India General Service Medal 1908-1935

[Ed_Haynes]

The 1908 IGS was created as asuccessor to the 1895 medal which Queen Victoria and her son Edward VII had shared. After one clasp only to his mother's medal, Edward VII urged the creation of a new medal, "his". As luck (bad luck) would have it, he would survive only one clasp to "his" medal before his son George V inherited it. It would be the GV reign's India Medal.

The obverse of the 36-mm medal shows the king's head with appropriate titles, while the reverse shows the Jamrud Fort in the Khyber Pass on the north-west frontier.





There are three varieties to the medal:

1- Edward VII - one clasp only:
1.1- North West Frontier 1908 - issued in silver and bronze

2- George V first variety - image as shown above, seven clasps:
2.1- Abor 1911-12 - issued in silver and bronze
2.2- Afghanistan N. W. F. 1919 - shown above, for the Third Afghan War - see http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/...han/third.html
2.3- Mahsud 1919-20
2.4- Waziristan 1919-21
2.5- Malabar 1921-22
2.6- Waziristan 1921-24
2.7- Waziristan 1925

3- George V second variety - redesigned head, four clasps:
3.1- North West Frontier 1930-31
3.2- Burma 1930-32
3.3- Mohmand 1933
3.4- North West Frontier 1935

Much more to follow, information and images alike. This is just a start.

Ed Haynes

[Rick Research]

This is my "favorite" British medal, with the Afghan 1919 bar. Before my soul was enslaved to Teutonic Ribbon Bars, this was the campaign that threatened to drag me into the bottomless deeps of Named British Medals.

Question:

I have a two digit serial number to a W. E. E. McKinley, "RLYS."

That is, I presume, "Railways," and the two digit "number" an expedient for dealing with presumably CIVILIAN personnel?

Or am I misreading Royal Lancashire & Yorkshire Somethingorother?

Afghanistan has, of course, no railways, but a lot of the actual action took place on the "N.W.F." part of the bar.

[Ed_Haynes]

Railways to be sure, and almost certainly civilian. Somewhere I have some numbers. Let me rummage.

Actually, almost as much action in Baluchistan/Sind (south of Afghanistan) as on the NWF.

Still, no good modern history of the complex and fascinatinmg campaign. First air terror boming of civilian urban populations, for example. Long before Guernica.

And the "Watcher in the Water" is still there for you . . . .

Ed Haynes

[Tony Farrell]

RLVS is the civilian Railway Volunteers. I've seen these before on British War Medals - funnily enough, paired with '08 IGS's.

[Rick Research]

Nope, Y not V. I'm wondering, since this was a single, if yon coal chuckin' Scot was also entitled to a BWM. Not, I suspect.

[Tony Farrell]

Well, it's railways anyhow . I'm not doing too well tonight am I?

[Dave Danner]

The only entry I have in this category, and I left it at home and forgot to whom it was named (I think it was a Sikh).



Dave

[Tony Farrell]

Nice example there Dave - and thus illustrating the third (& final) variety of this prolific gong.

[Simon O.]

My humble contribution.

These two illustrate the diferences between those medals struck in Calcutta (left) and those struck by the Royal Mint in London (right)



L: to 37927 Dvr. R Mahbub Alam, 2nd Mtn.Bty
R: to 1070238 Gnr. T. Payne R.A. (this medal is one of a group of 6 i have to this man)



Simon

[Ed_Haynes]

And the final variety, The Edward VII:



This to Langri [Cook] Assa Singh No. 1 Co. 1st Sappers & Miners.

And, as a specimen of the bronze issues (for NWF08 and Abor only):



This to 493 Cooly Agame Rai, No 1 Gurkhali Carrier Corps.

I have never seen or heard of a two-clasp bronze Edward VII medal, though they have to be out there somewhere.

Ed Haynes

[Dave Danner]

Mine is to a Sepoy, Mela Singh, in the 2nd Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment.

Dave

[Tony Farrell]

... and another two clasper (GV 1st type), this one to a chappie in the Corps of Guides.