An Officers Double Barrelled Percussion Howdah Pistol.
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14” overall with 6 ½” .577 calibre side by side barrels engraved on rib ‘Trulock and Harriss Dublin’. Back action locks signed ‘Trulock and Harriss’, with large rounded hammers. A large figured walnut raked shaped butt with regulation style trigger guard, flat butt plate with Benson crest, lanyard ring & swivel rammer. In a later fitted campaign style case with accessories including a large Dixon bag shaped flask, bullet mould, turnscrew, nipple key, loading rod, bone spare nipple box and cap tin. Sold with some research.
Circa 1854
A massive pistol in good condition.
Trulock and Harriss ,9 Dawson Street Dublin 1856 to 1897
Lt Col Henry Roxby Benson C.B 17th Lancers.
Benson was born in Camberwell into a distinguished Welsh family, the second son of merchant Thomas Starling Benson and his second wife, Elizabeth Meux, daughter of Richard Meux. Richard Meux Benson was his younger brother. He attended St John's Collecge, Cambridge.
He was gazetted into the 17th Lancers as a cornet on 31 January 1840 and rose steadily: lieutenant, 15 April 1842; captain, 27 June 1845 and major on 23 October 1854. He commanded the 17th Lancers in the Crimea from 14 January 1855, including at theBattle of the Tchernava & the Siege and fall of Sebastopol, and commanded the squadron of the Light Brigade in the night attack on the Russian outposts on 19 February 1855. For his service in the Crimea he received the medals with clasp, the fifth class of the Order of the Medjidiednd & The Turkish Medal. On 30 September 1856 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the 17th. Subsequent service in India (where he commanded the 2nd Cavalry at Malwa) lead to further promotions, notably Colonel of the7th Hussars. Appointed CB in 1861 he continued to rise until his final promotion to the rank of General twenty years later.