Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

The fine Tirah D.S.O. group awarded to Brigadier-General F. G. Lucas, C.B., C.S.I., C.I.E., D.S.O., Gurkha Scouts, later Commandant 5th Gurkha Rifles

(a) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (Military) C.B., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, in its Garrard & Co case of issue

(b) The Most Exalted Order of The Star of India, C.S.I., Companion’s neck badge, gold, silver and enamels, with central cameo of Queen Victoria, the surrounding motto set with small diamonds, in its Garrard & Co case of issue, lacking one small stone and top ring of Star suspension bent

(c) The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., Companion’s 3rd type neck badge, gold and enamels, in its Garrard & Co case of issue, enamel chipped on one rose petal

(d) Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamels, lacking top suspension bar, usual light loss to enamels of both wreaths

(e) India General Service 1854-94, 1 clasp, Hazara 1891 (Ltt. F. G. Lucas, 2d Bn. 5 Gurkha Regt.)

(f) India General Service 1895-1902, 3 clasps, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Tirah 1897-98, Waziristan 1901-2 (Captn. F. G. Lucas, 2 Bn. 5th Gurkha Rifles)

(g) India General Service 1908-35, 4 clasps, North West Frontier 1908, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919, Mahsud 1919-20, Waziristan 1919-21 (Major F. G. Lucas, D.S.O., 2 Bn. 5th Gurkha Rifles)

(h) British War and Victory Medals (Brig-Gen. F. G. Lucas)

(i) Delhi Durbar 1903, silver (Bt. Major F. G. Lucas, D.S.O., 2/Bn. 5th Gurkha Rifles)

(j) Delhi Durbar 1911, silver (Lt. Col. F. G. Lucas, D.S.O., 2nd Bn. 5th Gurkha Rifles)

(k) Legion of Honour, Officer’s breast badge, gold and enamels, unless otherwise described, some light contact marks but generally good very fine and better (12) £5000-6000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals.

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Frederic George Lucas, the eldest son of Frederic Lucas, Paymaster, Royal Navy, was born at Falmouth on 20 October 1866, and educated at the Royal Naval School, New Cross, the Royal Academy, Gosport, and the R.M.C., Sandhurst. He was gazetted to the East Lancashire Regiment on 25 August 1886 and to the Indian Staff Corps on 1 August 1888, becoming Captain, Indian Army, on 25 August 1897.

Appointed to the 5th Gurkhas, he served in the Hazara Expedition of 1891 and the Isazai Expedition of 1892. In October 1897 he assembled in command of the Scouts of his regiment as part of the Tirah Expeditionary Force, which was to prove to the Afridis and Orakzais that the British Government could move at will into their territory and control the country. He led the Scouts and was mentioned in despatches for his part in the action of Chagru Kotal (Dargai), and also at the capture of the Sampagha and Arhanga passes, the reconnaissance of Saran Sar, the operations in and around Dwatoi, and the action of 24 November 1897.

On the 26th it was decided to evacuate Tirah and while arrangements were being made for the backloading of all the heavy baggage, an opportunity arose to punish the Chamkannis, a small Orakzai clan overlooking the Kurram Valley, by destroying their principal village of Thabai. A force consisting of some 1,200 men was formed under Colonel Hill and on 1 December moved out towards the Chamkanni Valley, but part of the force meeting with some opposition was so delayed that it was decided to withdraw to Esor. The tribesmen at once began to harass the retirement with the result that the force returned to camp with a casualty list of seven killed and eighteen wounded. Next day a change was made to the composition of the force, so that Hill’s command now comprised part of the 1st Queen’s, 3rd Sikhs, 4th and 5th Gurkhas, and Lucas’ Gurkha Scouts. The Chamkannis had anticipated a second visit and were out in force occupying new sangars run up on several spurs. These were attacked on December 1st, and many were destroyed but before the work could be completed it was time to withdraw to camp. On December 2nd the operations were resumed but, despite Hill having a force at his disposal with which ‘a general might have gone to the word’s end’, the brunt of the day fell upon Lucas and his Scouts - ‘the finest hill soldiers in the world’:

‘Lucas breasted them up an almost precipitous scarp, the steepness of which, with their own adeptness for taking cover, alone saved them from the fire above. So severe was the climb that the men literally had to hand each other up. At the top of this climb Lucas found his eighty men confronted by three spurs, with dips between, each spur sungared and held, and the spot his men were taking cover in under a fire from three sides. In the face of it, it would have been wasting valuable lives to have made a brilliant dash for the first three sungars; so Lucas gave his men breathing time until he saw the head of the leading company of the 5th on his left. Then was his time: half the opposing fire was detached by the arrival of support. Lucas told off half his company to sweep the sungar with a stream of independent fire, whether the enemy were visible or not, and then threw himself in front of forty little black faces and forty gleaming bayonets. The Chamkannis showed more front than has any Yagistan upon this border yet, for they stood up and met the charge with a volley and then bared their knives to receive it. But the covering fire destroyed their composure and their aim. They waited till fifty then thirty yards remained, when their spirits failed them and they raced for the next sungar behind them. Lucas repeated this three times, but they left many dead and wounded behind them, and then when the little scouts had turned or literally driven them over the brow of the hill, they shot them at longer ranges as they streamed along the terraced fields below. It was a magnificent piece of work, and although a dozen of the little hillmen had bullets through their clothes, yet not a man was touched, and twenty to thirty of the tribesmen lay stretched or struggling on the ground ... It is impossible to overpraise the Gurkha scout service or of its officers, Lucas, Bruce, and Tillard. The 5th Gurkha scouts came up ninety-two strong. They have been thirty-six times engaged in the campaign, have killed over their own strength of the enemy, and have lost one man killed and two wounded, and this does not extend to the many nights which they have spent stalking camp prowlers.’

Lucas was awarded the D.S.O. on 28 October 1898, and next served on the North West Frontier in Waziristan in 1901-02, and received a mention in despatches. He became Major on 25 August 1904, and in 1908 served in operations in the Zakka Khel country and was again mentioned in despatches. Promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on 22 October 1911, he was appointed Commandant of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Gurkhas Rifles.

Whilst commanding the 2/5th Gurkhas in Mesopotamia in 1916, he was appointed to the command of the 42nd Infantry Brigade, Indian Expeditionary Force ‘D’, M.E.F., which he retained until March 1919. He was awarded the C.B. in 1918 for services in Mesopotamia, and the C.S.I. in 1919. He commanded the Dardoni Brigade for a short period in 1919, and subsequently the 67th Brigade during the Mahsud operations in Waziristan during 1919-20, for which he was awarded the C.I.E. and mentioned in despatches. He retired as a Brigadier-General in 1921, after commanding the Abbottabad Brigade, and died in the United Kingdom on 5 October 1922.

Refs: The Distinguished Service Order 1886-1923 (Creagh); Who Was Who; Campaigns on The North-West Frontier (Nevill); Indian Frontier War (James); The Tirah Campaign (Woosnam Mills); History of the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force).