India General Service 1936-39

[Tony Farrell]

The final and most short lived of the India General Service medals, only two clasps were issued due to the outbreak of war and the subsequent partition & independence of India from Imperial rule. The clasps were Northwest Frontier 1936-7 & Northwest Frontier 1937-9. The latter clasp (and medal if the recipient wasn't already a holder) not being struck & awarded until after the war.

This post-war issue allegedly did not have a swivelling suspender, but the specimen illustrated has the later clasp and the earlier medal. This may be due to stocks being used up in the Calcutta mint. Calcutta minted medals have rounded 'shoulders' on the suspender claw, as opposed to the more ornate Royal Mint issues.

This particular medal was awarded to a Rifleman in the 1/8th Gurkha Rifles.

[Tony Farrell]

Removed

[Rick Research]

Given the time delay, bureaucracy, and of course World War Two in the meantime !, would any of these have been awarded POSTHUMOUSLY? And might many of those eligible have gone off to Civvie Street without ever knowing they were retro-entitled? Is it still possible that a qualified non-recipient could ask for his to be coughed up NOW? (That does still happen with American awards.)

Has anyone done the sort of "numbers of bars awarded" for these later campaign bars the way that seems to have been done for Victorian issues?

I've often wondered about the real total (rather than per unit) numbers for all the post-WW1 bars, GSM etc, and suppose there MUST be "hard figures" somewhere in the system. Or not?

[Ed_Haynes]

I am sure the "hard" (hard-like?) figures are out there somewhere. Failed in a year of looking, but not done yet.

Posthumous awards? Of course. First distributions came in 1941/42 and, for India, it wasn't in the fan so much, yet. And most recipients were still serving, after all.

I do think the NWF 37-39 awards are quite small, unlike the 36-37 clasp.

Awards still continue, in India at least. One reason the Ministry of Defence seems to have trashed the rolls.

Ed Haynes