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Auction: 1008 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 1

The Unique Second China War V.C., C.B. Group of Six to Major-General R.M. Rogers, Essex Regiment, Later Perthshire Light Infantry, For His Distinguished Bravery In The Attack On The North Taku Fort, China 1860, When, Under Heavy Fire, He Swam The Ditches And Was The First To Enter The Enemy-Held Fort, Where He Was Severely Wounded; He Transferred Into The 90th Foot; Was Appointed To The Command Of His Regiment in 1879; And Led It In The Engagements at Zunyin Nek, Kambula, And Ulundi During The Zulu War, Where He Was Twice Mentioned In Despatches And Received A Brevet Colonelcy a) Victoria Cross, reverse of suspension bar engraved ´Lieut. R.M. Rogers 44th. Regt.´, reverse of Cross engraved ´21st. Augst. 1860´ b) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Military Division, Companion´s (C.B.) breast Badge, gold (Hallmarks for London 1882) and enamel, with integral gold riband buckle, in Garrard, London, case of issue c) Crimea 1854-56, one clasp, Sebastopol (R.M. Rogers Lt. 44th. Regt.), regimentally impressed d) China 1857-60, one clasp, Taku Forts 1860 (Lieut. R.M. Rogers, 44th. Regt.) e) South Africa 1877-79, one clasp, 1879 (Majr. R.M. Rogers. V.C. 90th. Foot.) f) Turkish Crimea, Sardinian die, Officer´s Hunt and Roskill pattern, unnamed, pitting to Crimea medal, generally very fine or better, with the recipient´s two Swords; and the following related documents &c.: - Commission appointing Robert Montresor Rogers an Ensign in the 44th Regiment, dated 1.3.1855 - Document appointing R.M. Rogers a Lieutenant in the 44th Regiment of Foot, dated 3.8.1855 - Document appointing Robert Montresor Rogers a Captain, unattached, dated 20.11.1860 - Document appointing Robert Montresor Rogers a Captain in the 90th Regiment of Foot, dated 12.3.1861 - Document appointing Robert Montresor Rogers, V.C. a Major in the 90th Regiment of Foot, dated 1.4.1873 - Document appointing Robert Montresor Rogers, V.C. a Lieutenant-Colonel, Land Forces, dated 29.11.1879 - Bestowal Document for the Order of the Bath, C.B., dated 29.5.1886 - Letter to the recipient from the War Office granting him an annuity of £60 for Distinguished or Meritorious Service, dated 16.4.1890 - The Recipient´s Scrapbook, containing a large number of newspaper cuttings reporting both his career and death - Four portrait photographs of the recipient - Heroes of the Victoria Cross, The Campaign in the Crimea, and Forty Fourth or East Essex Regiment of Foot 1865, which all have chapters relating to the recipient´s career (lot) Estimate £ 130,000-150,000 V.C. London Gazette 13.8.1861 Lieutenant (now Captain) Robert Montresor Rogers, 44th Regiment (now of the 90th Regiment) (listed jointly with No. 220. Private John McDougall, 44th Regiment, and Lieutenant Edmund Henry Lenon, 67th Regiment) ´On account of Acts of Bravery performed by them in China, on the occasion of the assault and capture of the North Taku Fort on the 21st of August, 1860, for distinguished gallantry in swimming the Ditches, and entering the North Taku Fort by an embrasure during the assault. They were the first of the English established on the walls of the Fort, which they entered in the order in which their names are here recorded [Rogers being listed first], each one being assisted by the others to mount the embrasure.´ C.B. London Gazette 29.5.1886 Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel Robert Montresor Rogers, V.C., half-pay, Brigadier-General, Bengal. Major-General Robert Montresor Rogers, V.C., C.B., was born in Dublin on the 4th September 1834, the son of James Rogers, Q.C., and was educated in Dublin. Commissioned into the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot as a Second Lieutenant in February 1855, and promoted Lieutenant, August 1855, he served in the Crimean War from the 27th August of that year, and was present at the siege and fall of Sebastopol. China In 1860 Lieutenant Rogers went with his Regiment to China, as part of the 17,700 strong Anglo-French Force accompanying the British and French Ambassadors Lord Elgin and Baron Gros to Pekin, on what was ostensibly a diplomatic mission. Setting sail in a combined fleet of 206 ships and transporters, under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir James Hope Grant, K.C.B, the force arrived at the mouth of the Peiho River, the main waterway to Pekin, on the 3rd August 1860. There the Chinese were waiting, determined not to let them proceed. Guarding the mouth of the Peiho River, and the route to Pekin, stood the mighty Taku Forts. On each side of the river stood both a principal fort and a detached fort. The detached northern fort was the key to the entire fortification, in that it overlooked both the principal northern fort and the detached southern fort, and would therefore render them untenable in the event of its capture. It was this fort which Grant intended to assault from behind, though the Chinese reaction to this threat was to reverse the guns in the fort. Each fort was surrounded by a thick brick wall, suitably loopholed; in front of the wall was a succession of three water filled ditches, each separated by open ground covered with sharpened bamboo stakes. All these obstacles had to be surmounted before the walls could be scaled. By the night of the 20th August the Allies´ preparation was complete, and at dawn the following morning the Allied batteries opened fire on the two northern forts, which was immediately answered by all the guns which the Chinese could bring to bear. At around 6:00am, by which time a number of Chinese guns had been disabled, an eight-inch mortar shell scored a direct hit on the detached fort´s magazine, causing a ´tall pillar of black smoke and rubbish to shoot up in the air, bursting like a rocket shell, scattering around in all directions a shower of earth, planks, and other wooded debris.´ Soon after a shell from a British gunboat blew up the magazine in the principal northern fort. At 7:00am, with the guns in the detached northern fort all but silenced, Sir Hope Grant ordered the assault. This was led by two Companies of the 44th Foot, one commanded by Captain Gregory, the other, "E" Company, by Lieutenant Rogers; and two Companies of the 67th Foot. There was no cover against the enemy´s heavy fire, with bullets, spears, and arrows flying about in every direction, and soon the ditches in front of the Fort were strewn with casualties. The situation was critical. Rushing through the ditch, pulling out the defending spikes as he went, Rogers succeeded in reaching the parapet wall. His actions inspired the storming parties of the 67th, who went at the ditches with a will. Some swam, some struggled through, and eventually a few succeeded in reaching the wall. All this time the enemy fire continued unabated. As a watching British rifleman noted: ´The guns were crashing, and the enemy were hurling vases of lime, stinkpots, cold shot, stones, and anything else on which they could lay their Celestial hands, while the air, thick with battle-smoke, resounded with the heathens´ yells and noises.´ The storming party´s ladders placed against the walls were either pulled by the enemy into the fort, or either pushed away, and the task seemed hopeless. Rogers attempted to force his way through one embrasure, but was driven back. He ran to another, but it was too high for him. At this point Lieutenant Lenon, of the 67th Foot, came to his assistance, and provided him with a step by forcing the point of his sword into the wall. Placing one foot on the sword, he leapt up and through the embrasure, closely followed by a Private of the 44th Foot, and then Lieutenant Lenon: ´Lieutenant Rogers acted with conspicuous gallantry. He was the first Englishman in the place, and was afterwards, despite being severely wounded in the side by a matchlock ball, of the greatest service in assisting others through the embrasure.´ (contemporary newspaper account refers). At about the same time the French finally entered the embrasure at their angle, the signal for the troops of both nations to pour into the Fort. By 8:30am the detached northern fort was in Allied hands, but at a comparatively heavy cost- total British casualties were 17 men killed, with 19 Officers and 165 men wounded, with the 44th Foot bearing the brunt of these. The captured Fort´s guns were then turned on the other three forts, while fresh infantry were brought up for a second assault. But as Grant had calculated, it was not necessary. After a short bombardment white flags appeared in the remaining three forts, and the route to Pekin was open. For his conspicuous gallantry and bravery, in being the first Englishman into a Fort defended by 500 fanatical Chinese, Rogers was awarded the Victoria Cross, along with the two men who accompanied him through the embrasure: Private McDougall of the 44th Foot and Lieutenant Lenon. Promoted Captain in November 1860, he was presented with his Victoria Cross by General Sir Hugh Rose, G.C.B., C.S.I., Commander-in-Chief, India, in Calcutta on the 22nd November 1862. South Africa Appointed a Captain in the 90th (Perthshire Volunteers) Light Infantry, in February 1861, in place of Captain (later Field Marshal) Garnet Wolseley, Rogers was promoted Major in April 1873. In January 1878 the 90th Light Infantry stood first on the Regimental roster for foreign service, and they were ordered to South Africa to assist in suppressing the Kaffir insurrection. Major Rogers served with the Regiment in the Kaffir War and in 1879, following the temporary promotion of the his Commanding Officer, Colonel Evelyn Wood, V.C., C.B. to the rank of Brigadier in charge of No.4 Column, he was given command of the Regiment. He led the Perthshire Volunteers throughout the Zulu War of 1879, and was present at the engagement at Zunyin Nek, Kambula, where the Regiment suffered 4 killed and 16 wounded, and Ulundi. Twice Mentioned in Despatches, he was awarded the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel, November 1879- impressive recognition, but not sufficient to please the officers and men who served under him: ´The brevet lieutenant-colonelcy bestowed upon him after the Zulu business was finished amounted to no reward at all, as it merely anticipated his promotion to the same grade regimentally. It is therefore perfectly true to say that the officer who commanded throughout the Zulu War the very regiment which gained the greatest distinction in that campaign has received no recognition of his valuable services, while other regimental commanding officers with less conspicuous records have C.B. attached to their names.´ (letter to the Daily News, 3.2.1880 refers). Stung into action, both Lord Chelmsford and Sir Evelyn Wood (as he had become) strongly recommended Rogers to Horse Guards, with the result that ten days later he was given the Brevet of Colonel. Sailing with the Regiment to Calcutta in late 1879, he received his South Africa Medal in April 1881 along with the rest of the Regiment at a grand medal ceremony and Trooping the Colour at Fort William- the last time the Colours of the Perthshire Light Infantry were trooped. On 1st July, 1881, the Perthshire Volunteers were re-organised under the Childers Reforms, and re-designated the 2nd Battalion, Scottish Rifles, consequently not requiring, as a Rifle Corps, any Colours. Upon his return from India, Colonel Rogers brought the old Colours with him, and in March 1885 presented them to be hung in St. Mary´s Church, Hamilton, Perthshire, by the Memorial Window to the Men of the Regiment who had fallen in South Africa. Colonel Rogers retired in July 1885; the following year he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1886, the award the officers under his command had so desired for him following the Zulu War, and in December 1889 was granted by a gracious Sovereign the honorary rank of Major-General, ´in recognition of his services in the Army.´ Major-General Rogers died at home in Maidenhead on the 5th February 1895, and is buried in the town´s All Saint´s Churchyard.

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£180,000