Hallmarked Silver Presentation Pocket Watch of Lieutenant James Dundas VC Royal Engineers Awarded the Victoria Cross for Gallantry on 30th April 1865 During the Bhutan War, with white enamel dial having a small subsidiary dial. Case is hallmarked for London 1865. Lightly engraved to the rear of the case is “Lieut James Dundas Royal Engineers April 30th 1865 For Valour”. Watch is not in working order. James Dundas was born in Edinburgh on 10th September 1842. In 1860 he was given a officers commission in the Royal Engineers. In 1862 he embarked for India with the Royal Engineers under General Henry Tombs VC. During his time in India he rose to level of Executive Engineer. At the time of his award of the Victoria Cross, he was serving with the Bengal Engineers, Indian Army, during the Bhutan war. The award of the Victoria Cross was a joint award with Major William Spottiswoode Trevor, the recommendation was as follows, “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. Dundas fought on despite his wounds and convinced the 200 to surrender. He recovered from his wounds 3 months in a hospital”. His Victoria Cross was awarded to him in Calcutta by Major General C F Fordyce on behalf of Queen Victoria. James Dundas remained in the army and served during the Second Anglo-Afghan war, 23 December 1879 during the Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment. He was killed by a British mine going off prematurely due to a makeshift fuse. He is buried nearby at the Seah Sang Cemetery in Afghanistan. In 2002 the Royal Engineers erected a new bridge in Afghanistan close to where he met his fate and named it the James Dundas Bridge. His Victoria Cross forms part of the Lord Ashcroft collection