Pair: Paymaster R. Bluntish, 9th Regiment of Foot, late 10th Regiment of Foot Cabul 1842...

Pair: Paymaster R. Bluntish, 9th Regiment of Foot, late 10th Regiment of Foot Cabul 1842 (Paymaster Robt. Bluntish 9th. Regt.) contemporarily engraved naming, fitted with original steel clip and straight bar suspension; Sutlej 1845-46, for Moodkee 1845, 2 clasps, Ferozeshuhur, Sobraon (Paymaster Robt. Bluntish 9t. Regt.) minor edge bruising, otherwise good very fine (2) £1,000-£1,400 --- Robert Bluntish was born in Westminster in 1786 and was commissioned Paymaster in the 10th (North Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot on 14 December 1809, aged 23. Serving through the rest of the Napoleonic war, he was on full pay for 6 years and 10 months until October 1816 and then was placed on half pay by reduction for 12 years and 2 months until December 1828. It appears he then retired, having lived in Avranches, France for the previous 5 years. He stated he was ‘Endeavouring to make arrangements to emigrate to New Holland wishing to avail myself of the advantages held out by the General Orders to officers on half pay to induce them to take tracts of land in the said Colony.’ This evidently never happened as, on 18 October 1833, he was commissioned into the 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot. Proceeding first to Mauritius, and then to India, he was promoted Captain (Paymaster) at Agra in 1840. Bluntish saw active service during the Afghan campaign of 1842, and then during the First Sikh War, where he was present at the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshuhur, and Sobraon, alongside his son, Archibald, a Lieutenant in the 9th Foot (and whose medal with 2 clasps is in the Regimental Museum collection). Returning home with the Regiment in July 1847, he died suddenly of apoplexy at Athlone, Westmeath, Ireland, on 27 September 1851, at the age of 65 and whilst still serving with the Regiment. The following obituary appeared in The United Services Magazine: ‘September 27th, at Athlone, Paymaster Robert Bluntish, 9th Regiment, aged 65. He was appointed Paymaster of the 10th Foot so far back as December, 1809, and served with the 2nd Battalion of that Regiment until it was disbanded in February, 1816. He was placed on Half Pay in April of that year, and remained unemployed until October, 1833, when he was appointed to the 9th Regiment of Infantry, on the dismissal of Paymaster and Captain Walton for embezzlement. Paymaster Bluntish joined the 9th at Mauritius in 1834, and served with it there until it embarked in 1835 for Bengal, to which Presidency he accompanied the Regiment, and served with it during the campaign in the year 1842, in Afghanistan, for which he received a medal. He also served with it in the campaign on the Sutlej, from November, 1845, to March, 1846, and was present at the battles of Moodkee and Sobraon, and received a medal for this campaign also. His eldest son was appointed to an Ensigncy in the 9th Regiment in December, 1838, and purchased a Lieutenancy in July, 1840.’ Sold with copied research.