Personal info
- Name: Andrew SCOTT
- D.O.B: 22nd Aug, 1840
- D.O.A: 26th Jul, 1877
- D.O.D: 5th Sep, 1882
- Award: Victoria Cross
- Occupation at time of action: Captain, 4th Sikh Infantry, Punjab Frontier Force, Indian Army
- Book: The Complete History - Volume 1
Quetta, Baluchistan, India 26 July 1877
26 July 1877
INDIA and SOUTH-EAST ASIA 1863-79
Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, occupied a strategic position on the route from Kandahar in Afghanistan down into India through the Bolan Pass. It lay in the territories of the Khan of Kalat. By a treaty of 1876 the Khan accepted a British Resident and Quetta became the base for the Resident’s military escort, though its fort, the Miri, continued to be garrisoned by the Khan’s troops. Some leading Bazai Pathans, who were imprisoned in the Miri for killing government camels, suborned three local Kakar Pathans to attack British soldiers. In the aftermath of the incident the British occupied the Miri. The area of Baluchistan administered from Quetta was incorporated into British India in 1887.
Citation
For his gallant conduct at Quetta, on the 26th July, 1877, whilst serving in the 4th Sikh Infantry, on the occasion of an attack by some Pathan Coolies on Lieutenants Hewson and Kunhardt, of the Royal Engineers. On the evening of that day, Captain Scott, whilst on duty at the regimental parade ground of the 4th Sikh Infantry at Quetta, hearing an alarm that British Officers were being killed, spontaneously rushed to the rescue, and finding Lieutenant Hewson cut down, and Lieutenant Kunhardt retiring, hard-pressed and wounded, and only protected by Sepoy Ruchpal Singh, of the above-mentioned Regiment, fell on the assailants, and with his own hand bayonetted two men, and closed with a third, who fell with him to the ground, and was killed by Sepoys of the Regiment. This act of courage and devotion saved the life of Lieutenant Kunhardt.