Major, Bengal Engineers
Born: 9 October 1831, India
Died: 2 November 1907, London
JAMES DUNDAS
Lieutenant, Bengal Engineers
Born: 10 September 1842, Edinburgh, Scotland
Died: 23 December 1879, Sherpur, Afghanistan
Joint Citation: For their gallant conduct at the attack on the Block-house at Dewan-Giri, in Bhootan, on the 30th of April, 1865.Major-General Tombs, C.B., V.C., the Officer in command at the time, reports that a party of the enemy, from 180 to 200 in number, had barricaded themselves in the Block-house in question, which they continued to defend after the rest of the position had been carried, and the main body was in retreat. The Block-house, which was loop-holed, was the key of the enemy's position. Seeing no Officer of the storming party near him, and being anxious that the place should be taken immediately, as any protracted resistance might have caused the main body of the Bhooteas to rally, the British force having been fighting in a broiling sun on very steep and difficult ground for upwards of three hours, the General in command ordered these two Officers to show the way into the Block-house. They had to climb up a wall which was 14 feet high, and then to enter a house, occupied by some 200 desperate men, head foremost through an opening not more than two feet wide between the top of the wall and the roof of the Block-house.
Major-General Tombs states that on speaking to the Sikh soldiers around him, and telling them in Hindoostani to swarm up the wall, none of them responded to the call, until these two Officers had shewn them the way, when they followed with the greatest alacrity. Both of them were wounded.
[London Gazette issue 23338 dated 31 Dec 1867, published 31 Dec 1867.]
Note: Dewangiri, now known as Deothang, is in southeastern Bhutan.
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