British Raj India General Service Medals

[Nelson1805]

Hi all,

Interestingly I found little on this site regarding IGS medals and thought I'd post a pic of my very modest IGS collection. Still new to collecting so I was pleased to at least have these four on display. Not terribly interesting although the guy who won the 'Relief of Chitral' medal is also entitled to KSA, QSA (Paardeberg, Driefontein, Wittebergen, Cape Colony, Transvaal), Sudan Medal (Atbara Campaign & Expedition to Khartoum). I guess he's also entitled to Khedive's Sudan Medal. Also I found it quite difficult to find IGS 1936 to British Infantry Regiments - lots of Sepoys though. So went for Corps of Signals instead .... for now. Thanks.

[paul wood]

Nice medals, though in many ways the Indian recipients can be quite interesting especially the VCOs Jemedars, Subadars, Rissaldars etc. all who appear in the Indian army lists and the War Services, remember they were the majority of the army and ended up doing most of the fighting and many a junior British Officer relied on his Indian Viceroy commissioned officers to educate him in the niceties of frontier warfare.

Paul

[Brian Wolfe]

Very nice start, and with that the obsession started.

Well done and thanks for posting them.

Regards

Brian

[peter monahan]

I agree with both Paul and Brian. For many years my obsession was IGS medals - to Indians. The VCOs were and are researchable, but one can also build up a fine collection of bars and campaigns using the more economically priced medals to ordinary sepoys, sowars and followers. In fact, followers are a field unto themselves, with numerous fascinating ranks and stories.

Sadly, my collecting days were all BC - before children - but I've kept the interest and in fact just this week opened up an exhibit at a Canadian museum on the Indian Army in WWI. One of the medals on display is a BWM to a Sepoy of the 52nd Sikhs who is also entitled to and AGS, bar 'Somaliland', the WWI trio and a 1908 IGS.

Thanks for posting, Nelson.

[Michael Johnson]

British medal rolls exist for the Indian Army for some campaigns - those where the medals were issued from Britain. They include:

The Africa General Service Medal (the Indian Army was heavily involved in the Somaliland campaigns)

The General Service Medal, clasps Kurdistan, Iraq, NW Persia, S. Persia

Even where the rolls don't exist because the medals were named in India, there are some breakdowns of numbers per Indian regiment and number of clasps - a case in point is the Egypt Medal.

Anthony Farrington also did two casualty rolls including Indian Regiments: The Second Afghan and IGS 1895.

Michael

[King-Emperor]

Hi 'Nelson',

Nice medals. I'm surprised though that you had difficulty finding an IGS36 to a British Army chap. Of course you are right, medals to the Indian Army are more common, but the British Army stuff is out there. Like Paul I also collect Indian Army, and while I limit myself to researchable singles/groups, as pointed out there are many sub-themes for IA collecting; Regiments, Mountain Batteries, followers, interesting ranks, particular medals, casualties.

Peter,

Not to steal this thread, but what museum did you set up in, and do you have any pics/links?

Thanks,

Chris

[peter monahan]

Chris

I work very part time for the Museums of Mississauga. Mississauga is a city of 800,000 contiguous to the city of Toronto on the west, so in Ontario, Canada, and there are about 200,000 South Asians in the city and region around it. I proposed a display on the British Indian Army's role in France in 1914-15 and my superiors allowed me to design and put on the exhibit. It features about 30 large panels of photos and text plus a few medals and shoulder titles, a kukri, a copy of a kurta which I made and some original illustrations contributed by the Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada. The latter is a small group of enthusiastic Sikh Canadians who are just this month actually opening a physical location not too far from my museum.

The exhibit covers some basic information on the IA, their arrival in France, the 'new style' of warfare, rereference to some of the bravery awards and bits about life behind the lines and in a new culture. Here is a link to the poster, the only bit so far accessible on line: http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/discover/exhibits

The exhibit has received a lot of coverage in the South Asian press in the area and, the curator hopes, will be the first in an ongoing series of exhibits by various ethnic and cultural groups in Mississauga. All three of our museum sites are former 'pioneer' homes - built in the period 1810-1840 by English settlers to Canada - and don't reflect the more recent history of the city.

[King-Emperor]

Hi Peter,

Thanks very much. I've sent you a PM...