Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Chin-Lushai 1889-90 (586 Pte. R. Rawley 1st. Bn. K.O. Sco. Bord.) extremely fine £180-220

Richard Rawley was born in Edinburgh in 1865, and attested there for the King’s Own Borderers on 13 April 1883, under the alias of ‘Michael Rilley’. He arrived with the Regiment in India on 21 March 1885, and served with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers (as the Regiment had become in 1887) in Burma from November 1889 as part of the Expedition under Brigadier-General W. P. Symons in the Chin, Mizo, and Lushai Hills.

Returning to Devonport in 1891, Rawley was discharged upon completion of his original period of engagement, and then re-enlisted in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, Royal Scots, on 29 April 1895. Promoted Corporal on 30 May 1895, and Sergeant on 23 June of that year, he transferred to the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, King’s Own Scottish Borderers on 4 April 1898, and served in South Africa during the Boer War in 1900. (also entitled to a Queen’s South Africa Medal). Disembodied on 16 October 1900, he was discharged at Berwick-upon-Tweed on 12 August 1901, on the grounds of being unfit for further service, the cause of which is recorded in his Chelsea Pension papers thus: ‘Result of military service and climate. Attributed to exposure to cold and wet on active service. Can earn 1/2 a livelihood at light labour for about 5-10 years. After that will totally prevent.’

Sold with copied discharge papers from the Militia, medal roll extract, and other research.