The Important Officer's ‘Maiwand Survivor’ Second Afghan War Medal awarded to Major Charles Valentine Oliver, 66th (Berkshire) Regiment, who was present as second-in-command of the 66th during the Battle of Maiwand on 27 July 1880. One of the last two men to leave the field of battle, along with General Burrows, they retreated with the regimental colours to the walled gardens Khig under heavy Afghan rifle and artillery fire. Realising that the walls of their position would not hold, Burrows, Oliver and their small party cut a path towards Kandahar as the remaining men in the walled garden became pinned down, preventing any other soldiers from making an escape. Oliver and some men of the 66th drove off a party of pursuing Afghan cavalry at the point of the bayonet, and finally arrived in Kandahar. Oliver, now in command and the senior surviving officer, led the 66th during the defence of the city, only to finally succumb from smallpox and general exhaustion from the tragic events of the preceding days, comprising: Afghanistan, 1878-80, single clasp, Kandahar (Major, C. V. Oliver, 66th Foot.), lightly toned, some light hairlines from polishing, very fine and rare Major Charles Valentine Oliver was born on 9 March 1836 at Ashby de la Zouch, the second son of John Dudley Oliver, Esquire, of Cherrymount, County Wicklow, Ireland, who was the head of a younger branch of the Olivers, of Castle Oliver, County Limerick. One of five brothers to join the army in succession, he was commissioned as Ensign (by purchase) with the 66th Foot on 8 September 1854. Seeing service India, Gibraltar, the Channel Islands, Great Britain, and Ireland, he was promoted to Lieutenant on 29 February 1856, to Captain on 21 April 1865, each time by purchase, and served for a time as Provisional Instructor of Musketry, having completed a course in Hythe.As recorded in ‘The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880’ by Shadbolt, Major Oliver was one of the officers sent out to Jamaica in 1866 to serve on the court-martial which tried two officers accused of acts of cruelty in putting down a rebellion in that island, and which honourably acquitted them. After his return to England, he served with the regiment at Aldershot, Jersey, Guernsey, the Curragh, and Dublin; and in 1870 proceeded with the headquarters once again to India. When the regiment was stationed at Karachi, he was for a considerable time in charge of the Sanitarium of Ghizri, and he was promoted to Brevet Major on 1 October 1877.Major Oliver marched with the regiment to Kandahar in February, 1880, and was present at the action near Girishk, on the 14th July. At the battle of Maiwand, on the 27th, the main body of the 66th (15 officers and 343 men) formed up on the extreme right of the British line, with Lieutenant-Colonel Galbraith, Major Oliver, Lieutenant Rayner the Adjutant, Sergeant Major Cuppage and the rest of the Headquarters Group and Regimental Colours positioned just behind the main line – comprised of 5 companies of the 66th. Elsewhere, one officer and 42 men of 66th had been very recently ‘converted’ to temporary artillery gunners in order to serve with the make-shift smooth-bore battery of recently captured guns, and a final reserve of men (4 officers and 63 men) from ‘G’ Company of the 66th under Captain Quarry were tasked with defending the baggage train, ammunition, and temporary hospital station in a nearby nullah, alongside several other detachments of cavalry and men.The battle commenced in earnest between late morning and midday, and Major Oliver had his horse shot and killed beneath him early in the battle (as recorded by ‘The Royal Berkshire Regiment’ by Petre). As the less-experienced men of 30th Bombay N.I. (Jacob’s Rifles), lacking water, hungry, under fire, and short of ammunition, suffered withering losses from Afghan artillery and gunfire until they finally broke ranks at around 2.30pm - 3.00pm, the chaos from which spread in turn to the 1st Grenadiers, leading to the famous fighting withdrawal of ‘E’ Battery, R.H.A. who attempted to ‘save the guns’ as their positions were overrun. With general chaos beginning to descend, and suffering their own losses in the line, the men of the 66th had no choice but to lead a staged retreat under fire, forming temporary squares with much hand-to-hand fighting. The main body of men (aside from those of the baggage guard), under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Galbraith and with Major Oliver in support, moved towards the settlement of Khig and across the Mundabad ravine. As stated in ‘Maiwand – The Last Stand of the 66th Berkshire Regiment in Afghanistan, 1880’ by Stacpoole-Ryding, it is understood that Major Oliver and General Burrows were the last two men to leave the field of battle, and they were so hard pressed that Oliver was himself obliged, in self-defence, to shoot with a rifle two or three of the Afghan cavalry who attacked them on the open plain.Reaching the village of Khig, they took temporary refuge alongside the other retreating men of the 66th, a complement of Bombay Sappers and Miners and other survivors from the Bombay Grenadiers. In this late phase of the battle, the remaining British and Indian soldiers continued to engage fiercely with the enemy and began a series of ‘stands’ within Khig’s walled gardens and houses, making every shot count in the desperate close-range, hand-to-hand fighting that followed. Seeing that the garden walls would not long withstand the renewed Afghan artillery fire, it was at this point that Burrows instructed Oliver and his party to make an escape from the enclosed gardens (according to a letter published in ‘Maiwand – The Last Stand of the 66th Berkshire Regiment in Afghanistan, 1880’ by Stacpoole-Ryding). Amongst the last of the men to escape the hail of gunfire and artillery, Major Oliver, Captain Roberts, one Lieutenant and a dozen men made a swift break away from Khig down the 40-mile road to Kandahar, fighting off pursuing Afghans. After many miles, helping the wounded, fighting off the enemy and still without any food or water, Oliver fell with cramp and was eventually placed onto one of the ‘E’ Battery limbers. ‘I was nearly insensible, then Jones R.A… poured brandy down my throat but I could not speak… I was fired on by villagers til we got close to Kandahar… I saved nothing but the clothes I stood in and my gaiters had two holes shot in them. The button served to turn a bullet which appeared to go round my ankle.’Arriving at last at Kandahar with his men (and not swiftly after the battle, as reported in confusion owing to a veterinary officer of the same name), Oliver took command of the 66th as its senior officer, despite his own exhaustion. Major Oliver and the other survivors of the 66th, two-thirds of whom were wounded, were set immediately to the defence of the city, which was now under siege by Ayub Khan’s emboldened forces. Here, the 66th played their part undertaking guard duties, often under fire, at the Eadgah Gate which remained open to the north of the city. This continued between 28 July and 31st August, upon the arrival of Sir Frederick Roberts, with whom they were able to finally defeat Ayub Khan on 1 September, 1880, at the Battle of Kandahar. As recorded in by Shadbolt:“Although Major Oliver suffered much from weakness during the siege, he nevertheless commanded all that was left of the 66th at the battle of Kandahar on the 1st September. After the defeat of Ayub Khan’s army, he continued in a low state of health, and he subsequently fell an easy victim to the disease — small-pox — which eventually carried him off on the 10th October, 1880. His death was thus alluded to in the ‘Kandahar News’ — “All our readers will receive with feelings of deep sorrow and regret the sad news of the death of Major C. V. Oliver, 66th Regiment, which occurred yesterday morning in the citadel, from small-pox. After bringing back the remnants of his regiment from the fatal and terrible field of Maiwand, and the still more terrible retreat on Kandahar, and passing safely through the perils of the siege, he was on the eve of marching to India, en route to England with his regiment, when the fell disease struck him down, and in little more than a week our Queen and country had to deplore the loss of a faithful servant, and the 66th Regiment, the Kandahar Field Force, and the whole Army, a fine soldier, brave officer, good companion, and staunch friend.”One of just 12 known medals to officers of the 66th Foot for Afghanistan 1878-80, this example the highest ranking.Ex Wellington Auctions, 30 April 2008, lot 57

Estimate: GBP 6000 - 8000