An impressive inter-War K.P.M. group of four awarded to Assistant Commandant C. L. Dunn, Burma Military Police, late Royal Fusiliers, who successfully put down an armed rebellion by capturing or killing the leader and his followers and taking control of a virtually impregnable Burmese fortress

King’s Police Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (Capt. Cyril Leslie Dunn. I.A, Asstt. Commdt., Burma Mily. Police.); British War Medal 1914-20 (Capt. C. L. Dunn.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (Lieut. C. L. Dunn.); India General Service 1908-35, 2 clasps, Waziristan 1921-24, Burma 1930-32, second clasp loose on riband, as issued (Capt. C. L. Dunn, 3-8 Punjab R.) ‘3’ of unit overstruck above ‘2’, mounted as worn, very fine and better (4) £600-£800

K.P.M. London Gazette 1 January 1930.
The official recommendation published in The Gazette of India Extraordinary on 1 January 1930, states: ‘This Officer was in command of a party of Military Police from Loimwe that took action against a Muhso Hkunli (Pretender) who having collected armed followers was defying law and order in the Kengtung State in the Southern Shan States. The Assistant Superintendent in charge, having been unsuccessful in his efforts to make the Hkunli see reason and give up his warlike attitude was forced to call upon Captain Dunn and his party to attack the Hkunli and his followers in their bulletproof fort. It is reported that this fort must have taken years to complete; that it was perfect in its structure and its disposition and that special trenches had been dug for greater protection during rifle fire and for masking of men in case of an attack over the top.

Owing to the disposition of the fort Captain Dunn was only able to make a reconnaissance from a ridge six miles away and found that the position could only be attacked from two sides. It was by this skilful reconnaissance (as there was no information available as to strength, etc., of the Hkunli’s followers) that Captain Dunn was able to make his plan of attack so that the fort was eventually taken without serious casualties and the Hkunli and many of his followers were killed. The operations commenced on the 9th March 1929 and ended on the 27th April 1929.’

Cyril Leslie Dunn was born on 10 February 1898, the son of Irish-born William Dunn of Stoke Bishop, Bristol. Privately educated, he served three months on the Somme from April 1916 with the 24th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, before being appointed to a commission in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers on 7 September 1915. Posted to the 7th Training Reserve Brigade at Dover, he embarked aboard a troopship to Egypt on 26 August 1917, arriving on 20 November 1917. Appointed Captain in the 3/8th Punjab Regiment on 28 May 1920 and transferred to India, Dunn rose to become Regimental Company Commander before taking appointment with the Burma Military Police on 9 February 1921. Furnished with excellent references and an appreciation of colloquial Burmese, he is later recorded in 1927 as Assistant Commandant of Military Police, South Shan States Battalion, Loimwe.

Awarded the K.P.M. in 1930 as Assistant Commandant, Burma Military Police, Dunn retired in September 1934 and was transferred to the Indian Army Non Effective List in January 1936. Returned to India from Bristol in 1939 on War Reserve, further service during the Second World War was significantly hampered by illness, and Dunn was eventually released from duties at Bangalore on 2 April 1945 due to insomnia and chronic anxiety. Analysis of the recipient’s Army Service Record confirms overwork and excessive responsibility during long periods of service in India, a psychologist noting him 70% disabled with his career at an end.

Sold with extensive copied research.