A rare campaign group of three awarded to General H. B. Stevens, 12th Native Infantry, Sylhet L...

A rare campaign group of three awarded to General H. B. Stevens, 12th Native Infantry, Sylhet Light Infantry and 41st Native Infantry

Sutlej 1845-46, for Ferozeshuhur, 1 clasp, Sobraon (Lieutenant H. B. Stevens late 41st N.I.), officially engraved naming; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Captain H. B. Stevens Sylhet Light Infantry), officially engraved naming; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Bhootan (Lt Col H. B. Stevens 12th N.I.), mounted as worn, second Medal detached, contact marks, nearly very fine, housed within a J. R. Gaunt, Conduit Street case of issue (3)

Provenance:

Glendining's, November 1980.

Henry Borlase Stevens was born in 1824, was educated at Addiscombe and was thence appointed Ensign to the 41st Native Infantry in 1841. He served in both the Battles of Ferozeshah and Sobraon with that unit.

Stevens was appointed Second-in-Command of the Sylhet Light Infantry in 1856 and was the Officiating Commandant during its skirmishes with the mutinous 34th Native Infantry in 1857-8 in the Cachar District in the North East Frontier of India, for which he received the thanks of the Government of India.

The History of the Indian Mutiny 1857-1858 by Colonel Malleson noted:

'On 12th January they [34th Regiment Native Infantry which had mutinied at Chatgaon in November 1857] were attacked by a party of the Silhat corps [which had been ordered to pursue the rebels by the Chief Civil Oficer of Silhat], under the command of Captain Stevens, and after a fight which lasted for two hours, they were driven into the jungles, with the loss of twenty men killed. Ten days later, the same officer, having learnt where they were encamped, succeeded in surprising them while their arms were piled, and putting them to flight, with the loss of all their arms and accoutrements. On this occasion they lost ten men killed. Eight days later another detachment of them was attacked and completely defeated, with the loss of thirteen men, by a small party of the Silhat regiment …This was the finishing stroke.'

In 1858, he was appointed Commandant of the Kelat-I-Ghilzie Regiment, later designated 12th Bengal Native Infantry, whom he commanded during the Bhootan Campaign, He commanded the 12th Bengal Native Infantry for no less than seventeen years after which he was promoted Colonel and in command of Delhi, when he had the honour to receive HRH The Prince of Wales during his Royal Visit in 1876.

Stevens was promoted Major-General in 1881, Lieutenant-General in 1883 and General in 1888, being placed on the unemployed supernumerary list from 1884. He died on Guernsey in 1904, with his obituary featuring in The Times; sold together with copied research.

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