Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Captain S. Clay, 7th Gurkha Rifles, killed in the Dharamsala earthquake in April 1905

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, N.E. Frontier 1891 (Ltt., 43rd Bengal Infy.); India General Service 1895-1902, 1 clasp, Waziristan 1901-02 (Captn., 43rd Gurkha Rifles) mounted as worn, the first with contact wear, otherwise nearly very fine, the second good very fine (2) £400-500

Stanley Claywas born at Deoli on 18 July 1868, second son of Major-General C. H. Clay, Deoli Irregular Force. He entered the Army from the Royal Military College on 22 August 1888 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. In the following October he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the same regiment (the 105th Foot) which he joined at Quetta before the end of the year. Appointed Wing Officer in the 43rd Bengal Infantry in January 1890, he joined that regiment at Shillong, in Assam, moved with it to Kohima in December 1890, and in the spring of 1891 served with it in the expedition to Manipur India Medal and clasp).

The regiment was retained at Manipur on conclusion of the campaign and Clay continued serving with it there for nearly three years.In April 1896 he was appointed an Officiating Wing Commander and detailed to command three companies of the regiment at Manipur, and in the course of the same year he was employed in some minor operations against the Lushais. In 1898 he accompanied two companies of the regiment detached from Kohima to Gilgit, on the extreme North West Frontier, and he served with them there for more than two years. In August 1899 he attained the rank of Captain, and in the following year he became a Double-Company Commander. From August to December 1900 he served in the Intelligence Branch of the Quarter-Master-General’s Department at Simla.

In December 1901 he was attached, as a temporary measure, to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Gurkha Rifles, as Officiating Double-Company Commander. With this corps he served in the Mahsud-Waziri blockade operations of 1901-02 (India Medal and clasp). He rejoined the 43rd Bengal Infantry at Shillong in April 1902, went home on leave in June 1903, and rejoined the regiment, now designated as the 7th Gurkha Rifles, in the summer of 1904. He accompanied the regiment from Assam to the Punjab in 1905, arriving at Dharamsala on 12 March. On the 4th April 1905 occurred the terrible earthquake in which Dharamsala was almost entirely wrecked, and on which occasion Captain Clay unfortunately lost his life.