*The ‘Kashmir Gate’ Victoria Cross awarded to Ensign John Smith, Royal Bengal Engineers, who as a Sergeant in the Bengal Sappers and Miners was awarded the V.C. for ‘conspicuous gallantry’ shown during the storming and destruction of the Kashmir Gate at Delhi on 14 September 1857 – in broad daylight and under heavy musket fire. Smith was third in command of the ‘Explosion Party’, and having successfully delivered his own bag of charges at the foot of the gate, he then located and placed another bag at the gate, which had been dropped by a fellow soldier, and set the charge. As his commanding officers and fellow soldiers were gradually killed or taken casualty around him, Smith returned once more to light the fuse in order to blow out the gate. Seeing that it was alight, he jumped into a ditch at the final moment, narrowly escaping with his life. The blowing of the Kashmir Gate allowed the city to be retaken, and for his gallantry Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross and a commission with the Royal Bengal Engineers, comprising: Victoria Cross, with riband buckle, reverse engraved ‘14 Sept. 1857’, with suspension bar engraved ‘Sergeant John Smith, Bengal Sappers & Miners’; Toned, good very fine. V.C.: London Gazette: 27 April, 1858 – ‘For conspicuous gallantry, in conjunction with Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, in the performance of the desperate duty of blowing in the Cashmere Gate of the fortress of Delhi in broad daylight, under a heavy and destructive fire of musketry, on the morning of 14th September, 1857, preparatory to the assault.’ (General Order of Major-General Sir Archdale Wilson, Bart., K.C.B., dated Head Quarters, Delhi City, September 21, 1857.) Ensign John Smith (1814 – 1864) was born in February 1814 in Ticknall, South Derbyshire, the son of Francis Smith, a cordwainer, and Isabella Smith (née Wayte). After a few years working as a shoemaker, John Smith took a Recruiting Sergeant’s shilling and enlisted in London for ‘unlimited service’ in the East India Company’s Artillery in October 1837, at the age of 23. Just a few months later, however, he transferred to the Bengal Sappers and Miners on 1 February 1838, and began his training at Chatham. He embarked for India aboard the Malcolm on 27 March 1839 and arrived at Calcutta on 2 August 1839. Moving swiftly through the ranks, he was promoted to Corporal in 1840, and in November 1841 he joined the 5th Company, marching to Peshawar under Brigadier General Wild. He took part in the First Afghan War at Ali Musjid and at various minor actions in Shinwari country (at Mazina, Mamu-Khel, Jagdalak, Tezin and Haft Khotal, ‘The Kashmir Gate’, by Perkins, refers) and during the re-occupation of Kabul. Promoted to Sergeant in 1842, John Smith also took part in the Sutlej Campaign, where he took part in the Battle of Sobraon (entitled to medal with clasp) and in the Punjab Campaign with the 3rd Company of Sappers at the Siege of Mooltan and the Battle of Goojerat (entitled to medal with 2 clasps). After nearly 20 years’ service he somehow ‘incurred the displeasure of his superiors’ and was posted to the Bengal Artillery for a short time as Gunner in July 1856, but after a successful petition (which suggests unfair treatment) he was reinstated to the Bengal Sappers and Miners with his former rank of Sergeant on 4 November 1856. At the time of the Indian Mutiny, Sergeant Smith was an experienced soldier, aged 43, and he was stationed at Roorkee as the mutiny began to spread from Meerut. Colonel Baird organised for boats to carry several hundred loyal sappers and infantrymen under the command of Captain Fraser to travel to Meerut, but tensions were so high that they were attacked upon arrival. Fraser was killed, and some of their number fled to join the mutineers. After this, all that remained at Meerut were John Smith and 44 British N.C.O.s and privates, five Indian Officers and 124 Indian Sappers. Two weeks later Smith’s party joined Archdale Wilson’s column on its way to joining the Delhi Field Force. Taking part in the siege and capture of Delhi, Sergeant Smith was present at the Battle of Hindun Bridge and the assault at Badli-ki-Serai, from which he emerged unscathed. On 14 September 1857, Sergeant Smith with two Lieutenants (Duncan Charles Home and Philip Salkeld) and a Bugler (Robert Hawthorne), showed conspicuous gallantry at the destruction of the Kashmir Gate in broad daylight under heavy musket fire. John Smith was chosen for the ‘Explosion Party’ as third in command, presumably owing to his recognised fighting record, which was known to Home and Salkeld from their recent encounters with the enemy. In Kaye and Malleson’s ‘A History of the Sepoy War, Vol III’ the personal account of Sergeant John Smith’s survives, in full, as follows: “Sept 14, 1857. The party for blowing in the gate, the 60th Rifles leading, went off at the double from Ludlow Castle, until they arrived at the cross-road leading to the Customs, and the men, when they opened out right and left, the Sappers going to the gate led by Lieutenant Home and one bugler (Hawthorne), Lieutenant Salkeld, with the party carrying the powder a few paces behind, the three European non-commissioned officers, and nine natives with twelve bags of 25 pounds each. My duty was to bring up the rear, and see that none of them remained behind. Lieutenant Salkeld had passed through the temporary Burn Gate with Sergeants Carmichael and Burgess, but four of the natives had stopped behind the above gate and refused to go on. I had to put down my bag and take my gun, and threatened to shoot them, when Lieutenant Salkeld came running back and said, ‘Why the — don’t you come on?’ I told him there were four men behind the gate, and that I was going to shoot them. He said, ‘Shoot them, damn their eyes, shoot them!’ I said, ‘You hear the orders, and I will shoot you,’ raising the gun slowly to ‘present,’ to give fair time, when two men went on. Lieutenant Salkeld said, ‘Do not shoot; with your own bag it will be enough.’ “I went on, and only Lieutenant Salkeld and Sergeant Burgess were there; Lieutenant Home and the bugler had jumped into the ditch, and Sergeant Carmichael, was killed as he went up with his powder on his shoulder, evidently having been shot from the wicket while crossing the broken part of the bridge along one of the beams. I placed my bag, and then at great risk reached Carmichael’s bag from in front of the wicket, placed it, arranged the fuse for the explosion, and reported all ready to Lieutenant Salkeld, who held the slow match (not a port-fire, as I have seen stated). In stooping down to light the quick match, he put out his foot and was shot through the thigh from the wicket, and in falling had the presence of mind to hold out the slow match, and told me to fire the charge. Burgess was next to him and took it. I told him to fire the charge, and keep cool. He turned round and said, ‘It won’t go off, sir; it has gone out, sir’ (not knowing that one officer had fallen into the ditch). I gave him a box of lucifers, and, as he took them, he let them fall into my hand, he being shot through the body at the wicket also, and fell over after Lieutenant Salkeld. I was then left alone, and keeping close to the charge, seeing from where the others were shot, I struck a light, when the port-fire in the fuse went off in my face, the light not having gone out as we thought. I took up my gun and jumped into the ditch, but before I had reached the ground the charge went off, and filled the ditch with smoke, so that I saw no one. I turned while in the act of jumping, so that my back would come to the wall to save me from falling. I stuck close to the wall, and by that I escaped being smashed to pieces, only getting a severe bruise on the leg, the leather helmet saving my head. I put my hands along the wall and touched someone, and asked who it was. ‘Lieutenant Home,’ was the answer’. I said, ‘Has God spared you? Are you hurt?” he said, ‘No,’ and asked the same from me.” “As soon as the dust cleared a little we saw Lieutenant Salkeld and Burgess covered with dust; their lying in the middle of the ditch had saved them from being smashed to pieces and covered by the debris from the top of the walls, the shock only toppling the stones over, which fell between where we stood and where they lay. I went to Lieutenant Salkeld and called the bugler to help me to remove him under the bridge as the fire had covered upon us, and Lieutenant Salkeld’s arm was broken. Lieutenant Home came to assist, but I begged him to keep out of the fire, and that we would do all that could be done. Lieutenant Salkeld would not let us remove him, so I put a bag of powder under his head for a pillow, and with the bugler’s puggery bound up his arms and thigh, and I left the bugler to look to him and went to Burgess, took of his sword, which I put on, and done what I could for him. I got some brandy from Lieutenant Home and gave to both, also to a Havildar (Pelluck Singh), who had his thigh shot through, and was under the bridge by a ladder that had been put into the ditch by mistake by the Rifles. Lieutenant Home got out of the ditch, leaving me in charge of the wounded… I then went to the rear for three stretchers and brought them, one of which was taken from me for an officer of the Rifles. I had to draw my sword and threaten to run any one through who took the other two. I put them into the ditch, and with the bugler’s assistance got Lieutenant Salkeld into one and sent him with him, charging him strictly not to leave him until he had placed him in the hands of a surgeon, and with the assistance of a Naick who had come to the Havildar, got Burgess into one and sent the Naick with him, I being scarcely able to walk, and in a few minutes he returned to say he was dead, and asked for further orders. I told him to take him to the hospital. After assisting to clear away the gate and make the roadway again, I went on to the front to see what was going on…The bugler took charge of Lieutenant Salkeld at my request, and came to our tents when recommended for the (Victoria) Cross, to thank me in the presence of my comrades for being the means of him getting it.” The giant door which had been blown off in the process of opening the gate was then laid across the bridge to allow British guns to enter the city. A popular print from the time provides a stylised image of the VC winners (see illustration), including what must be John Smith, very obviously carrying his pickaxe to show his role as a Sapper & Miner. The heroics of Home, Salkeld, Hawthorne and Smith must have been recognised almost immediately, as just 7 days later, once the city had been captured, Smith’s formal recommendation for the V.C. (along with Home, Salkeld and Hawthorne) had already been made by Major-General Sir Archdale Wilson. After Delhi had been cleared of rebels, Smith continued to take part in the hard-fighting of the next 18 months in the flying column led by Brigadier General George Barker, R.A. Smith These punitive operations and skirmishes against Pandi troops included two pitched battles at Sandela on 7 October 1858, and then three days later at the storming of Fort Birwah. John Smith’s V.C. was announced in the London Gazette of 27 April 1858 (alongside Bugler Hawthorne’s), two weeks before those of Home and Salkeld, who had died since the time of their formal recommendation for the V.C. by Wilson, and thus unwittingly caused great discussion in London about the matter of posthumous awards of the Victoria Cross (see ‘The Kashmir Gate’, by Perkins, Appendix A). While we do not know how or when this early award of the Victoria Cross was made to Smith, we know that it must have been awarded in India in late 1858 or 1859, and that Smith was duly promoted to the rank of Sub-Conductor (Warrant Officer Class II) and acting Barrack Master for Jullundur on 1 July 1859, as well as having been given the thanks of Lord Canning. He also received an Indian Mutiny Medal with clasp ‘Delhi’, and a year later received his first commission as an Ensign in the Royal Bengal Engineers on 17 March 1860, later serving as Barrack Master at Peshawar, Subathu and Darjeeling, returning to general duties at Amballa in January 1864. Sadly, Ensign Smith died of cholera at Jullundur on 26 June 1864, where he was buried with full military honours at the Artillery Cemetery. He lived well in his latter years in India, and owned two small bungalows and other possessions, rated at a total value of 25,000 rupees value at the time of his death, which were passed to his widow Mary Anne. Ensign Smith had married an English widower called Mary Ann Styles (née Corrigean) at Umballa on 4 May 1844, with whom he had four daughters, Isabel, Eliza, Emily and Frances. A mention of his death was published in The Time of India on 25 July 1864, which called Smith ‘a good man and a gallant soldier.’ Smith’s signed will states clearly that his medals were to be given to his wife, Mary Ann Smith, however contemporary reports published online by Ensign Smith’s descendants have suggested that his Victoria Cross was supposedly sent to his brother, Francis, based in Uttoxeter, along with his sword and the standard which had been draped upon his coffin. According to this account, the V.C. then remained in the Smith family until around 1918, when it was reputedly given as a mark of respect to the wife of the only Smith brother of eight not to return from the First World War. After this, Ensign Smith’s V.C. disappeared from the market until it was acquired by Brian Lane - the noted collector of medals from the Indian Mutiny, and subsequently offered for sale at Sotheby’s in 1989. Significantly, the engraved suspension bar on this Victoria Cross had previously been considered to be of later unofficial manufacture (owing to certain flaws in the fabric of the metal of the bar only), however a revised opinion recently issued by David Callaghan, formerly of Hancock’s, now suggests that this bar is in fact entirely correct, as originally issued by Hancock’s. Concerning the matter of his campaign medals, their current whereabouts remain largely unknown, but we hope that they may still be retained by a member of his family. An engraved Indian Mutiny Medal named to this recipient was sold by Spink on 1 December 2017 (lot 253). Ex Brian Lane Collection, Sotheby’s, 12 September 1989, lot 424
Estimate: £70000-£90000