Medal, Afghanistan
Production date
1881
Description
An Afghanistan Medal. The silver medal features a veiled and crowned left facing profile of Queen Victoria on the obverse. " VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX " is embossed around the outside. The reverse features a marching column with an elephant carrying a cannon at the centre. " AFGHANISTAN / 1878-79-80 " is embossed around the scene. The medal is attached to the dark green and crimson striped ribbon by a plain suspension bar. "45 BOMB. J. CRONE I/C R.H.A." is marked on the edge. The medal is mounted on cardboard.
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Public comments
I believe that the reference to 1/C R.H.A should be I/C R.H.A That's great with the medals on the website - the naming confirms James as being with I/C RHA in the Afghan war and with N/A RHA in Egypt. (I note the website says 1/C RHA, but the RHA battery was actually I/C RHA). There is still some mystery about the photo. The first medal looks most like a Long Service Good Conduct Medal - the ribbon looks plain (rather than the dark stripes of an India Service Medal, and there is no clasp - which you record as James earning for Jowaki. I have had a look at the medal roll for Jowaki on Ancestry, and though I/C RHA were present, I don't see James listed under the RA lists. The rolls aren't easy to browse, so I can't say I've done a diligent search. The second and fourth medals certainly resemble the Egypt pair - Egypt 1882 with clasp (presumably Tel-el-Kebir) and the Khedive's Star - and they're on the website, with the Egypt Medal named. The third medal does not have the ribbon of the Afghan medal - it has two thin stripes within a darker background. Also the three clasps do not look like Afghan clasps, and do not tally with James' award of a no-clasp Afghan medal. As you say, it could be the Queen's SA medal - the clasps are correctly thin, and the stripes match - but James wasn't in South Africa, was he? This leads to the question - is the photo definitely of James Crone? Anyway - the biography matches (except for the bit about the march to Kandahar, but that crept into the biogs of a lot of Afghan veterans!) and I will be adding James to the database with that info. Thank you very much for sending it - it's always great to get another soldier confirmed and fleshed out, and then to be able to remember them on the database. A little information for about the role of I/C RHA in Afghanistan ... Four guns of the battery were involved in the opening action of the campaign at Ali Masjid in Nov 1878, with a further two guns brought in a little later on. They then marched to Daka and then to Jalalabad, where they remained for the rest of the winter. In march they moved to Gandamak and took part in the action at Futtehabad on 2 Apr 1879. At the end of the first campaign they returned to India, suffering from cholera in the Khyber Pass (14 men from the battery dead; the march was a bit of a disaster for a number of regiments). The battery was to return to England, but the Afghan campaign reignited in Sep 1879 and I/C RHA returned to garrison Peshawar, and then on to Daka in Jan 1880. They saw action again, later that month, at the Gara Heights and returned to India in Feb 1880. Although the obituary notice states James served under Roberts - I/C RHA didn't actually do so. They were intended to join Roberts' Kuram Valley Field Force at the start of the second campaign, but because they were still somewhat depleted in health and equipment from the first campaign they were delayed, and went to Peshawar and the Khyber area instead. Thanks again, with best wishes for now - Garen Garen Ewing The Second Anglo-Afghan War resource at: http://www.angloafghanwar.info
- Peter Yorke posted 10 years ago.
My great grandfather James Crone b 1842 Lisburn, Ireland d 1927 New Plymouth
- John Crone posted 10 years ago.