Part 22

=The India Medal, 1895.=--For the Defence and Relief of Chitral it was decided to issue a new India medal, and as a result that illustrated facing page 192 was designed "to commemorate the military operations in, and on the frontier of, India, and to be in future known as 'The India Medal 1895.'" The bars are the same in design as those used on the old India medal.

In 1898 another bar was awarded to those who had taken part in the operations on the North-West Frontier between June 10th, 1897, and April 6th, 1898, and to those who formed the Tirah expeditionary force which proceeded beyond Kohat or Peshawar between October 1897 and April 6th, 1898. This bar was inscribed PUNJAB FRONTIER 1897-8. In 1897, as a result of the efforts of fanatical priests, the hillmen in the Tochi Valley made an attack upon a British officer and his escort, and then, following an outbreak in the Swat Valley, Malakand was attacked by thousands of the natives, but through the gallant efforts of the little garrison the place was held until the arrival of the relieving force. The troops who took part in the defence and relief of Malakand and Chakdara received the bar inscribed MALAKAND 1897. During the same year it was found necessary to again take up arms against the Pathan Meeranzies, and the troops engaged received the bar for SAMANA 1897. In August 1897 the Afridis, Mohmands, and Orakzais combined against the British, and troops were sent to the frontier. That portion of the Tirah expeditionary force which was also engaged beyond Kohat and Peshawar, likewise the Kurram Movable Column and the Peshawar Column, between October 1897 and the early part of April 1898, received the bar for the TIRAH 1897-98. This campaign is made famous by the storming of the heights of Dargai, and the coolness of Piper Findlater of the Gordon Highlanders, who continued to play his pipes when a bullet had crippled him. He was awarded the V.C.

The following troops were engaged in the various forces employed: the Mohmand Field Force comprised, in the 1st Brigade, 2nd Batt. Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders; 1st Punjab Infantry; 1st Sikhs; 33rd Bengal Infantry; 2nd Company of the Bengal Sappers and Miners; 6 guns of the Peshawar Battery, and a detachment of the Hospital Staff. The 2nd Brigade included the Somerset Light Infantry; 3rd Batt. Rifle Brigade; 6th Bengal Infantry; 14th Sikhs; 25th Punjab Infantry; a squadron of the 1st Punjab Cavalry; 13th Bengal Lancers; 4 guns of the 6th Bombay Mountain Battery, and 51st Field Battery.

The Malakand Field Force comprised, in the 1st Brigade, 1st Somerset Light Infantry; 2nd Batt. 1st Goorkas, and the 21st Bengal Infantry. The 2nd Brigade included 2nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry; a regiment of the Imperial Service Troops; 9th Goorkas; 37th Bengal Infantry; 28th Bombay Infantry; two squadrons 11th Bengal Lancers, and the 13th Bengal Lancers; 3rd Mountain Battery of the R.A.; No. 5 Bombay Mountain Battery; No. 8 Bengal Mountain Battery; No. 4 and No. 5 Companies Bengal Sappers and Miners. The 3rd Brigade consisted of 1st Royal West Surrey Regiment; two squadrons of the 4th Dragoon Guards and 11th Hussars; K Battery Royal Horse Artillery; No. 1 Mountain Battery R.A.; 22nd and 39th Bengal Infantry; No. 3 Company Bengal Sappers and Miners; two squadrons of the 11th Bengal Lancers.

The Samana Force comprised, in the 1st Brigade, 1st Royal West Kent Regiment; 24th and 31st Punjab Infantry; 45th Sikhs. Included in the 2nd Brigade were 1st Buffs; 35th Sikhs; 38th Dogras; Guides Infantry; two squadrons 11th Bengal Lancers; 5th Bengal Mounted Battery; 5th Company of Bengal Sappers and Miners. The 3rd Brigade was made up of 1st Batt. Queen's; No. 1 Battery R.A.; 22nd Punjab Infantry; 38th Bengal Infantry; 39th Gahrwalis; 3rd Company Bengal Sappers and Miners; half company of Madras Sappers; a squadron of the 10th Bengal Lancers, and 2 of the 11th.

The Tirah Field Force was made up of two divisions of two brigades each. The 1st Division comprised: 2nd Devons; 2nd Yorkshire Regiment; 1st Royal West Surrey; 2nd Royal Irish; No. 1 Mountain Battery R.A.; 2nd Batt. 1st Goorkas; 2nd Batt. 4th Goorkas; 3rd Sikh Infantry; 28th Bombay Infantry; 30th Bengal Infantry; Kapurthala Infantry; two squadrons of 18th Bengal Cavalry; No. 1 Kohat Mountain Battery; No. 2 Derajat Mountain Battery; 3rd and 4th Companies Bombay Sappers and Miners; Maler Kotla Sappers. The 2nd Division included: 1st Gordons; 1st Dorsets; 1st Northamptons; 2nd King's Own Borderers; Nos. 8 and 9 Batteries R.A.; 1st Batt. 2nd and 3rd Goorkas; 36th Bengal Infantry; Jhind Infantry; 21st Madras Infantry; two squadrons 18th Bengal Lancers; No. 4 Company Madras Sappers and Miners; Sirmoor Sappers.

The lines of communication were kept by the 22nd and 39th Bengal Infantry; 2nd Batt. 2nd Goorkas; 2nd Punjab Infantry; 3rd Bengal Cavalry; Jeypore and Gwalior Transport Corps.

The Kurram Column consisted of: 4 guns 3rd Field Battery R.A.; 12th Bengal Infantry; Nabha Infantry; Central India Horse; 6th Bengal Cavalry.

The Peshawar Column was composed of: 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers; 2nd Oxford Light Infantry; 3rd Mountain Battery R.A.; 57th Field Battery R.A.; 9th and 45th Bengal Infantry; 9th Bengal Cavalry; No. 5 Company Bengal Sappers and Miners.

In reserve was the Rawul Pindi Brigade, composed of: 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry; 1st Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry; 2nd Hyderabad Infantry; 27th Bombay Infantry, and the Jodhphur Lancers.

=Matabeleland, 1893.=--The first Matabele War, which broke out in 1893, will always be remembered for the brave but unavailing stand made by Major Wilson's little band at the Shangani River. Then Lobengula was defeated, and things settled down--as they generally did in South Africa--for a time, for within three years a second Matabele War had to be contended with until by December 31st, 1896, the natives in Rhodesia had been quietened again. In this latter war Prince Alexander of Teck took part with his regiment, the 7th Hussars.

=Bechuanaland.=--At Christmastide a rebellion broke out at Pokwani in Bechuanaland, about 40 miles north of Kimberley. The Cape Mounted Police and the Diamond Fields Police set out on Christmas Eve to deal with the recalcitrant natives, and after manœuvring in the pouring rain all Christmas Day, the chief's stronghold was attacked and carried on Boxing Day, and the rising was entirely crushed by December 27th, 1896. For this short campaign the Cape Government, with the approval of the Home Government, issued a medal in 1900 to those who had participated in this and other campaigns against the natives, and bars were issued for service in Basutoland in 1880-1, and Transkei, 1880-1, including Griqualand East and Tembuland.

=The Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal.=--The medal awarded is entitled the Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal; it is 1⁷⁄₁₆ in. in diameter, and bears on the obverse the bust of Queen Victoria facing left, with the inscription VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX. On the reverse are the arms of Cape Colony, and the motto SPES CONA. It is suspended from a 1¼ in. blue ribbon, with a broad yellow stripe down the centre. The bars issued with the medal are, reading upwards from the medal, BASUTOLAND, TRANSKEI, BECHUANALAND. The only soldiers connected with the Imperial forces who received this medal with any of the bars were officers serving with the Colonial troops. A medal with the single bar "Transkei" has realised £3 2_s._ 6_d._ in the sale-room; with two bars, "Transkei" and "Basutoland," £2 15_s._ The medals are generally engraved in rather large square Roman capitals.

=The Dongola Expedition.=--The Dongola expedition took place in 1896, and for this the Khedive of Egypt ordered a medal to be issued to all the British and native troops who served at, and south of, Sarras between March 30th and September 23rd, 1896, and at Suakin under Brigadier-General Egerton during the same period. Two bars were awarded; one inscribed HAFIR for services south of Fareia on September 29th, and the other FIRKET for those engaged south of Akashen on June 7th, each name being inscribed in English and Arabic on a single bar. The medal bears on the reverse an oval shield, charged with three crescents, and stars above, backed by a trophy of arms and flags, and a panel below bearing an inscription in Arabic reading "The recovery of the Sudan, 1314 H." On the obverse is the cypher of the Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, and ~1314 H.--A.D. 1897~. It is suspended from an orange-coloured watered ribbon, with a broad blue stripe down the centre, by means of a straight clasp. The medal was issued unnamed; bronze medals without bars were issued to camp followers and non-combatants. This being a foreign decoration it was necessary for Queen Victoria to give her troops permission to wear the medal. The first British regiment to receive it was the 1st Batt. North Staffordshires. Later the following regiments received the medal without bars, which were added afterwards: 1st Seaforth and Cameron Highlanders; half a battalion of the 1st Lincolns; 21st Lancers; a detachment of the 16th Company Eastern Division R.A.; 32nd Field Battery R.A.; 2nd Company Royal Engineers. To those who took part in the operations at and about Kerma, on the Nile, in 1897, the Khedive's medal was given with a bar inscribed SUDAN 1897, and to those who were engaged at and near Assouan and Abu-Hamed the medal with bar for ABU-HAMED was awarded; the bars only being issued to those already in possession of the medal.

=Matabeleland, 1893, and Rhodesia, 1896.=--In 1896 Queen Victoria authorised the granting of a medal by the British South Africa Company to its own forces and details from British regiments and the local Mounted Rifles and Police. All who took part in hostilities between October 16th and Christmas Eve 1893 were awarded the medal for MATABELELAND, and those only of the Queen's officers who had received permission to take part in the operations were allowed to accept and wear the medal. It is 1⁷⁄₁₆ in. in diameter, and has on the reverse a representation of the British lion boldly charging, though wounded in the chest with an assegai. In the exergue, in tall thin Roman capitals, is BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY, and above either MATABELELAND 1893 or RHODESIA 1896. On the obverse is a rather poor effigy of Queen Victoria. The suspender is very ornate, the rose, shamrock, and thistle having been used in a weak sort of manner to decorate it. This clasp or suspender is the most unsuitable and least beautiful of any in the whole series. The ribbon, 1-1\4 in. wide, is composed of three blue and four yellow stripes. It is the first instance of a chartered company being authorised to award a medal since the H.E.I. Co. gave the Mutiny medal. A bar for Rhodesia 1896 was given to those already in possession of the medal. The bar for MASHONALAND 1897 was added the following year, but those who did not possess the medal were awarded one with the name and date on the reverse as explained above. In this campaign the only Imperial troops employed were detachments of the 2nd Hampshires and the 7th Hussars.

=Regiments Engaged.=--Among those who received the medal for Matabeleland were a company of the 2nd W. Riding Regiment; 1 officer and 18 men of the 1st Batt. "Black Watch"; 3 men of the 2nd York and Lancaster Regiment; a detachment of the 3rd Dragoon Guards; Cape Mounted Rifles and British Bechuanaland Police. Those entitled to wear the medal for services in Rhodesia between March 24th and December 31st, 1896, were details of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Royal Rifles; 2nd and 4th Rifle Brigade; 1st Royal Irish; 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers; 2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers; 1st Derbys; 1st Leicesters; 2nd Norfolks; 2nd Hampshires; 2nd Royal West Kent; 2nd W. Riding Regiment; 2nd York and Lancasters; 24th, 25th, and 26th Western Division Royal Artillery; Army Ordnance and Army Service Corps. The 7th Hussars was the only cavalry regiment employed.

THE SUDAN

The battles of Toski in 1889, or Tokar in 1890, did not settle the unrest in Egypt. It smouldered and again broke into serious flame in 1897. Thanks, however, to the admirable organisation of the Egyptian army by Earl (then Sir Herbert) Kitchener, and the prompt measures which he took to deal with the Dervishes, the British flag and the Egyptian crescent soon flew over what remained of the Residency of Khartoum. Before, however, this was achieved the battles of the Atbara and Omdurman had to be fought, and for these bars bearing the legends THE ATBARA and KHARTOUM were issued with the medal to those who took part in the fights.

=The Atbara.=--The battle of the Atbara was fought on the morning of Good Friday 1898, the attack of the Anglo-Egyptian army of about 12,000 men being made at sunrise after a night march, during which the troops had plodded across the desert from Umdabieh in brilliant moonlight; they halted just before 5 o'clock for a rest, during which they shiveringly discussed the prospects of the battle, for if the days are scorching in the Sudan, the nights are icily cold. Then the squares formed, and the army marched forward to battle. At first the artillery played upon Mahmud's camp, but the Dervishes seemed to take little heed of it, for it is said it was fully half an hour before they began to reply with their rifles. Then at 7.30 a.m. the great guns stopped; the bugles rang out "Advance!" and as the pipers played "The March of the Cameron Men," the infantry advanced to the attack. Again the enemy took little heed, until the Cameron men reached the top of the ridge overlooking the zareba, and then the rifles of the Dervishes rang out, but they could not stop the Camerons' onslaught; followed by the Lincolns, the Seaforths, and the Warwicks, they went clean through the zareba. General Gatacre and Private Cross of the Camerons distinguished themselves by being the first in. The onslaught of the British and Sudanese was irresistible, and whoever could of the fighting Dervishes rushed riverward. Osman Digna again decamped, but a number of other leaders, including Mahmud, were either killed or taken prisoners; 4,000 Dervishes were taken prisoners, and 3,000 killed. The Camerons lost Captain Finlay and Urquhart, and the Seaforths Lieutenant Gore, the three Scots officers falling as they led their men into the zareba; 18 men were also killed, and 88 wounded. Fourteen native officers were killed, while the native regiments also lost 50 killed, and 319 wounded. The Sirdar at the conclusion of the battle highly complimented the Colonel of the Camerons upon the steadiness of their advance in face of the fire which greeted them at the zareba.

=Omdurman.=--This battle quieted the Dervishes until August, when preparations were made to give them the _coup de grâce_. This happened on September 2nd, 1898, at Omdurman--made famous by the maiden charge of the 21st Lancers under Captain Martin against enormous odds--when the enemy lost 11,000 killed, 16,000 wounded, and 4,000 made prisoners. The British infantry division was again commanded by General Gatacre, the Brigadiers being Generals Wauchope and Lyttleton. The 1st Brigade consisted of the Camerons, Seaforths, Lincolns, and Warwicks, and a Maxim Battery. The 2nd Brigade comprised 1st Grenadier Guards; 1st Northumberland Fusiliers; 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, and 2nd Rifle Brigade. Macdonald, Maxwell, and Lewis again commanded three brigades of the Egyptian army, and Collinson Bey a fourth. There were 7,500 Britishers, and 12,000 Egyptians.

On April 2nd the Dervish army advanced against the British, their front extending for about 3 miles. The British formed an obtuse angle, and at 6.30 a.m. opened fire upon the advancing hosts with such precision that hundreds were mown down, but the Dervishes did not falter. As Steevens said, "No white troops could have faced that torrent for five minutes, but the Baggara and the blacks came on." There was no fear; the black-eyed houris were waiting with outstretched arms to receive such doughty warriors. Still they could not stand against their foe, but they retired with such caution that they were able to re-form. The pressure of their well-drilled enemy, however, was too great, and they began to flee. The bravest of them, however, planted their standards as rallying-points, and stood their ground until they were killed; the others appeared to be making for Omdurman, 5 miles from the scene of battle, and to prevent this the 21st Lancers were ordered to charge. They hacked their way through the dense mass of men who feared nothing. Then the Khalifa's stalwarts made a last effort, but Macdonald's Sudanese steadily met the onslaught; repulsed it, sent the Dervishes flying in all directions, and the battle of Omdurman was won. Mahdism was worsted, but Osman Digna had again eluded the victors. At last Khartoum was taken, the captives set free, and the dominion of the rebel slave-trader overthrown.

=Khartoum.=--To those who took part in this battle, which ended in the taking of Khartoum, a bar for KHARTOUM was added to the Khedive's medal, and a bar for GEDAREF to all engaged in the capture of the place, and the fighting which followed in the district.

The following British regiments were engaged in the campaign: 1st Grenadier Guards; 1st Seaforth and 1st Cameron Highlanders; 1st Warwicks; 1st Northumberland Fusiliers; 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers; 1st Lincolns; 2nd Rifle Brigade; a detachment of 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers, with 4 Maxim guns; 16th Company Eastern Division R.A.; 32nd and 37th Field Batteries R.A.; 21st Lancers; a detachment of Royal Engineers; Army Service and Army Ordnance Corps; Royal Army Medical Corps.

=Sudan, 1899, and Gedid.=--Early in 1900 a bar bearing the record SUDAN 1899 was awarded to those who had taken part in the second Dongola campaign, and a medal with bar for GEDID was issued to those who were engaged in the actions at that place on November 22nd and 24th, 1899, which resulted in the defeat of the Khalifa Abdulla El Taaishi. Bronze medals were issued to the civilian syces and authorised camp followers. The number of bars issued with the Khedive's Sudan medal varies from one to eight, but it is seldom that European soldiers received medals with more than two bars. European officers in some instances received more, but Major-General Sir Archibald Hunter, I think, has the distinction of possessing one bearing six bars.

=Three Later Bars.=--In 1905 and 1906 it was decided to add three more bars to the Khedive's Sudan medal, one for BAHR-EL-GHAZEL 1900-2 for services rendered in the reconquest of that province; one for JEROK for operations in the Blue Nile province against Wad-el-Mahmud in 1904; one for NYAM-NYAM to those employed against the Nyam-Nyam tribesmen in the province of Bahr-el-Ghazel in 1905.

=Queen's Sudan Medal.=--In March 1899 Her Majesty Queen Victoria approved of a new medal being struck to commemorate the military operations in connection with the reconquest of the Sudan. The medal, 1⅖ in. in diameter, in silver was granted to all officers, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the British, Indian, and Egyptian forces, and native allies who were employed in the military operations in Egypt resulting in the capture of Abu-Hamed, the reconquest of the Province of Berber, the defeat of Emir Mahmud's army on the Atbara, and the final operations resulting in the overthrow of the Khalifa's troops at Khartoum. Civilian syces, civilian servants of officers, and authorised followers were entitled to the medal in bronze. No bars were issued with this medal. On the obverse is a half-length effigy of Queen Victoria, facing left, crowned, with a lace veil flowing behind, on which a small Imperial crown is placed, wearing the Ribbon and Star of the Order of the Garter, the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, and the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, holding a sceptre in her right hand. Legend, VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX. On the reverse is a figure of a winged Victory seated, having a palm-branch in her outstretched right hand, and a laurel wreath in her left. There are two flags behind on either side--the British being on the left and the Khedive's to the right; beneath on the pedestal which supports the figure is the word SUDAN in intaglio, the space beneath the pedestal being filled by the decorative disposition of three lilies of the Nile in leaf. This is, in my opinion, the most symbolic and beautiful medal issued since Wyon took for his model a Greek coin, and based his figure of Victory--which adorns the Waterloo medal--upon it. The name of the recipient, together with his rank and regiment, was generally engraved upon the edge of the medal in neat Roman capitals. I have seen some with the lettering impressed in very small Roman capitals. The medal is suspended by a straight bar from a black and yellow ribbon 1¼ in. wide, divided down the centre by a narrow crimson stripe.

=East and Central Africa Medal.=--A medal to replace the old one with swivel ring was issued to those who took part in the troubles which occurred in the Uganda Protectorate during 1897 and 1898. The medal, 1⅖ in. in diameter, had on the obverse the same bust of Queen Victoria as the Sudan medal, and on the reverse Britannia with the British lion beside her, holding out in her left hand a palm branch and a scroll toward the rising sun, and in her right a trident. In the exergue, in Roman capitals, is the denomination EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA. The medal for Somaliland 1902-4 (illustrated facing page 296) is the same but for the inscription in the exergue. Two bars were issued with the medal, LUBWA'S and UGANDA 1897-8. A bar with the date 1898 was issued to those who fought against the Ogaden Somalis from April to August 1898, and a bar for UGANDA 1899 was awarded to those employed in the military operations against Kabarega in the Protectorate between March and May 1899. The ribbon, 1¼ in. wide, is half red and yellow, and the names, etc., of recipients are impressed or engraved on the edge in light Roman capitals.

=Royal Niger Co.'s Medal.=--For participation in military operations in the Niger Company's territories during the period of 1886 to 1897 the Company awarded a silver medal to the members of its executive staff, and bronze medals to the natives. The names of the recipients were impressed upon the silver medals, but the native's number only was indented upon the edge of the bronze medals issued to those who were actually serving on December 31st, 1899. These medals, which were struck by Messrs. Spink & Son, bear on the obverse the diademed bust of Queen Victoria, and on the reverse a shield bearing a Y-shaped elevation, with the words ARS, JUS, PAX; behind the shield is a trophy of arms and flags. This medal, 1½ in. in diameter, is suspended from a ribbon 1½ in. wide, composed of three equal stripes of yellow, black, and white, by means of a straight clasp. The bars, 1⅖ in. long by ³⁄₁₀ in. wide, have the record NIGERIA 1886-1897 attached to the silver medals, but NIGERIA only on the bronze.