Pair: Private T. Phinn, Royal Highlanders

1914 Star (1478 Pte., 2/R. Highrs.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (1478 Pte., R. Highrs.) very fine (2) £80-100

Thomas Phinn enlisted prior to the outbreak of the Great War and served in India as a Piper with ‘F’ Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Highlanders. Stations included Calcutta where at the Regimental Highland Games in December 1913, he took 1st Place (Class B), in Marches in the piping competition. He embarked with the battalion from Karachi in September 1914 and arrived in France on 12 October 1914. Served as a Piper with the 2nd Battalion in the Bareilly Brigade of the 7th (Meerut) Division. The Battalion had arrived in France with about 22 pipers. During the first year of the war, four were killed in action and about 13 were wounded. During 1916 and 1917 the 2nd Battalion served in Mesopotamia and suffered further casualties to its pipers. Listed in ‘The Pipes of War’. With copied m.i.c. and service notes.