TOPIC: The Indian Contingent

It's in the post for you. Both roll pages.
ATB
David

The next DNW sale contains a surprising number of QSA to Indian troops:

1716 QSA (0) (2722 Sowar Jamiat Singh, 11th Bengal Lcrs.)

1717 QSA (0) (468 Hvldr. Attar Singh, 26th Sikh Regt.)

1718 QSA (0) (M 46 Dafadar Pat Ram, I.P. Mule Train) and QSA (0) (L. Naik Alam, 18/Mule Cadre)

1719 QSA (0) bronze issue (426 Bhisti Mowla, S. & T. Corps Secbd. D.)

1720 QSA (0) bronze issue (693 Dooly Bearer Gariga Dasee, S. T. Corps Mad. Ct.)

1721 QSA (0) bronze issue (Syce Bashan, Kashmir Lcrs.)

1722 QSA (1) Cape Colony (1305 Sowar Hajee Khan, 6th Bombay Cvlry)

1723 QSA (1) Transvaal (1396 Sowar Jeewan Singh, 2nd C. India H.)

1724 QSA (1) South Africa 1902 (?/5 L. Naik Meg Singh, 4th Bombay Cvlry.)

1725 QSA (1) South Africa 1902 (1276 Sowar Ata Mahomed Khan, 8th Bengal Lcrs.)

1726 QSA (1) South Africa 1902 (1699 Dffdr. Sher Mhmd. Khan, 9th Bengal Lcrs.)

1728 QSA (2) Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (1737 L. Dffdr. Jahingir Khan, 2nd C. India H.)

1729 QSA (3) Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (2406 Sowar Harnam Singh,
2nd Bombay Lrs.)

1730 QSA (4) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (1712 Sowar
Fateh Sher Khan, 18th Bengal Lcrs.)

1731 KSA (2) (960 Mahmud Zaman Khan, 5th Bengal Cvlry.)
Entitled to QSA (1) Transvaal.

Group to Veterinary Jemadar Mohammad Ali, Mule Corps, late Commissariat and Transport Department

IGS (1) Lushai 1889-92 (645 Salu..y(?) Mahammed Ali, Comt. Transpt. Dept.) officially re-engraved
QS (5) TH RoL Belf SA01 SA02 (M.170 Vet. Asst. Mahomed Ali, Ind. M.P. Train)
Tibet (0) (545 Vety. Dufdr. Mohomedali, 10th Mule Corps)
BWM (V-Jemdr. Mohd. Ali, 3 Mule Cps.)
Indian Army MSM GV (27/123 Vet’ry. Dufadar Mohamed Ali, 27th Mule Corps)


Picture courtesy of DNW

This photo purports to be of the Indian Mule Train crossing the Zand River in Jan 1900. I found it on line from the Australian War Museum ( AO5067)



A team of 10 mules, 2 lines of 12 men and some pushers - dust, grime and sweat. I think it is a great photo particularly with the Indian waiting to bring the next wagon across.

The bronze group to Dooly Bearer Beswi Narsunloo, Supply & Transport Corps

Queen’s Sudan 1896-98, bronze issue (159 Doolybearer Buswir Narsinghoo, C.T. Deptt.), QSA (0) bronze (159 Dooley Bearer Beswi Narsunloo, S. & T. Corps), Khedive’s Sudan (0) bronze issue (159 Dooleybearer Buswir Narsinghoo, C.T.Dept.)


Picture courtesy of DNW

A QSA named to the Corps of Guides.

IGS 1895 (2) Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Malakand 1897 (1574 Farrier Kala, 2 Q.O. Corps Guides Cavy.), QSA (1) Cape Colony (1574 Farr. Kala, Corps of Guides), KSA (2) (1574 Farr. Kala, Q.O. Corps of Guides), Indian MSM GV (1574 Dfdr. (Farr. Maj.) Kala Khan, Corps of Guides Cavy. (F.F.))


Picture courtesy of DNW

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Queen's South Africa Medal 1899-1902 27 Dooly Bearer Yelmel Jaga S&TC





ex Q & C Militaria




On the roll Dooly Bearer Corps, Bombay Command-Kamptee District: (WO 100/298 p 155) and present for at Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Talana, Defence of Ladysmith.

center]Dooly Bearer Beswi Narsunloo
Supply & Transport Corps[/center]

Queen’s Sudan 1896-98, bronze issue 159 Doolybearer Buswir Narsinghoo, C.T. Deptt.
Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp, bronze issue 159 Dooley Bearer Beswi Narsunloo, S. & T. Corps
Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1909, no clasp, bronze issue 159 Dooleybearer Buswir Narsinghoo, C.T.Dept.






ex DNW 2013
Dooly Bearers at Talana

The Dooly Bearer Corps at Talana on the 20th October 1899 numbered 199 men. They were recruited from The Bombay (Deesa District;19;Ahedabad District; 14; Kamptee District 32) and Madras Commands ( Madras District 5; Bangalore District 46; Belgaum District 26;Bellary District). Their personnel were mainly recruited from a class of hereditary carriers, the Hindu Kahars from Oude ( African General Service Medals RB Magor). All were later interned at Ladysmith other than the 14 from Ahedabad District who must have escaped to Pietermaritzburg with the wounded. Eight of these men later claimed an entitlement to a Relief of Ladysmith clasp.



The stretcher bearer corps or Dooly Bearer Corps although were raised in India, volunteers were also recruited from the local Indian population to serve as non-combatant medical personnel and were engaged in the hospital camp. The front verandahs of the two Smith homesteads were used as field dressing stations, prior to moving the wounded on doolies to the church and other large halls and warehouse which served as temporary hospitals, in the town of Dundee.






Talana was the first battle in which, under enemy fire,

the Dooly Bearer Corps moved about the battlefield with their green doolies rescuing the wounded. Major Donegan in his diary describes how he “then ordered the dhoolies to advance and relieve the regimental bearers as near the fighting line as possible and I must say that they worked splendidly." H.Watkins-Pitchford,( Besieged in Ladysmith ,1964, p 36.) describes the scene “ and the dhoolie-bearers waddling back under their heavy burdens. Excellent little fellows these bearers are, some of them with four and five ribbons upon the breasts of their dirty khaki blouses. They trot out complacently under the heaviest fire and seem to know no fear.”
The casualties were scooped up by the Indian stretcher- bearers of Major Donegan's field hospital, and carried back in doolies (four men per doolie) to the dressing room station by the post office. The Principal Medical Officer, Volunteer Forces, Major Hysop, informed the Colonial Secretary that he had been `very impressed with the expeditious way' that
Indian dhoolie-bearers removed the wounded from the field' and asked for a further twelve Indian bearers and two hospital orderlies. The "Natal Mercury" concurred with Hyslop; the editor wrote that their `courage and fidelity have been of the utmost value.' At the Talana Hill battle `during the heaviest fighting, when bullets were scouring the air, and men were falling dead and wounded in terrible numbers, these stoical and stolid Asiatics went about their business with heroic indifference to the leaden rain. It is due to them very largely that so many wounded were not afterwards numbered among the killed.'"Natal Mercury", 30 October 1899. Again Major Donegan in his diary says that "all Bearers did not finish till after 11 pm. In many cases these Bearers brought the wounded from the fighting line all the way to Hospital."
As to the best and quickest method of removing the patients to the first dressing station, there were few occasions when this was not more satisfactorily done by bearers with stretchers than by wagons. The movement was more easy to the wounded men, and, as a rule, time was saved. Over rough ground the wagons travel slowly, and patients with only provisional splints were shaken undesirably. A stretcher party in my experience easily outstripped the wagon unless a road or very smooth veldt existed. A larger number of men is of course required, but I take it that on the occasion of a great war men are both more easily obtained and fed than are transport animals. From what I have been able to learn, both the Indian dhoolie-bearers and the hastily recruited Colonial bearer companies were most successful in the removal of the large number of wounded men from the field of Colenso. I had several opportunities of comparing the two methods on a smaller scale during the fighting in Orange River Colony, and felt very strongly in favour of the stretcher parties. “Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre “George Henry Makins