Four: Lieutenant-Colonel O. H. Eliot, Kashmir Rifles, who served in East Africa with the Punjab Volunteer Maxim Gun Company and was three times Mentioned in Despatches; he later served as District Superintendent of Police, Central Provinces

1914-15 Star (2/Lt. O. H. Eliot, I.A.R.O. Attd. Vol. Max. Gun Co.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. O. H. Eliot.); Volunteer Force Long Service Medal, G.V.R. (Voltr. O. H. Eliot. Nagpur Voltr. Rfls.) stain to obverse of VM otherwise good very fine (4) £240-£280

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

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Osmond Herbert Eliot was born in India in 1879 and held ministerial and non-gazetted appointments between 12 December 1898 and 3 February 1920. An officer of the Indian Police, he was also a Private in the Nagpur Volunteers when the Great War began. Commissioned on 8 November 1915 into the Punjab Volunteer Maxim Gun Company, he served with them in East Africa before being appointed to the 3rd Kashmir Rifles and was Mentioned in Despatches by General Smuts (London Gazette 8 February 1917). He was Mentioned in Despatches again for East Africa (London Gazette 7 March 1918) and by General Allenby (London Gazette 5 June 1919) for services with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force as Temporary Captain, Special Service Officer, 1st Kashmir Imperial Service Infantry. He was advanced acting Major, Second in Command, 1st Kashmir Rifles on 26 September 1918, and by the War’s end had reached the rank of temporary Lieutenant-Colonel, Kashmir Infantry.

Eliot was appointed Assistant District Superintendent of Police, Central Provinces, on probation in March 1920 and confirmed as such in October 1921. He was promoted District Superintendent in February 1926, and retired in September 1927. He died in September 1941 at the Hill Station of Kurseong, near Darjeeling, and is buried in the local cemetery.

Sold with copied research.


The Punjab Volunteer Maxim Gun Company

Authority was given to form this unit on 12 September 1914 with the headquarters of the Bombay Volunteers being chosen to be the assembly point. Like the Volunteer Artillery Battery which served with distinction in Mesopotamia (and in the siege of Kut), the Punjab Volunteer Maxim Battery was raised from various volunteer units in India. Volunteers arrived from the Bangalore Rifle Volunteers and the Bombay, Lucknow, Mussoorie and Nagpur Volunteer Rifles. This small company (approx. 120 men) served with great distinction in East Africa from 1914 onwards and saw some severe service.

The ‘Battery’ left India for Mombassa, East Africa on 20 September 1914 and received two successive drafts of reinforcements from the Punjab during the course of the war. They initially came into action after landing from lighters on the coast near Gazi where German field companies were still probing through the plantations following their move up the coastline from Tanga in German East Africa to attack Mombasa. The Germans often proved elusive but were not the only enemy on the insect-ridden coastline and by November half the company were sick with fever with medical evacuations in March 1915 requiring a replacement draft from the Cawnpore Rifle Volunteers.

Meanwhile to the North, Nos. 3 and 4 Sections had been involved in a serious fight across the border as the British mounted an attack on the German garrison at Longido Mountain on 3 November 1914. This attack failed, as did the landings at Tanga, but two men from the Indian Maxim Volunteer Company were later awarded the D.C.M. with identical citations.
During 1915 the company supported operations in the Lake Victoria and Kilimanjaro areas and manned their Maxims as train guards on the Uganda Railway which was being targeted by demolition parties. Meanwhile, reinforcing drafts of Volunteers continued from India.

The Indian Volunteers were engaged many times in German East Africa in 1916. Notably in February during the abortive attack on Salaita Hill, in March at the attack on Latema and at Kondoa Irangi in June. In November 1916, thirty seven Volunteers were sent from India but personal equipments in the Company were now of differing patterns and clothing, which had not been re-supplied, was ragged and deficient while machine-gun equipment could not be obtained. Their final operation, ordered by General Smuts, was an attack on a German unit on the Munganga Plateau. As usual on South African-led operations, although long range contact was made, the envelopment plan appeared to be allowed to fail. A decisive battle was not forced and the Germans withdrew successfully. Disease and death by lightning strikes continued to thin their ranks and in February 1917 the company was instructed to return to Dar es Salaam. Having made the treacherous journey through flooded swampland they arrived on 18 March 1917, handed in their guns and equipment and the surviving volunteers embarked for India.

Medals to this unit are seen in a range of titles. It was known variously as the Punjab Volunteer Maxim Battery, the Punjab Volunteer Machine Gun Company, the Indian Volunteer Maxim Gun Corps and the Indian Volunteer Maxim Gun Company.