Second Anglo-Afghan War 1878-80

[Warwick1951]

Thankyou Garen.I will try and upload photo but I think it may be too big.

[Garen]

You can email it to me if you like - I can reduce it for posting.

Best - G

[Garen]

Hi Garen
My Great Grandfather served in the 59th regiment of Foot and was in Afghanistan from 13 Dec 1878 to the 26 Nov 1880. His name was Charles Horton. He fought in the battle of Ahmed Khel and was awarded an Afghan War medal.I'm not sure if he got the medal for fighting in the war or if it was for some specific action.I have a photo which may have been when he was a lot younger but I"m struggling to identify the uniform he"s wearing.
Regards Ann

Hello Ann

Thanks for sending the photo - I've uploaded a cropped version here in case anyone can add anything else.

I have limited expertise on uniforms but noted the fusilier style collar badge, though with the crossed cannon insignia on the left sleeve it points to the Royal Artillery.

I showed the photo to someone (thank you Frogsmile) who is much better with uniforms than me and he came back with the fact that the subject is a Royal Artillery Trumpeter - note the crossed trumpets on the right arm. The stripe on the left arm is a Good Conduct stripe (2-3 years service) and the uniform style might point to the early-mid 1890s.

This looks like it is almost certainly not Charles Horton. His service record (on FindMyPast) shows he enlisted with the 59th Foot and worked his way up from Private to Paymaster Sergeant and Quartermaster Sergeant. No sign of any RA service, and he served from 1867 to 1889. The photo is definitely not c.1870s.

Are we looking at the next generation here - one of Charles' sons?

Best - Garen

[Warwick1951]

Hi Garen, I agree its not that Charles Horton, His son Charles Herbert Edward Horton, born 1888, served with the Royal Field Artillery (regimental no. 813) in 1911 until 1914(?). I suspect he was too young for that photo if , as you say, it was in the mid 1890's.
I'm attaching a photo of the Charles Horton who fought in the Afghan War which I have just been sent.
Once again thanks for your interest.
Ann

[Garen]

No worries, Ann. Glad you got a photograph of Charles - with his Afghan and Long Service Good Conduct medals. I will add Charles Horton on to the Afghan war database.

All best - Garen.

[Warwick1951]

Thankyou Garen. I appreciate that.

[brotan]

Hi there,

Interesting forum to read, my G Grandfather Private Charles Samuel Smith born 1854 (#1498 - 9th Lancers) was in the march from Kabul to Kandahar and has two medals, the one for the march and the other for Afghanistan service, the ribbon on the Afghanistan medal has an additional red stripe in the middle compared to the ones I see on the internet which havd red on the outsides and broader green patch in the middle not the evenly distributed red, green, red, green, red pattern my G Grandfather has, does anyone know why this is different?

I have looked at getting his service records but see that it needs a cheque for $30 pound which I can not do from overseas. Any other ways anyone can suggest of doing it?

I did the whole ancestry.com thing among many others including pay per document ect but couldn't find much on him regarding the military side of things, spent many hundreds on other sites putting together genealogy including him but couldn't get much more on him. He must have been posted to india after this like many others from this campaign as he got married there to an English women in India in Dec 1882 and must have been there for another 1-2 years as they had a child there before having a 2nd child in England in 1884. 

Thanks

[Garen]

Hello brotan, thanks for your post.

I think the $30 you're quoting is for WWII records. I did a quick look-up on findmypast.co.uk and see that Charles' service record is up there, attesting at Westminster in Jan 1873 and discharged as 'medically unfit for service' in July 1883 (it seems from hepatitis). He was in India from Jan 1875 to May 1883, and married in Dec 1881.

As for the medal, it seems as though at some point the Afghan ribbon has been replaced with a ribbon for the 1895-1902 India Medal - perhaps the closest that could be obtained after the original one was lost or beyond repair.

Do you know when Charles died?

Best - Garen

[brotan]

Thank you very much for that Garen,

Really appreciate you taking the time to look for that information.

Not sure when he died but we found him and his wife in the 1911 census aged 56 years old.

That would be it, the india medal ribbon, we didn't know there was an additional medal. He must have left india for the Afghanistan campaign though as his medal from the march was in 1880.