Orders, Decorations and Medals

Five: Lieutenant-Colonel R. F. Atkins, Indian Army, captured at Kut, 26 April 1916

1914-15 Star (Capt., 1/67/Punjabis); British War and Victory Medals, incorrect style M.I.D. oakleaf (Capt.); India General Service 1908-35, 2 clasps, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919, Waziristan 1921-24 (Captain (Temp. Major), 1/67/Pjbs.), 2nd clasp loose on ribbon; Jubilee 1935, mounted as worn, good fine and better (5) £280-320

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Brigadier Brian Parritt, C.B.E..

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M.I.D. London Gazette 5 April 1916 & 30 January 1920.

Reginald Fenner Atkins was born on 8 March 1887. He was commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment in January 1906 and appointed to the Indian Army in August 1908, serving with the 67th Punjabis. In his early years he qualified at the School of Musketry in the Machine Gun and qualified as a Certified Instructor in Signalling; passed a course as a Transport Instructor and passed the Lower Standard Language Examination in Baluchi and Persian. In the Great War he entered the Mesopotamian theatre of war with his battalion on 25 March 1915. Involved in an attack in the vicinity of Nasiriyeh, 25/26 July 1915, the 67th Punjabis suffered 31 all ranks killed and 36 wounded; numbered amongst the latter was Captain Atkins. For his services he was mentioned in despatches. Being only slightly wounded, Atkins was able to rejoin his battalion during the following month. Then, as part of the 6th (Poona) Division he took part in the successful battles of Kut and Ctesiphon. He arrived in Kut on 3 December 1915 and became part of the Garrison Force commanded by Major-General Sir Charles Townsend. The Turks surrounded the town and on 26 April 1916 the besieged garrison was forced to surrender. Atkins was appointed a Staff Officer to General Townsend during the march to Kastamouni - for which service he was subsequently and for the second time mentioned in despatches. Townsend and his staff were well treated by their Turkish captors, in marked contrast to the bulk of British and Indian troops made prisoner at Kut, many of whom died of starvation and sickness. Atkins was released on 16 October 1918 and served as D.A.Q.M.G., July-September 1919 and as Brigade Major from November 1919. He returned to his regiment, then serving in the Afghan War, in 1919; in 1921 he attended the Staff College. In 1922 his regiment was re-titled the 1st Battalion 2nd Punjab Regiment and in February 1924 moved from Peshawar to Khirgi in South Waziristan. Soon after their arrival, a company under Major Atkins went to the assistance of a company of the 2/3rd Sikh Pioneers which had been pinned down by a large body of raiders while trying to extricate casualties. By nightfall Atkins had covered the Pioneers withdrawal and extricated his own men without loss. For his time in Waziristan he qualified for the second clasp to his I.G.S. medal. In October 1931, Atkins attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and gained command of the 1/2nd Punjab Regiment, based at Ferozepore. In February 1936 the 1/2nd Punjab Regiment was posted to Taiping in the Malay States. Prior to their departure Atkins handed over command of the regiment and on 22 April 1936, he retired from the Army. Sold with copied research.