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

The Durand Medal for 1924 awarded to Subadar-Major Ishar Singh, Bengal Sappers and Miners

Durand Medal, bronze, 64mm., obverse bust of Major General Sir H. M. Durand, K.C.S.I., C.B., R.E.; reverse the towers and walls of the fort at Ghuznee, named on the edge (Subadar-Major Ishar Singh, I.D.S.M., K.G.O. Bengal Sappers & Miners 1924) with large ring for suspension, contained in its original fitted presentation case, suspension ring a little out of shape, otherwise good very fine and scarce £500-600

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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The Durand Medal was an annual award to an Indian officer, V.C.O. or Sapper of the Indian Sappers and Miners who had distinguished himself as a soldier and a sapper by good and efficient service. The prize originated in 1876, when a fund was raised by Royal Engineer officers at home and in India to commemorate the memory of Major-General Sir Henry Durand, K.C.S.I., C.B., of the Bengal Engineers. The design on the medal commemorates one of the first acts of his military career when he blew in the Cabul gate of the Ghazni fort in 1839. The Trust Fund is controlled by the Institution of Royal Engineers and since partition the medal has been awarded on the basis of two years to the Indian Engineers to one year to the Royal Pakistan Engineers, on the advice of their respective Engineers-in-Chief.

It would appear that Ishar Singh’s medal has been named in error with the post-nominal ‘I.D.S.M.’ for he never received such an award. There was in the regiment, however, a more junior man by the name of ‘Isher Singh’, who became Subadar in May 1923, and received the I.D.S.M. for Mesopotamia as a colour havildar in August 1917.

The Subadar-Major entered the Indian Army on 28 January 1896, and was first commissioned on 1 July 1913. In August 1915 he was appointed ‘Indian Adjutant’, and was advanced to Subadar in July 1917. He appears to have been appointed Subadar-Major sometime during 1922-23 and to have retired, or died, sometime before the end of 1924. His war services are consistently summarised as simply “Tochi F.F. 1897-98” in all the Indian Army List Supplements up to January 1924.

Ref: Indian Army Lists.