Lance-Corporal Robert Kells VC, 9th Queen's Lancers in the Indian Mutiny, 1857 -1858.

 

Robert William Kells was born on the 7th April 1832, in Meerut, the son of a soldier serving in India, and was a boy soldier in the 9th Lancers at the age of 12 years and 9 months. 

A trooper of the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, c1822

He was at the battles of Chillianwallah and Gujrat when aged 17, and he fought throughout the Indian Mutiny as a lance-corporal, and gazetted for the Victoria Cross on the 24th December 1858, but did not receive his medal until 1860 when it was presented to him at Allahabad. 

Charge of the 3rd Kings Own Light Dragoons at the Battle of Chillianwala on the 13th of January, 1849, the first major battle of Second Sikh War (1848-49).

At the Battle of Chillianwala, the first major battle of Second Sikh War, the 9th Lancers first saw significant action, where they formed part of Brigadier Richard Pope's cavalry brigade on the right flank of the British line. 

The Battle of Chillianwallah on 13th January 1849 during the Second Sikh War: map by John Fawkes.
The 9th Lancers can be seen deployed on the extreme right flank of the British line.

Amid the dense scrub and jungle terrain, the lancers advanced in support of the infantry assault against entrenched Sikh artillery and infantry positions held by Sher Singh's army of around 30,000 troops, and as a trooper, Kells participated in the disordered cavalry manoeuvres that followed the initial British advance, contributing to efforts to counter Sikh cavalry counterattacks and protect the brigade's horse artillery, though the engagement ended inconclusively with heavy casualties on both sides. The regiment suffered losses but earned the battle honour "Chillianwala" for its role in the fierce fighting.

British 3rd King’s Light Dragoons at the Battle of Gujerat on 21st February 1849 during the Second Sikh War.
The 3rd KLD were brigaded alongside the 9th Lancers on the British left flank.

Following the tactical draw at Chillianwala, the 9th Lancers pursued the retreating Sikh forces and played a pivotal role in the decisive Battle of Gujrat on 21 February 1849. 

The Battle of Goojerat (Gujrat) on 21st February 1849 during the Second Sikh War: map by John Fawkes. The 9th Lancers are on the British left flank facing the bulk of the Sikh cavalry.

Positioned in the cavalry reserve, the lancers executed a successful charge against the Sikh right wing, breaking through enemy infantry squares and artillery batteries defended by approximately 20,000 troops under Sher Singh. Kells, still a teenager, took part in this mounted assault, which helped shatter the Sikh line and contributed to the rout of their army, effectively ending the Second Anglo-Sikh War and leading to the annexation of the Punjab.

A 1912 map showing the centres of the 1857 Indian Rebellion

The Indian Mutiny, also known as the Sepoy Rebellion, erupted in 1857 as a widespread uprising against British rule in India, beginning with sepoys of the Bengal Army and spreading to civilian populations. 

Hot climate uniform for the 9th Lancers was all white, trousers,
shell jacket and cap cover. Illustration by Pierre Turner,
based on the watercolour sketches made by Captain Roger Dawson Upton
 of the 9th Lancers during the Indian Mutiny.

The 9th (Queen's Royal) Lancers, stationed in India, played a key role in suppressing the rebellion, participating in major operations including the siege and capture of Delhi, the relief of Lucknow, and pursuits into the Doab region between the Yamuna and Ganges rivers. 

The year 1858 marked the final, decisive phase of the British suppression of the Indian Rebellion (or Indian Mutiny) in the crucial, heavily contested region of Oudh (Lucknow) and Cawnpore (Kanpur). Following the shocking massacres at Cawnpore in July 1857 and the initial, costly relief of the Lucknow Residency in November 1857. The year 1858 saw the systematic recapture of these areas by British forces under Sir Colin Campbell.

One eye witness of the 9th Lancers during these actions was Bugler Johnson of the 52nd LI, writing in 1901, and says that khaki uniform became general throughout the British troops during the Mutiny…except for the 9th Lancers. ‘Sir Hope Grant brought them into action in white when I lay before Delhi’. Mounted men carrying lances, it seems, were conspicuous enough, so dressing them in white would have made no difference.

Under Colonel Edward Greathed's flying column, the regiment advanced southeast from Delhi to confront rebel forces, engaging in skirmishes that helped secure British control over key territories.

The action at Bulandshahr, fought on 28th September 1857, at which corporal Robert Kells, 9th Lancers was awarded the Victoria Cross, for gallantry above and beyond. The charge of the 9th Lancers drove the mutineers into the streets of the city behind the mutineers line, in which Captain Drysdale's horse was shot, leaving Drysdale disabled with a broken collarbone.

On the 28th September 1857, during the action at Bulandshahr (also spelled Bolundshahr), approximately 50 miles southeast of Delhi, Lance-Corporal Robert Kells of the 9th Lancers acted as orderly to Captain William Drysdale, who led a charge against rebel positions held by Nawab Walidad Khan's forces. 

Lieutenant Colonel William Drysdale in the field officer’s uniform of
the 9th Lancers (blue tunic with a small red plastron on the upper chest)
with an embroidered crown badge on each side of his collar,
denoting the rank of lieutenant-colonel at that time. He has medals
for each of the Sikh Wars, the Punniar Star and a medal for the Indian Mutiny
 with two clasps. Also he has the insignia of a Companion to the Order of the Bath
 (CB, later elevated to KCB).

As the British columns fought at a crossroads outside the town and within its streets, Drysdale's horse was shot from under him, throwing him to the ground with a broken collarbone and leaving him vulnerable amid advancing mutineers. 

Kells, along with Private John Jordan, immediately halted their horses, dismounted, and defended Drysdale against the enemy sepoys closing in, holding them at bay with sword and pistol until reinforcements arrived; Jordan was mortally wounded in the effort. This act of bravery occurred amid intense street fighting that ultimately secured Bulandshahr, allowing Greathed's column to press onward to Agra.

The 9th Queen's Lancers were awarded fourteen Victoria Crosses in the Indian Mutiny. Alongside Robert Kells was sergeant Henry Hartigan VC awarded the Victoria Cross for two actions of daring and distinguished gallantry in the following instances: 

At the battle of Budle-ke Serai, near Delhi, on the 8th June, 1857, in going to the assistance of Serjeant H. Helstone, who was wounded, dismounted, and surrounded by the enemy, and at the risk of his own life, carrying him to the rear. On the 10th October 1857, at Agra, in having run unarmed to the assistance of Serjeant Crews, who was attacked by four rebels. Hartigan caught a tulwar, from one of them with his right hand, and with the other hit him on the mouth, disarmed him, and then defended himself against the other three, killing one and wounding two, when he was himself disabled from further service by severe and dangerous wounds. Hartigan recovered from his wounds and was presented with his Victoria Cross by Lady Hersey at Fort William, Calcutta on Christmas Eve, 1860.

Kells' heroism was recognized in a despatch from Major-General Sir James Hope Grant, dated 8th April 1858, which detailed the valour shown by British troops in the Mutiny campaigns. The official citation, published in The London Gazette on 24th December 1858, stated: 

"For conspicuous bravery at Bolundshahur, on the 28th of September, 1857, in defending against a number of the enemy his commanding officer, Captain Drysdale, who was lying in a street with his collar-bone broken, his horse having been disabled by a shot, and remaining with him until out of danger."

Trumpet Major R.W. Kells VC, 9th Lancers
These are his miniatures, worn on mess dress, bought for me quite a few years ago at auction by my Dad. The VC at centre, the Indian Mutiny medal with the red and white ribbon carries the clasps "Delhi" - "Relief of Lucknow" - "Lucknow", whilst the Punjab medal with the blue and yellow ribbon carries the clasps "Chilianwana" - "Goojerat".

The 9th Lancers had returned to England but Kells stayed in India, having transferred to the 1st Bengal European Light Cavalry, and this regiment became the 19th Hussars which he served in with the rank of sergeant until he had a fall from his horse, and being sick from disease, was discharged at Benares on the 14th November 1868, after more than two decades of service since enlisting as a boy soldier in 1844, moving to England, a country he had never visited, and lived in Blackfriars Road, London.

Robert Kells as a Yeoman of the Queen's Bodyguard, with his 
VC proudly displayed with the Punjab medal to its left and the Indian Mutiny
medal to its right.

Following his retirement from active military service in 1868, Robert Kells was appointed as a Yeoman of the Queen's Bodyguard on 1st January 1881, serving under Queen Victoria. This prestigious role was part of the Yeomen of the Guard, an ancient ceremonial bodyguard unit based at the Tower of London, reserved for retired warrant officers and non-commissioned officers of distinguished service. 

Medal entitlement of Sergeant Robert Kells, 9th ( Queen's Royal ) Lancers.

Victoria Cross
Royal Victorian Medal ( RVM )
Punjab Medal ( 1848-49 )2 clasps:
"Chilianwana" - "Goojerat"
Indian Mutiny Medal ( 1857-58 )3 clasps:
"Delhi" - "Relief of Lucknow" - "Lucknow"
Queen Victoria Jubilee Medal ( 1887 )clasp:
"1897" ( Diamond Jubilee )
King Edward VII Coronation Medal ( 1902 )
Army Long Service & Good Conduct Medal ( LSGC )

Kells' duties primarily involved ceremonial protection of the monarch and participation in state events, including attendance at coronations, jubilees, and other royal occasions during the later years of Victoria's reign and the early part of Edward VII's. He served in the rank of Yeoman Bed Hanger, contributing to the guard's traditional responsibilities of escorting the sovereign and upholding courtly protocols

In recognition of his long and faithful service, Kells received the Royal Victorian Medal (silver) from King Edward VII in June 1901 during an inspection of the Yeomen at the Tower of London. This honour, instituted in 1896, was awarded to select members of the royal household for personal service to the Crown, highlighting Kells' dedication in his post-military role.

Trumpet Major Kells' Regimental History of the 9th Lancers, 1715 - 1903

Robert Kells married his first wife, Christina Bond, on 8th March 1859 in Allahabad, India; she was the widow of Edward Harper, a trumpeter in the 9th Lancers, and the couple had no children.

Following his retirement from the military in 1868, Kells returned to Britain and remarried on 23rd June 1869 at St Mary's Parish Church in Lambeth, London, to Sarah Ann Mathews, the daughter of Samuel Mathews, a printer.

A good conduct testimony for Kells service with the band in the Territorials, dated 24th September 1912.

With Sarah Ann, Kells fathered eleven children—three daughters and eight sons—settling into family life in London after years of service abroad. One of their sons, Sergeant R. Kells, later served in World War I and received the Military Medal.

Kells died on the 14th April 1905 at the age of 73 in Lambeth, and was buried in Lambeth Cemetery in an unmarked grave (Section F2, Grave 391), with a simple funeral befitting his modest circumstances; a commemorative plaque was later added to the site in 2009 by Lambeth Borough Council.

I was prompted to compose this account of just one of Queen Victoria's soldiers for two reasons, first, my owning Kells' miniatures and regimental history and secondly from my attending a recent Pink Floyd tribute evening at Exeter Cathedral, during which I entertained myself during the interlude by inspecting many of the regimental colours and memorials housed in the cathedral.

I was pleasantly surprised to spot the following memorial to the 9th Queens Lancers as seen above, a monument I had seen on many occasions before but never recognised its unique significance.

A nearby plaque and scroll explained the establishment of the memorial in the cathedral;

'This memorial was erected to the memory of five officers and one-hundred and forty-three other ranks of the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers who gave their lives during the Indian Mutiny.

During this campaign the regiment won no less that fourteen Victoria Crosses.

The 9th Lancers were known throughout India as 'the Delhi Spearmen' for their prowess with the lance in capturing that city. On May 1st 1850, the regiment embarked at Fort William, Calcutta, en route for Exeter. By a special order of the day, the Governor General of India directed that a salute of twenty-one guns be fired and offered his thanks not only for its services before the enemy but for the admirable example which it has presented to the young soldiers of the Indian Army by its perfection of discipline, conduct and efficiency. 

On several occasions prior to 1861, the Regimental Depot was stationed in Exeter. On its arrival in Exeter in the summer of 1859, a special service of thanksgiving was held in the Cathedral for the safe return of this MOST DISTINGUISHED REGIMENT.'

Commemorating men of the 9th Queen's Lancers who died in India, the Lancers Memorial was carved by Carlo Marochetti in 1860, the favourite sculptor of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

One of the fun and interesting aspects of being an historical wargamer is that you can combine the interest with just about any other activity you might find yourself doing and most any time, and the pure serendipity and pleasure at discovering the link between a treasured antique of mine, and my local Cathedral, whilst enjoying the delights of Pink Floyd and reliving my salad days only reminded me at how lucky I am.

I hope you found this post interesting and as always, more anon.

JJ

The World Turned Upside Down - Terrain Build (Snake Rail Fencing & Field Works)

As an historical wargamer of a certain vintage, I have built many collections over the years, and as well as being one of those folks who tends to build a collection of figures around all the factions that took part, not just focussing on one in particular, I also have come to appreciate the need to build in a plan for developing the terrain requirements around the figure collecting, to facilitate the games I want to produce.

My first foray into the delights of a 28mm collection of terrain started with the basics for my Romano-Dacian collection, equally applicable to my growing AWI one.

Some terrain pieces are common to all eras and themes such as terrain mats, trees, rivers and roads, with a few exceptions, but other pieces speak specifically to the theatre and theme one is hoping to portray on the table, similar to a theatre director dreaming up the most appropriate stage set for the actors to play their scenes in front of.

Much more theme specific, my Roman era set of wall fortifications are not likely to be seen in 18th century America, but never say never!

Over the years I have tended to simplify the terrain collection by sticking to one scale no matter what the era or theme, and in the past that tended to be 15/18mm for my figure collections, but in recent years that has progressed to 28mm with the start of the Dark Ages and then my Romano-Dacian collections and now with my American War of Independence theme.

With my previous collection of AWI figures being composed of Polly Oliver 15mm figures, now passed on to my old friend Steve M., I had built a collection of terrain to compliment them, that included some snake rail fencing from 4Ground that I put together in 2014 and featured here on the blog.

These 15mm snake fence kits from 4Ground were built for my 15mm AWI collection, here displayed in a more War of 1812 look, with the 15mm AWI troops and the fences now under new ownership, Steve M.

So with the new 28mm AWI collection well under way and with the start of a new year, I decided now was as good as any other time to take a pause in the figure building process and turn my attention to my growing collection of unbuilt AWI terrain items, and where better to start than with an item such as the snake rail fence, that immediately tells the viewer where a particular battle set up is taking place, before they've even got around to looking at the figures.

My 15mm Snake Rail Fence production line back in February 2014
JJ's Wargames - Snake Rail Fence Build

For my 28mm fencing I decided to use the base kits from Charlie Foxtrot Models, where Colin Farrant has provided an excellent build tutorial along with a painting scheme borrowed from John Bond's website and liked to both below.

https://www.charliefoxtrotmodels.com/blogs/news/tutorial-american-snake-fence

As the tutorial outlines the unique design of these base templates with laser marked guidelines for placing the rails, not only produces a very attractive irregularity of base on the table, which is very easy on the eye in my opinion, but is done in such a way to allow easy storage in a suitably sized Really Useful Box, with the bases designed to tessellate and thus take up less space when boxed up.

My new balsa splitter in action, courtesy of Mel the Terrain Tutor and Carolyn who got me my fun new toy for Christmas.

However for my build, I decided to dispense with the use of 'Cook's Matches' as the suggested option for the timber posts, but instead opted for using up some 3mm balsa sheets I had had in the modelling stores for a few years and that needed to be used appropriately.

The idea for using balsa and indeed my new Christmas present from Carolyn, my balsa splitter, came after watching Mel, the Terrain Tutor building similar fencing for his 'What a Cowboy' build on YouTube, link above, and having never used such a device before was keen to give it a go.

First part, was the cutting of what became a very large pile of balsa timber posts that also needed a bit of weathering to make them look less like the precisely cut sections seen above

As with my previous 15mm build, you have to get into the production line build process which, as I had four packs of straight fences, one pack of double and one pack of single gates, plus six sets of corner sections to construct, required a methodical process conducted over several evenings over two weeks.

In addition to the main sections of the fence, a smaller pile of supports, lower left, is required to complete the snake style pattern, using the laser template on each base to guide their placement. The more you build, the process becomes very intuitive and I was soon rattling through the basic construction. Note Mel's suggestion of a masking tape pattern, to speed up cutting the balsa strips to the required lengths.

The initial build process is complete, with each set of four seven straight sections now built together with four of single and double gates and the corner pieces which just need terrain-scaping. 

A weekend and several evenings later I was able to enjoy the sight of multiple straights, twenty eight, 18cm, or just over seven inch straights, eight similar lengths of gating plus some corner sections, all ready for the next steps, painting and terrain-scaping.

The close up shows the fencing has been weathered with a modelling knife to make them less precise and a few sections have had leaning post braces added. Note also the tessellating base designs locking nicely together

To start the painting process, I sprayed on a base coat of acrylic matt black, and it was during this process that I decided to unwrap my set of Ironclad Miniatures small and large redoubts and the revetment set I had picked up at Partizan last May, ready for a similar base coat preparation and to include them in the terrain scaping.

The gate sets have been primed in their black base coat and are drying off before getting some builders ballast added to the bases.

My revetment set and redoubts ready for a black priming.

With the black primer on and dry, the next step was to add builders ballast to the bases to add some ground texture, a simple process of smearing PVA onto the bases and sprinkling on the ballast before putting aside to dry.

All the gates are now ready for painting.

Below can be seen the painting job well under way using the colour suggestions from the tutorial for the fence posts and an acrylic raw umber applied to the base texture, wet brushed over with Vallejo Green Brown and Iraqi Sand to highlight.

The fieldworks had a similar base colouring of raw umber, to which I used various shades of Vallejo browns on the timber work and gabions in preparation for flocking with Peco 2mm Spring Static Grass.

 

The fieldworks painting is done and the corner sections for the fences are similarly prepared for the next step.

This close up of the gates shows off the hues achieved on the timber work recreating a weathered fence with various shades of flat-earth, grey-green, middle stone and a light dry brush of ivory. Note the groundwork is yet to get a final dry brush of Iraqi Sand.

All the PVA gluing, wet brushing, dry brushing and static grass flocking, not to mention the odd bit of clump grass adding, finally reached a crescendo one evening this week, when I was finally able to survey the results of my production line, and a solid collection of snake rail fencing and field works prepared.

 

Of course these models are seen still on my workshop table as I have not taken the sea cloth of my wargames table yet in preparation for my first game with the AWI collection, but I'm aiming to get the toys out soon in the not too distant future for some trial games, and to have these fences and field works taking centre stage among the figures.

However to give you a better idea of how these items will work on the table and with some figures to compare them against I arranged a few pieces to help set them off and illustrate why I'm verry happy with these pieces of model terrain.

The field arrangement helps to better illustrate the use of the corner sections to better facilitate fence connections at various angles, here using the 90 degree sections to make a basic square arrangement, but with other angles available to set up different patterns, perhaps lining a road.

Militia safely ensconced, no doubt claiming rested muskets!

Revetments and redoubts are a common feature of AWI battles and can make an interesting challenge to overcome if part of a specific historical scenario or tabletop encounter game, and these Ironclad redoubts together with the sections of revetments allow plenty of flexibility to any arrangement.

I plan to add more options to both my fences and fieldworks in time, but this initial set provide a good foundation for the collection.

The Ironclad redoubts, this one the small option with the complete revetment set will make prepared defences look just that bit more formidable.

https://www.ironcladminiatures.com/

I should conclude this post by stating that both Charlie Foxtrot and Ironclad Miniatures will be under new management this year, with the former being taken over by Blotz on March 30th 2026 and the latter by Pendraken from I believe this month.

Next up I will be returning to the figure collection with HM 15th Foot and the 15th Virginia Continental Regiment on the painting desk as I type, so as always, more anon.

JJ