DRUMMER ANTONE LARENCE AFGHANISTAN MEDAL KANDAHAR 19TH BOMBAY NATIVE INFANTRY

Offered is a Afghan Medal (1881) 1 clasp KANDAHAR, period engraved in sloping script Drummer Antoni Larence. 19th Regt Bo N.I. (19th Regiment Bombay Native Infantry).

A most unusual European name to a drummer with the Bombay Army, it is possible that Antoni Larence was the descendant of an one of the European mercenaries that served in the armies of the British East India Company or local Indian rulers. British, French, Portuguese, German, Irish, Italian & Russian mercenaries all worked in India fighting with and against the British at various times.

The Bombay Army was established in 1662 and governed by the East India Company until the Government of India Act 1858 transferred all presidencies to the direct authority of the British Crown in 1861. In 1742 the Bombay Army consisted of eight companies of European and Eurasian garrison troops, by 1780 the non-Indian (mostly British but also including Swiss and German mercenaries) element was organized in a single Bombay European Regiment.

1880, when a British force was besieged in Kandahar, General Roberts led a column that marched from Kabul to relieve Kandahar some 480km away. The advance was made in blistering heat. Although food and fodder could usually be found or purchased from the locals, fresh water was in short supply for much of the march. Temperatures hovered around 35°C (95°F) & heatstroke and disease weakened the force along its arduous path, but there was little straggling in spite of the conditions. Part of this was because Roberts had a force of soldiers deployed at the rear of the column to keep any stragglers from wandering. Camp followers and indigenous workers helping with the supply wagons were the worst offenders, but very few soldiers fell out of the march. These men were veterans and, besides their discipline, they all knew what fate awaited a straggler in the hills of Afghanistan.

The resulting Afghan defeat leading to the conclusion of the war in September 1880.