualty list through disease and wounds in action – towards Cawnpore and then on to Lucknow. From September 1857 to March 1858, Keats was involved in the relief, capture and then defence of Lucknow until its second relief; he then served, from March to December 1858, in a field force under command of Brigadier Sir Edward Lugard at the relief of Azamgarh, in pursuit of the rebel commander Kuer Singh and in a variety of other minor actions during the closing months of the rebellion (Raikes). For his campaign service, Keats received the Indian Mutiny Medal with the two clasps ‘Defence of Lucknow’ and ‘Lucknow’, an award to which he made reference in a letter to an uncle written on 28 May 1858:

‘I believe I get a medal & two clasps & I hear my share of prize money will be nearly Ј2,000. The latter part I don’t believe & yet the Commander in Chief is to get Ј200,000...’(Keats family papers)

During the rebellion, Keats was promoted to captain. His first captaincy was gazetted to 7th Regiment of Foot (or Royal Fusiliers) on 6 November 1857 but this was cancelled when a captaincy became available in the 84th, in which regiment he was gazetted captain on 11 December 1857, with seniority backdated to 27 November 1857 (London Gazettes 22059, 6.11.1857, p 3706, 22071, 11.12.1857, pp 4366-7 and 22077, 29.12.1857, p 4596).

The 84th returned to England in the spring of 1859, disembarking at Gravesend (where Keats’s father, the incumbent of Northfleet, had died in the previous year), and marching to Sheffield, where it was quartered until June 1860 (Wylly, passim).

Captain William McGeachy Keats retired on 21 February 1860 (London Gazette 22358, 21.2.1860, p 602) and died at his home, Rock Cottage in Llanelli, on 29 November 1873 (Keats family papers).

Letter sent from India by Captain Keats

(Keats family papers)