Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

‘Villagers by the road side joined in with the crowd in throwing volleys of road-metal and large stones. The police were driven back immediately through troops, who advanced, and as the crowd scattered, found the body of Mr. Murphy, with his head battered amid many stones covered in blood. Medical examination of his body in Mardan also disclosed wounds from revolver bullets in his head and further gunshot wounds with small shot. Two of his ribs were also crushed, which supports the story that he was thrown by a wrestler among the Red Shirts, and his head subsequently battered in.’

An official report into the death of Assistant Superintendent D. B. Murphy, Indian Police Service, refers.

A poignant lifesaving K.P.M. awarded to Assistant Superintendent D. B. Murphy, Indian Police Service, who was later brutally murdered by a crowd of “Red Shirts” at Mardan in the North-West Frontier province in May 1930 - stoned senseless, he was shot with his own revolver

King’s Police Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (Denis B. Murphy, Indian Police Service), in its fitted case of issue, with one of the recipient’s original calling cards, virtually as issued £500-600

K.P.M. London Gazette 1 January 1927:

‘For gallantry in rescuing at considerable personal risk a boy from a burning house.’

The original recommendation states:

‘On the night of 2 December 1925, a fire involving five two-storied shops occurred in Misgiran, one of the main bazars in Peshawur City. Three shops had collapsed in the fire. A boy named Phul Badshah, who was a spectator fell from a roof of an adjoining shop and was pinned under a beam among the debris. A rope was thrown to him to assist him in getting out of the house, but he was unable to move. Mr. Murphy, Assistant Superintendent of Police, hearing of the accident, entered the house and freed the boy’s leg. The boy was then helped out of the house with the assistance of others, who joined Mr. Murphy, through a window in the wall of the buildings, which remained standing. A few minutes later a further collapse of buildings took place which would have killed the boy. Mr. Murphy’s gallant action was opportune and was made at considerable personal risk.’

Denis Brownell Murphy was born in Brentford, Middlesex, in April 1904, and was educated at Durstan House, Ealing, and at Westminster (1918-22), where he was a King’s Scholar. At the time of his application for the Indian Police Service in 1923, he held a commission in the Territorial Army, and his request to be given a posting in the Punjab, where he had an acquaintance, was duly approved. Arriving in India at the end of the same year, he was appointed an Assistant Superintendent in Peshawur, in which capacity he won his K.P.M. for the above cited deeds in December 1925.

Having then been posted to other locations, Murphy joined his final appointment at Mardan in early May 1929. Two weeks later, on the 25th, he was brutally murdered. A contemporary newspaper report takes up the story:

‘Mr. D. B. Murphy, Assistant Superintendent of Police at the village of Mardan, was killed by a mob, mainly composed of “Red Shirts” yesterday. Mr. Murphy met his death in a gallant attempt to disperse a crowd, estimated at about 1,200, with a force of 55 Indian policemen, armed only with lathis [staves].

Mardan, which is a village on the railway line running north from Nowshera cantonments to Dargai, has been one of the “Red Shirt” strongholds since the beginning of the present agitation. There are many Hindu storekeepers in the district, and there is no doubt a constant stream of propaganda found its source in this neighbourhood. Yesterday morning the police secured the arrest of six ringleaders, and it was in a demonstration of protest that the disturbance occurred. Mr. Murphy disappeared in the dense crowd at the head of his constables. The crowd attacked the party fiercely, and in the ensuing fighting Mr. Murphy was felled with a stone.

The news of his death came as a great shock here [Peshawur], He was a most courageous young officer, and two years ago was decorated with the King’s Police Medal for entering a burning house in a narrow lane in Peshawur City and rescuing a young Indian boy only a few moments before the building collapsed.

Mr. Murphy, who was educated at Westminster, and joined the Indian Police only about five years ago, was looked on as one of the most promising young officers in the district. He was personally popular not only with his brother officers, but with the townspeople. Many telegrams from responsible members of the Moslem community expressing detestation at the outrage have been received. He will be buried with full military honours at Peshawur this evening.’

The shocking circumstances of Murphy’s death led to a flurry of official reports, from one of which the following extract has been taken:

‘Captain Hay, Assistant Commissioner ... directed Mr. Murphy to disperse the crowd by force, while the officer in command of the Indian Infantry was requested to keep his troops in support. Mr. Murphy, before carrying out this order, rode through the crowd with an escort of two Sowars only in order to ascertain as accurately as possible the number of volunteers and the composition of the crowd. On his return he begged that firearms should not be used to disperse the crowd because there were a number of small boys present. He then led the police and charged the mob. He himself ran into the middle of the crowd which immediately closed on him and attacked the police fiercely with sticks and stones, heaps of which were collected by the roadside preparatory to repairs to the road. The police were driven back by weight of numbers and by the fierceness of the hail of stones, while the villagers who had been looking on from the side of the road, also joined in the attack on them. The crowd fell back some five or ten yards. It was then discovered that Mr. Murphy had not come back. Captain Hay advanced with the troops and the volunteers and the villagers retreated before them. Mr. Murphy’s body was found lying on the road. His head and his body had been severely battered and he was dead. He appeared to have received a bullet wound in the head, and the Tahsildar reported that he had heard a shot fired during the attack ... ’

Sold with a file of research, including a copied group photograph of Murphy and his detachment, and official correspondence from the archives at The Oriental and India Office, the latter concerning his death - and concern about details of its brutality reaching Murphy’s next of kin.