Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Mohmand 1933 operations O.B.E. group of six awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel R. S. Dalby, Royal Engineers: he was also awarded a “mention” for the same campaign, in addition to similar distinctions for operations on the N.W.F. in 1937 and in Waziristan in 1940

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, hallmarks for London 1917; India General Service 1908-35, 2 clasps, North West Frontier 1930-31, Mohmand 1933, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut., R.E.); India General Service 1936-39, 2 clasps, North West Frontier 1936-37, North West Frontier 1937-39, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt., O.B.E., R.E.); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; India Service Medal 1939-45, good very fine or better (6) £600-800

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 July 1934: ‘For valuable services rendered in the Field in connection with military operations against the Upper Mohmands in the period July to October 1933.’

Mention in despatches London Gazette 3 July 1934 (Mohmand), 18 February 1938 (North West Frontier) and 20 June 1941 (Waziristan).

Robert Skaife Dalby, who was born in July 1900, attended the R.M.A. Woolwich and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in July 1920. Having been advanced to Lieutenant in July 1922, Dalby was posted to India, where he served on attachment to King George’s Own Sappers and Miners before taking up a succession of appointments in the Military Engineer Establishment, appointments that took him to Ranikhet, Peshawar, Nowshera and Landi Kotal, and it was while employed at the last named place that he served in the North West Frontier operations of 1930-31.

Advanced to Captain in July 1931, Dalby’s next appointment - as A.C.R.E. attached to the Staff of Peshawar District - led to his employment in the Upper Mohmand operations of 1933, and to the award of his O.B.E., in addition to his first “mention”, which was gazetted on the same date. Back home on leave for much of 1936, he returned to India in time to participate in the North West Frontier operations of the following year, when he served as a Staff Officer on the “Wazirforce” and was again mentioned in despatches. In August 1938 Dalby was promoted to Major and attached to the Staff of Waziristan District, thereby ensuring his subsequent participation in further operations on the North West Frontier.

Employed in India throughout the 1939-45 War, he won his third and final “mention” for the Waziristan operations of 1940 and was afterwards employed as a Staff Officer (1st Grade) at the H.Q. of the Army in India, onetime holding the ranks of Temporary and Acting Colonel. Returning home as a result of ill-health after the end of hostilities, Dalby died, aged 47 years, at the Connaught Military Hospital at Hindhead, Surrey in March 1948. He was buried in the Military Cemetery, Aldershot.