Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Lieutenant William Alexander Frederick Bracken, Coorg & Mysore Rifles

Indian Volunteer Forces Officers’ Decoration, G.V.R., reverse engraved, ‘2nd Lt. W. A. F. Bracken, Coorg & Mysore Rfls.’; Jubilee 1935 (Pte. W. A. F. Bracken, Coorg & Mysore M.G. Coy.8th June 1935), with top bar; Volunteer Force Long Service (India & the Colonies), E.VII.R. (Colr. Sergt., Coorg & Mysore Rifles) engraved naming, mounted as worn, the ribbons of the first and last bearing ‘Efficiency Medal’ clasps, good very fine (3) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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William Alexander Frederick Bracken was employed as a Manager in several Coffee Estates in Coorg and Mysore. As a long time member of the Volunteers, he was awarded the Volunteer Force Long Service Medal as a Colour Sergeant in the Coorg & Mysore Rifles, recorded in I.A.O. 500 of August 1905. Bracken was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in November 1908 and promoted to Lieutenant in April 1915. In the same year he was awarded the Indian Volunteer Forces Officers’ Decoration, published in the Gazette of India of 2 October 1915. He was also mistakenly awarded the Volunteer Force Long Service Medal (again) in I.A.O. 463 of August 1915 but this was deleted in I.A.O. 624 of November 1915.

Bracken apparently continued to serve in the ranks of the Coorg & Mysore Volunteers and in 1935 was awarded the Jubilee Medal. Intriguingly, in the I.A.O. 792 of 10 April 1942, a ‘Private W. A. F. Bracken, The Coorg & Mysore Company’ is listed as being awarded two clasps to the Efficiency Medal. The award of the Efficiency Medal has not been traced in the Indian Army Orders. The two clasps have been sewn onto the ribbons of the first and last medals (above), neither of which ever had provision for clasps, implying that all the awards were to one man; however, it is possible that what is recorded is a father and son with the same name and initials. With copied research.