The rare Army of India Medal 1799-1826, short hyphen reverse, 2 Clasps: Bhurtpoor, Nepaul, awarded to Captain later Honorary Lieutenant Colonel James Croudace, 11th Bengal Native Infantry, formerly 2nd/5th Bengal Native Infantry, Honourable East India Company Forces. From Chester-le-Street, County Durham, his father Thomas Croudace resided in Lambton Castle, he being an agent to the Earl of Durham, for whom the castle was the family seat. The Croudace surname is well known in the local area to this day. After attending the Barasat Cadet College at Calcutta, he was appointed an Ensign into the 2nd/5th Bengal Native Infantry in July 1812 and fought in the Nepal War which lasted from October 1814 to March 1816, and went on to see service during the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817 to 1819. Croudace was the Adjutant of the 11th Bengal Native Infantry from June 1824 until October 1827 during which period he found himself present between December 1825 and January 1826 at the siege and capture of the Jat fortress of Bharatpur as a part of the British force under Lord Combermere. Unique within his regiment he became one of only 38 recipients of the Army of India Medal with this clasp combination. He was furloughed to the Cape of Good Hope and Tasmania during the 1830’s, before becoming Aide de Camp to Major General G.R. Penny commanding the Dinapore Division during 1839 to 1840 and was latterly the Brigade Major at Cawnpore from October 1843 through to November 1845.
Army of India Medal 1799-1826, short hyphen reverse, 2 Clasps: Bhurtpoor, Nepaul; (CAPTN. JAS. CROUDACE, 11TH. N.I.)
Condition: light edge bruise at 5 o’clock on obverse rim, lightly polished, overall Good Very Fine.
Provenance: ex Sotheby May 2000
James Croudace was born on 10 March 1793 in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, the son of Thomas Croudace of Lambton Castle, that stands above Chester-le-Street, and is the family seat of the Earl of Durham, to whom his father worked as an agent. A relative, one Thomas Croudace, is still well known in the local area, as he oversaw the selection of the site and layout of Lambton township on the outskirts of Chester-le-Street in 1861. This township rose up around Lambton Coal Mine of which he was the manager, he being known as the ‘Father of Lambton’.
Croudace was originally nominated as a Cadet for the Honourable East India Company Bengal Establishment Infantry during the 1808 season, and having been accepted on 27 April 1810, then travelled out to India and was admitted on 15 December 1810, and went on to attend the Barasat Cadet College at Calcutta for eight months, being eventually appointed as an Ensign on 16 July 1812, and posted to the 2nd/5th Bengal Native Infantry.
Croudace was present with the 5th Bengal Native Infantry during the operations in Nepal in the Nepal War which lasted from October 1814 to March 1816. Nepal was first conquered by the Gurkhas in 1768 and ties of friendship were signed between them and the British in 1791 and 1801. Despite this, the Gurkhas made regular raids across the border resulting in the British invasion of Nepal. War began on 1st November 1814 and ended on 27th April 1815, after which a new treaty was signed on 2nd December 1815, but in January 1916 trouble broke out again, and a further expedition under Major General Sir David Ochterlony K.C.B. was dispatched to Nepal. After battles at Mukwampore and Sierapore the Rajah of Nepal sued for peace and a further treaty was concluded on 4th March 1816. After this treaty, Prince Jung Bahadoor came to London to establish an Embassy. In all some 505 ‘Nepaul’ clasps were issued to the Army of India Medal, with 491 going to Europeans. According to the medal roll, only one Nepaul clasp was awarded to an officer in the 5th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, and this is not Croudace, who would eventually claim his two clasp medal through his latter unit of the 11th Bengal Native Infantry, hence his not being recorded on the list for the 5th Bengal Native Infantry.
Croudace was promoted to Lieutenant on 29 May 1817 when with the 2nd/5th Bengal Native Infantry, and having served during the Third Anglo-Maratha War which lasted from 5 November 1817 through to 9 April 1919, he became the Adjutant of this regiment from 1 October 1823, before transferring to the 11th Bengal Native Infantry (formerly the 1/5th Bengal Native Infantry) on the creation of this regiment in May 1824. Croudace was the Adjutant of the 11th Bengal Native Infantry from 17 June 1824 through to 11 October 1827. During this period found himself present between December 1825 and January 1826 at the siege and capture of the Jat fortress of Bharatpur (Bhurtpoor), with the storming of that place occurring on the 17th to 18th January 1826.
Following the suspicious death of Baldeo Singh, the Raja of Bhurtpoor, his fortress was besieged by a 30,000-strong British force under Lord Combermere, recommended by the Duke of Wellington as no 'great genius' but 'the man to take Bhurtpoor'. The 11th Light Dragoons and 16th Lancers formed part of Colonel Sleigh's Cavalry Division, which marched from Meerut on 30th Decembebr 1825. Bhurtpoor had been besieged by a British force twenty years earlier, but the British had foundered against its 8-mile long walls and 150-foot wide, 60-foot deep moat. Keen to avenge the humiliation of 1805, Combermere advanced with a vast siege train. His first act was to seize the city's north-west reservoir, thus preventing the moat from being filled. 5 Army of India Medal’s were subsequently awarded with the clasp Bhurtpoor for this action to officers of the 11th Bengal Native Infantry, Croudace (mistakenly spelt Crondace on the roll) being the only one to get this Bhurtpoor clasp combined with any other two clasp combination, hence a unique award to both the 5th and 11th Bengal Native Infantry, and also one of only 38 recipients of this clasp combination out of a total of 300 two clasp medals issued.
Croudace was promoted to Captain on 8 September 1827, and was furloughed and sent for two years to Cape of Good Hope and then Tasmania from 19 December 1833, before being once again furloughed from 7 January 1836 until 17 December 1838. On his return to India he was appointed as Aide de Camp to Major General G.R. Penny, commanding the Dinapore Division from 29 March 1839 through to 4 December 1840, and having been promoted to Brevet Major on 23 November 1841, he was appointed the Brigade Major at Cawnpore from 27 October 1843 through to his retirement on 20 November 1845. Croudace would be promoted to Honorary Lieutenant Colonel on 28 November 1854, and latterly lived on Holland Road in Kensington, London, where he died on 29 January 1883, his death being reported in The Times on 1 February 1883.
