Details
AN ANGLO-INDIAN WOODEN WALKING STICK
CIRCA 1846, FEROZESHAH, PUNJAB
Mounted with a brass plaque engraved 'In Memory of ARTHUR SOMERSET who fell in Battle near the spot where this stick was cut.'; together with a corkwood walking stick, 19th century
The Indian stick: 37 in. (94 cm.) high
Provenance
The first: Given to Lord FitzRoy Somerset in 1846 after the death of his eldest son on Christmas Day 1845, after the Battle of Ferozeshah.
Deposited with the Royal United Service Institution by Lt. Col. George Somerset, 3rd Baron Raglan, between 1895 and 1908; removed by Major FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan, in October 1952.
Literature
The first: Lieut.-Col. Sir A. Leetham, Official Catalogue of the Royal United Service Museum, Whitehall, S.W., 3rd Edition, 1908, p. 203, no. 3063; and subsequent editions.

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Katharine Cooke
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Lot Essay

Towards the end of the battle of Ferozeshah, Arthur Somerset and Arthur Hardinge were riding with the 50th towards the Sikh camp when they came under heavy musket fire. 'Hardinge's horse was killed under him and Somerset fell to the ground. Running to him, Hardinge found his clothing saturated in blood. "On expressing my fears that he was dangerously wounded, he replied faintly that he would be better if I opened his coat, which I did." Hardinge and a private of the 50th carried Somerset about a 100 yards to the rear and laid him under a bush where a passing surgeon attended him. With regret the surgeon concluded that, as the wound was in the lungs, it would probably be fatal' (J. Sweetman, Raglan: From the Peninsula to the Crimea, 1993, p. 145).

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