War Medals and Their HistorySteward, William Augustus
History
War Medals and Their History
Steward, William Augustus
Great Britain. Army -- Medals, badges, decorations, etc.; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Medals, badges, decorations, etc.
=Abor, 1911-12.=--The massacre of Mr. Williamson and his party
necessitated the dispatch of a punitive force, which under
Major-General Hamilton Bower, C.B., entered the Abor country in
October 1911, and for seven months, under the most trying physical
difficulties, operations were pursued. "The paths were quite unfit for
use by laden carriers," and progress was exceedingly slow, but as usual
the regiments pressed on to their destination, and, after inflicting
punishment on the culpable villagers who had been party to the
massacre, captured and brought to trial those immediately responsible
for the murders. An important result of the operations was the breaking
down of the power of the Kebang-Rotung group of villages, and the
freeing of the Lakhimpur districts north of the Brahmaputra from Abor
aggression. For his services in this campaign General Bower was made
K.C.B., and the following officers Companions of the D.S.O.: Majors
James Davidson, M.D., James Alban Wilson, Edward G. Vaughan, Ernest H.
Scott Cullen, M.V.O., and Lieutenant Miles A. Claude Kennedy.
Among the regiments taking part in the expedition were the 1st Batt.
8th Goorka Rifles, on whom the brunt of the fighting fell--medals of
this regiment have realised from £2 10_s._ to £3 in the sale-room;
1st Co. (King George's Own) Sappers and Miners, to whose skill and
energy "the success of the expedition was largely due"; 1st Batt. King
Edward's Own Goorka Rifles; 32nd Sikh Pioneers, who did excellent work
on the line of communications; dismounted detachment Assam Valley Light
Horse; Supply and Transport Corps; Lakhimpur Military Police; 5 Nagar
Carrier Corps.
The medal, although described as the India General Service Medal 1908,
has on the reverse the crowned bust of King George V truncated by the
edge of the medal, a spray of laurel covering the truncation, and
the legend GEORGIVS V KAISAR-I-HIND on a raised band surrounding the
effigy. This was given to those who served at or beyond Kobo between
October 6th, 1911, and April 20th, 1912, both dates inclusive. The
medals are engraved in a coarse kind of script--each letter being
separate--or in a loose running hand. Officers and men already in
possession of the India General Service Medal 1908 received the clasp
only.
SUDAN, 1910
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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