Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A good Great War D.C.M. group of four awarded to Sergeant I. A. MacLachlan, Singapore Volunteer Corps, late Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, who was interned by the Japanese in the 1939-45 War

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (S-13509 Pte. I. A. MacLachan, 1/5 A. & S. Highrs.), note surname spelling; British War and Victory Medals (S-13509 Pte. I. A. MacLachlan, A. & S.H.); Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Malaya, with Bar (11407 Sgt. I. A. MacLachlan, D.C.M.), mounted as worn, together with presentation gold pocket watch, by Waltham, U.S.A., the reverse of the case engraved, ‘Presented to Sergt. MacLachlan by the 52nd Low Div. Signals Sergeants Mess, February 16th 1927’, this in its travelling case, and a Defence Medal 1939-45 and St. John Ambulance Association Badge, in bronze, named to his wife ‘Elizabeth MacLachlan’, nearly very fine and better (7) £1200-1400

D.C.M. London Gazette 3 June 1919:

‘For continuous gallant conduct in action during the period 17 September to 11 November 1918. In carrying out his duties as Battalion Linesman, he has continually shown an utter disregard of personal danger. In company with another man he has continued at his work under heavy fire, and it was as a result of his devotion to duty that communication was seldom broken for any lengthy period.’

Iain Alexander MacLachlan’s unit, the 1/5th (Renfrewshire) Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, arrived in France in April 1918, having been employed with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force since the Gallipoli operations, and at the time of his D.C.M. exploits in September-November 1918, the Battalion formed part of 103rd Brigade, 34th Division (his MIC entry confirms his entitlement to the British War & Victory Medals only).

Remaining a Territorial after the War until February 1927, MacLachlan departed for the Far East in the early 1930s, where he found employment as a Cable Engineer for the Oriental Telephone & Electric Co. in Singapore - so, too, as a Lance-Bombardier in the Singapore Volunteer Corps’ Artillery (S.R.A. (V.)). Advanced to Bombardier in 1935 and to Sergeant in 1937, about the time he was awarded his Efficiency Medal, he is described in the local Yearbooks as the only member of the Singapore Volunteer Corps to hold the D.C.M., which award evidently entitled him to £20 on being discharged in 1938, on top of sixpence a day pension. Having retired from military life, MacLachlan was interned as a civilian by the Japanese in Changhi Prison and the Sime Road Camp, but luckily his wife Elizabeth had already been evacuated to the U.K; sold with research, including an account of the difficult conditions at Sime Road Camp.