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An interesting, scarce and historically significant group of three medals, with a compelling Victoria Cross association, awarded to a European member of the Indian Army (ISMD) who was born, and spent his entire life, in India. The group consisting of: Indian Mutiny medal 1857-58 with clasp Lucknow, named to Appce D E Young Att to 9th Lancers (Apprentice D E Young Attached to 9th Lancers). EVIIR Delhi Durbar Medal 1903 named in engraved flowing script to: Volr D E Young MV, complete with original ribbon buckle. Indian Volunteer Forces Long Service Medal (EVIIR Kaisar-I-Hind issue) named to: Volr D E Young 1st Pjb Volr Rifles (Punjab Volunteer Rifle Corps. Daniel Edwin Young was born in India in 1838, the son of a British Quartermaster Sergeant in the Bengal Artillery. He entered the Bengal Subordinate Medical Department as an Apprentice Apothecary in 1855 and during the Indian Mutiny he was attached to the 9th Lancers (The 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers, known by the Sepoys after the battle of Delhi as “The Delhi Spearmen”) as a Hospital Apprentice and served at Delhi during the assault and capture of the city from the mutineers. For this service he received the Indian Mutiny Medal with clasp Delhi, but did not take part in the later operations with the 9th Lancers at Lucknow. Private Robert Newell (who had been born in Seaham, Co Durham in 1835) also served with the 9th Lancers in India and in February 1851 he married Rebecca Keeves in Wazirabad. Together they would have two children, but sadly one died in infancy. On 19 March 1858, during the British assault on the city of Lucknow, Private Newell went to the assistance of a comrade whose horse had stumbled and fallen on the rocky ground and managed to bring the man to safety, under heavy musket fire from the rebels. Sir Hope Grant mentioned him in despatches for his bravery on 8 April and subsequently his recommendation for the award of the Victoria Cross was approved, but not gazetted until 24 December 1858. Sadly, Newell would not live to know of the award of the VC, as shortly after the action at Lucknow he contracted severe dysentery and was sent with the other sick and wounded personnel of the 9th Lancers to Amballa, where the regimental hospital was located and where he died on 11 July 1858, being buried in an unmarked grave in Amballa Cemetery. It is likely that Assistant Apothecary Young would have tended to Robert Newell during his illness and so would have met Newell’s wife, who was also in Amballa, during this period. Following her husband’s death, and with a young child to care for, Rebecca Newell followed a course that was quite customary at the time for the widows of British soldiers who had died and, after a suitable period of mourning, she married Daniel Young on 9 February 1859 at Amballa. The 9th Lancers were awarded twelve Victoria Crosses in the Indian Mutiny; however she, unlike the other Victoria Cross winners, never received a letter of approval confirming her late husband’s entitlement to the annuity attached to the Victoria Cross, which would have been due to her. In the event, Young helped his new wife to apply for the annuity, and it was finally granted by the Calcutta authorities. As for Newell’s Victoria Cross, it had been duly sent out to India, but had been returned because the recipient had died and, at that time, posthumous awards were not sanctioned. However, with the annuity having already been paid, it was decided that the VC should be given to Newell’s widow after all and it was sent to her by registered post in due course. Queen Victoria had personally influenced this outcome, sending a letter to Rebecca Newell (now Rebecca Young) expressing not only her condolences for her loss but also her admiration for Newell’s bravery. The issue of posthumous awards of the Victoria Cross is covered in chapter 8 of the authoritative work “The Evolution of the Victoria Cross” by M J Crook, in which the specific case of Robert Newell’s VC is addressed, including Daniel Young’s involvement (relevant extract from book included in research notes). Daniel Young remained in the Bengal SMD until 1866 when, as a Hospital Steward, he was dismissed the service by sentence of a District Court Martial. For the remainder of his working life he was employed for many years as a railway clerk and later, in 1891, he became proprietor of James Gray & Co, a general merchant’s business at Jullunder. He must have served in the Indian Volunteer Force for some or all of this period as the Gazette of India dated 16 May 1903 records the award to him of the Indian Volunteer Forces Long Service Medal, named to the Punjab Volunteer Rifles. He was also awarded the EVIIR Delhi Durbar Medal in 1903, as one of 28 European veterans of the Indian Mutiny, which is privately named to him as a Volunteer of the ‘MV’. It seems therefore that at the time of receipt of this medal Young was still serving as a Volunteer in the Punjab Volunteer Rifles (at the age of 65!) but was actually awarded the Delhi Durbar Medal on the basis of his status as a European Veteran of the Indian Mutiny (28 on the roll), and had the medal privately named accordingly. Daniel and Rebecca Young lived together at Sialkot, a prosperous town in the Punjab region of northern India (now in Pakistan) until the end of their lives. She died in 1907 and he finally followed her in 1923, aged 85. In his will he gifted his entire estate to the Reverend Arthur Selwyn, Senior British Chaplain at Sialkot, to be used for the benefit of the Church of England. His estate would have included his own three medals and also the Victoria Cross and Indian Mutiny Medal with the three clasps Delhi, Lucknow and Relief of Lucknow awarded to Robert Newell and which would have been originally in the possession of Rebecca and would have passed to Daniel on her death. Daniel Young’s three medals appeared individually in the UK medal market on three separate occasions spread over nearly four decades, and are thus an outstanding example of a broken group reunited; one can only speculate on the routes followed by these medals to their present location, together, and by Robert Newell’s Victoria Cross and Mutiny Medal, from Sialkot in 1923, to the Michael Ashcroft collection, where they rest today. The medals are in Very Fine (VF) and better condition and accompanied by a substantial volume of research, including biographical details, notes on awards of medals and other documents copied from India Office records. This medal group and its accompanying human story provides insight into many aspects of life in India during the British Raj and also offers scope for further research and consolidation of all available data.