GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
‘We went like hunted chamois over the rocks,’ wrote Hamilton, ‘sliding down into the dips on our backsides and scrambling up vertical cliffs... The final approach to Nipple was almost vertical rock... but we made it, only slowed down by the constant stream of wounded making their way back from the RAP to the valley below. Many were in a bad way and had great difficulty in negotiating the cliff-holds.
I... sped to Subadar Dost Muhamad of the machine-gun platoon. The enemy fire was intense as the number of dead and wounded on that small hilltop showed. More were arriving every minute from the hill beyond. Frank, the doctor, was not far away behind a rocky outcrop; his hands were red with blood as he splinted a knee-bone shattered by a dumdum bullet. “The Dost” put me in the picture which was a black story of disaster. No Battalion Headquarters let as they had all gone forward with the six leading platoons, the battered remains of which were now in full flight down the hillside. “All the Sahibs killed,” said he.’
The end on Pt 4080 was witnessed through field-glass by an artillery observer with another battalion. Tribesmen started collecting the arms of the dead and wounded. Five of the Guides struggled up to fight again and killed one of them. A signaller, propped up against a rock, started flashing a lamp, a signal which no-one read. Meynell, the Adjutant, was seen standing on a rock, defending himself with a rifle butt. Soon all were shot or stabbed.
The Guides lost two officers and twenty soldiers killed in the battle. Captain Godfrey Meynell was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Hamilton himself was shot in the stomach but survived to be awarded the D.S.O. Writing in a personal letter fifty years later, as a retired Major-General, Hamilton added that Dost Muhammed should have been decorated:
‘He commanded the Machine Gun platoon during the fight on Pt 4080 in ‘35 and should have got decorated. They brought the MGs and ammunition up 2000 feet or more in the dark to give covering fire to the assault companies at first light - no mean feat up frantic, trackless peaks!’
On 25 November 1936, the Guides were carrying out operations against the Tori Khel in Waziristan’s Lower Khaisora Valley. In accordance with the usual practice picquets were posted on the high features, the ridges near Zerpezai, to protect the advance but progress was slower than anticipated and the column did not reach camp until nightfall. Dost Muhammad, then Subadar of “C” Company, carried out the difficult and dangerous work of withdrawing the picquets in the darkness and brought in the baggage train and rearguard. For this valuable service he was awarded the Indian Distinguished Service Medal, one of the first to be awarded in the new reign.
By now he was a distinguished Viceroy’s Commissioned Officer with more than twenty years of service. He was presented with the Order of British India, Second Class, which entitled him to use the title “Bahadur” or Brave. He apparently retired before 1939.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Dost Muhammad was re-employed on 25 November 1940. He served in India and with PAIFORCE in Persia and Iraq. In 1943 he was promoted to the First Class of the Order of British India, with the title “Sardar Bahadur”.
Subadar Dost Muhammad, Sardar Bahadur, O.B.I., I.D.S.M., retired again at the end of the war, having served in the Guides for some thirty years.
Sold with a file of research including original letters from Major-General Godfrey Hamilton and Brigadier P. R. Macnamara, both mentioning Dost Muhammad.
1204
A Crimean War D.C.M. group of three awarded to Private James China, 77th Regiment, who was severely wounded in the final attack on the Redan in September 1855
DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL, V.R. (J. China, 77th Regt.); CRIMEA 1854-56, 3 clasps, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol (J. China, 77th Regt.) engraved naming; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, unnamed as issued and fitted with contemporary buckle, nearly very fine (3)
£2000-2500 D.C.M. recommendation dated 17 January 1855; According to Abbott’s roll a replacement medal was ordered on 13 November 1858.
James China was born in London and enlisted into the 3rd Foot at Bow Street on 22 June 1839, and transferred to the 31st Foot on 15 October 1844. Whilst serving with that regiment he was tried by Court Martial on four occasions. In June 1854 he volunteered to the 77th Regiment for service in the Crimea, where he was severely wounded in the final attack on the Redan on 8 September 1855. He was promoted to Corporal in November 1855 and to Sergeant in April 1856, but was once again sentenced by Court Martial to confinement for 14 days and reduced to Private in August 1856. Private China was discharged at Chatham on 25 November 1856, being unfit for further service due to a hernia caused by overexertion in the trenches before Sebastopol.
Sold with copied discharge papers.
www.dnw.co.uk
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