peter monahan

The Labour Corps would lend plausibility to my theory that the well decorated Lt. s a former ranker, as a number of senior NCOs were given commissions in the L.C. I believe officers in the Corps wore their original unit badges as well, rather than the LC badge, but I may be wrong on that - half remembering something I read elsewhere not to long ago.

Yes, thank you for sharing that. I ave a fellow on the local WWI Honour Roll I'm compiling who appears to ave taken his own life and I'm not just sure how to deal with that information when I publish the roll. Always a touchy subject but, with our modern understanding of the mental costs of war, I think handled more compassionately now than in the past.

There is, as I'm finding in my own research, an amazing amount of info. available on a lot of the WWI soldiers. Makes them very human, even at this distance.

And, in all but one case it looks as if the 'fire missions', in modern parlance, were i direct fire - harassment and interdiction, on enemy areas, so some chance that no one actually died as a direct result of all that ammunition expended. I read an account recently of one incident in which three MGs were kept firing continuously for 18 hours in a long range, indirect fire, role against a piece of ground hundreds of yards away behind German lines . The expenditure of rounds was in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of rounds - I've forgotten the exact number but it was staggering. In fact, supply trains and columns supplied ammunition, fodder for the horses and food in that order, I believe. Hospital trains full of wounded were sixth or seventh on the priority list and often spent days on sidings waiting for clear lines. A sign of someone's priorities.

Nope, can't top DOS. Although I have persuaded the town clerk to take lessons in using the abacus from the guy who runs our 'ethnic restaraunt', because Joe's arthritis gives him Hell when he pulls that long arm on the adding machine dozens of times a day. Oh, and the buggy whip factory has put on a second shift. That's two people we won't have to send out of town for work!

Hello Rob A nice kukri to start a collection with. not a military blade, I don't think, but a good honest traditional piece, not part of the tourist trash one sees too much of these days. The tinder holder is an interesting addition, though I think from the construction that someone has added a new pouch to replace the ortiginal, based on the construction and what looks like modern thread to me. Still, a very fine blade with all the bits. Thank you for sharing it. Peter

The fun ones are the pre-'47 ranks: 'mistri' [and it is], lascar, syce, chaprassi and so on. Now its mostly odd abbreviations and, as noted, misspellings done I suspect by Hindi speaking mint workers whose grasp of English and military nomenclature is less than perfect. Or clerks who just don't care much, a universal in civil services!

Caz Just saw your post. like Brian, I have an interest in both pre and post 1947 India [and Pakistan]. I also have a book on Indian armour post Partition, so if your medal is named to the Armoured Corps, like the one which started this thread in 2011, I may be able to get you some info. on what his unit was doing in that campaign. Peter

Excellent news, Jean Paul. Good for you for doing the campaigning.

Those are the sexiest boots, bar none, that I know of On a man, I mean.

Did you mean the 'nasty, short and brutish' depiction, Mervyn? Not surprising, given both the events which engendered the drawing and the tenor of the times. Or have I misunderstood completely? Peter

I'd guess by the bidding - L 213.00 when I checked - that others share your concerns, Mike!

I'm guessing that Edward is your man. His tenure in the HEIC may have been brief - NOT following in the family tradition, which might explain both a single medal and no rank associated with his name. If Tulloch is that rare a surname - and I'm sure if you say it is that's so - the cousin with Wingate may well be a lineal descendant of the Lt. General who, I'm morally certain, is your man's father or uncle or such. Too much a coincidence that there would be unrelated Tulloch's in the HEIC at the same time. Thanks for that, Hugh. I tell myself [and the wife and former sweetheart] that all this 'detective work', which too frequentl;y takes up time when I should be cooking and cleaning, is what keeps the aging mind agile. My story and I'm sticking to it! Peter

Thank you for setting me straight, Markgraf. I'm usually the one de-bunking such stories but it caught my fancy and though I did look up 'tin diesase' I clearly didn't read enough or carefully enough. How embarassing!

I think Chris is right - a British collector would pay that for it, I'm sure.

The 69th Bengal NI were raised in 1824 but re-numbered '47'. The new 69th, raised in 1825 was disarmed in 1857, during the Indian Mutiny. Chiilianwallah was fought in 1848 in the Second Anglo-Sikh War and a stunning defeat for the British forces, but Goojerat, fought in 1849 and was a significant British victory against the Sikhs. Tulloch came from a distinguished family: Lieutenant-General John Tulloch had at least four sons. Charles was killed at the Battle of Ferozshah [21-22 Dec. 1845], aged 22 years. John [Junior] and Alfred were still serving and commanding battalions of Bengal Infantry in 1882. His brother Alfred served in the Mutiny but I can't see any references to 'E'. Possibly he sold his commission after the Sikh War and before the Mutiny. But I'll keep looking! Peter

Keep in mind that, like the Gurkhas, French [ and British] African troops would have been very familiar with coupe-coupe / machete type blades from rural agricultural life. When my students arrived at the boarding school in Nigeria where I taught [late '70s] they brought a bucket, mosquito net if they could afford it and a 'cutlass'. The latter was a strip of steel from am old oil drum, about .5 metres long with one edge sharpened and a strip of plastic wrapped round one end as a handle. Every Saturday some classes went out and cut grass around the compound. The original 'cutlass' was a larger, heavier and sharper tool used for clearing brush and would also make a fearsome weapon in hand to hand combat. Read any account of sectarian riots in rural Africa or Asia and 'machete' / cutlass /' bolo' turn up regularly. A nineteenth century European 'pioneer' [soldier] carried a brush hook / bill hook which would do damage on people as well as on tree limbs. But, by the stilted logic of 1900, these were 'savage' weapons and their weilders were to be treated as less than human!

Mervyn is still very active on this forum but in the process of closing out his store. Try going to one of his posts and sending him a PM if he doesn't respond to this post soon, Peter

I apologize for the spam adverts at the bottom of my last post. They were not there when I sent it in but I will be having a 'frank and open discussion' with my tech troll in the very near future about it!

Mac Yes, 'Rick Research' was not just a nickname. Rick was the mainstay of several of the forums and, as you will have seen from his posts, endlessly generous with his time. We is and will be missed. Good luck with your research!

yeah, wouldn't it!

The emporer didn't thank the 'no clothes' person, nor does the military or any other large bureaucracy! And people wonder why so little of the nonsense that goes on gets reported. Sigh!

Lots! That's the way to get it too. I have cornered the market for hob nails in my area by striking up an acquaintance with a shoe maker who has a bunch left over from the 1950s that nobody else knows about!

Lovely stuff, Jock! Thanks very much for sharing them.

Or he's a regular and the others are war time commissions. Either quite plausible, IMHO.