Eight: Lieutenant R. L. Herbert, 61st Pioneers, late Punjab Volunteer Maxim Gun Company

1914-15 Star (No. 3677 Sergt. R. L. Herbert. Vol. M. G. Coy.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. R. L. Herbert.); War Medal 1939-45; India Service Medal 1939-45; Jubilee 1935, unnamed as issued; Volunteer Force Long Service Medal, G.V.R. (Pte. R. L. Herbert. Cawnpore, A.F.I.); Efficiency Medal, G.V.R., India (Sjt. R. L. Herbert. Cawnpore Rif., A.F.I.) rank officially corrected on last; very fine and better (8) £300-£400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Peter Duckers.

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Reginald Lloyd Herbert was born in 1891 at Bombay, India, the son of Thomas Auburton Herbert of the 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers. The family returned from India in 1898 and was resident at Canterbury Barracks in 1901. Reginald Lloyd Herbert is next recorded in 1915 as being employed as an office assistant at Woollen Mills Company Ltd., Cawnpore.

During the Great War Herbert served as a Sergeant in the Volunteer Maxim Gun Company (later in the war also known as the Volunteer Machine Gun Company), a unit which served with distinction in East Africa having been drawn from the ranks of the various Indian Volunteer Regiments. The War Diary for the Volunteer Machine Gun Company notes the arrival of a detachment from the Cawnpore Volunteer Rifles at Nairobi on 28 May 1915. This comprised one sergeant, one corporal and five other ranks who were posted to No. 2 Section. An appendix identifies R. L. Herbert as the Sergeant with the party.

During the action at Salaita Hill on 12 February 1916, the War Diary notes that:
‘During this retirement fire from the right flank increased considerably and Sergeant J. Sinclair was mortally wounded and was carried back by Lieutenant Agerup and Sergeant Herbert’.

Commissioned into the Indian Army Reserve of Officers on 28 February 1916, Herbert was attached to the 61st Pioneers and promoted to Lieutenant on 28 February 1917. The Indian Army List of July 1919 records Herbert as Acting Captain, 1-61st Pioneers. The 61st served in East Africa in the Great War.

After the War Herbert returned to Cawnpore and is recorded as being initiated as a member of Cawnpore Lodge in 1920. Some years later his 1935 Jubilee Medal was issued to him as a Sergeant in the Cawnpore Rifles (Auxiliary Force). After the renewal of hostilities, he was called up for military service in 1940 and, having been commissioned in 1941, he served as a Captain in the Cawnpore Volunteer Rifles.

Sold with the recipient’s original call up document for military service in 1940, addressed to Herbert as a Sergeant in the Cawnpore Volunteer Rifles; a letter in response to his application for a commission in 1941, requesting medical, and other, certificates; and various copied research.