During a recent trip to my native Pembrokeshire I visited the Record Office in Haverfordwest. It is located in an old 18th or 19thC Police Station and gaol built within the ruins of the old Norman castle that dominate the little town. The castle includes a museum that is also well worth a visit. Thickness of the walls and the nature of the doors suggest that some of the work spaces in the Records Office are within the old cells. I searched, unsuccessfully, for further data of my maternal ancestors but the County Archivist noticed my name when I signed in and came up with an unexpected Blencowe reference; Mr Hughes specialises in records of awards of military medals and here was one of Stephen Blencowe, Private Soldier in the 9th Foot (Norfolk Regiment) awarded a medal in the Sikh War of 1845-46.

The regimental records showed that Pte Blencowe had been awarded the Sutlej Medal with "MOODKE" in the exergue on the reverse, and a clasp for FEROZESHUHUR. He had taken part in the battle of Mudki on 18 December and in the battle of Ferozeshah where he was killed in action on 21 December. No further details were available (although presumably his parents would have been sent his medal) so we do not know where he came from. Whilst Norfolk seems the more likely, units of the regiment had been stationed in Buckingham and there were Blencowes in both counties. However, I was sent an account of the activities of the 3rd Light Dragoons during the Sutlej Campaign and excerpts from this give an idea of what life (and death) were like for soldiers in the days before India became (for more than a century) a British Empire.

The Sikh Confederacy, led by Ranjit Singh, was centred on Lahore, now a major city of Pakistan, and the great Sikh religious centre of Amritsar some 20 miles to the east in present-day India. The Sutlej River provided a boundary to whose south the lands were under the control of the British East India Company. After the death of Ranjit in 1839 the army assumed greater control of the Confederacy and, trained by French and Italian mercenaries, had by 1845 regular forces of 35,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry, and 200 guns - a much larger force than the British garrison of 7,000 at Ferozepore south of the river.

When, on 11 December, a Sikh army crossed the Sutlej, British reinforcements were moved North. The 9th Foot left Ambala and marched about 140 miles towards Ferozepore, 'over flat, sandy and dusty country, overgrown with thorn scrub and low jungle.' They had met up with the British force that had been pushed south from Ferozepore and 18 December arrived at Mudki at 1.00 p.m. They made camp and started to cook a meal as the baggage camels came in, but before this was finished they came under attack by guns of the Sikh army. The British army of some 12,000 men comprised a cavalry division and three infantry divisions, with 42 guns. An artillery duel was followed by an infantry battle and hand-to- hand fighting in which the British lost nearly 900 men, killed or wounded, but forced the Sikhs into a fighting retreat and captured 17 of their guns.

The British army remained camped at Mukdi for two days and moved on Ferozeshah at 4 a.m. on 21 December but, after marching some 10 miles, were not able to join battle until 3.30 p.m. after struggling towards the Sikh entrenchments through dense scrub. Very heavy losses were incurred on both sides, including Pte Blencowe; the battle was resumed the following day after a night of gunfire and infantry skirmishes, with many wounded being shot as they lay on the ground. After the Sikh army had been driven off, leaving 70 guns behind, the almost victorious British then came under attack by a fresh army of 20,000 men with another 50 guns. The fighting seems to have become so confused that the British were lucky not to have been wiped out and they were puzzled as well as jubilant when the whole Sikh army turned and fled towards the river, abandoning its ammunition and stores.

It took two more battles before the First Sikh War was formally ended by a treaty at Lahore on 9 March 1846, but by that time our unfortunate kinsman had been two months in his grave and, we fear, forgotten by all but his next-of-kin back home.

Source: Sutlej Campaign: 1845-6 The Role of the 3rd Light Dragoons by Anthony Farrington, Senior Assistant Keeper, India Office Records

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updated: 18 January 2003