=Pegu.=--Expeditions were sent out to the north and west, Bassein being captured by one force and Pegu taken on November 21st, 1852, by the other. The province of Pegu was then annexed; but the Burmese continued to harass the garrison which held the city, and it was not until after the arrival of reinforcements from Rangoon that steps could be taken to successfully deal with the enemy. The war was concluded in June 1853, but not before the army had been considerably reduced by disease, cholera claiming a large number of victims, and 22 men had been killed, and 14 officers and 94 men wounded in the taking of the village of Donobyu, held by Myat Toon, a robber chief who had about 8,000 guerillas at his call. It was in the attack on this village that Viscount, then Ensign, Wolseley of the 80th, in leading a small body of men from the 18th, 51st, and 80th, was struck down at the moment of victory. On June 30th, 1853, the war was declared at an end without any formal treaty, and a few months later the troops left a country which had claimed a terrible toll of brave men's lives in the swamps and jungles, the 18th Royal Irish having alone lost 365 officers and men mostly by disease. =First India General Service Medal.=--On January 23rd, 1854, Queen Victoria sanctioned the issue of a silver medal with bar for PEGU to those who had taken part in the Burmese War of 1852-3. This, later called the India General Service Medal, 1854, has been given for all the various campaigns up to the fighting in the Kachin Hills in 1892-3. Twenty-three bars were given, representing the different "little wars" in which the recipients were engaged during forty-one years. This medal, illustrated facing page 120, has the same kind of suspender and bars as the Punjab medal, likewise the same head of Victoria, but on the reverse a figure of Victory crowning with laurel a seated warrior in classic pose, holding in his right hand a Roman sword, and in his left a sheath. In the exergue is a lotus flower and leaves, and L. C. WYON beneath it. The medals, 1⅖ in. in diameter, have the rank, name, and the regiment or ship, impressed in Roman capitals for Pegu, Persia, North-West Frontier, Umbeyla, Bhootan, but for Perak and the rest of the series, except Jowaki, the lightly engraved running hand or Roman capitals were used for naming. The ribbon, 1¾ in. wide, is dark crimson with two dark-blue stripes. The regiments entitled to the medal with bar for Pegu were the 18th, 51st, and 80th; Artillery; Sappers and Miners; 1st Bengal Fusiliers; 1st Madras Fusiliers; 5th Madras Native Infantry; and the Naval Brigade from thirteen of Her Majesty's ships.