Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War ‘Middle East’ theatre Immediate I.D.S.M. awarded to Lance-Naik Qabal Singh, 1st Jammu and Kashmir Mountain Battery, Indian State Forces

Indian Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (62 L-Naik Qabal Singh. 1 J. & K. Mtn. Bty. I.S.F.) good very fine and rare £500-£700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Simon C. Marriage Collection of Medals to the Artillery.

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I.D.S.M. London Gazette 18 July 1941: ‘For gallant and distinguished service in the Middle East.’ One of only four such awards to the Jammu and Kashmir state forces, two each to the J&K Infantry and Mountain Battery.

Qabal/Qabala Singh was a Hindu Rajput from the village of Ghura Ghathian, Samba, Jammu. The recommendation for the Immediate award of the I.D.S.M. states:

‘On the 30th Mar 1941 during the battle west of AD TECELESAN enemy started heavy shelling at a corner of the road, and shelled it continuously and heavily for some hours. Our telephone line between O.P. and the Bty position passed through this corner and was broken on account of this shelling, while a shooting was being conducted. The visual was working but the lamp at the Bty position attracted enemy shelling. Laying of a new line was started but shooting could not be stopped until it was laid. The line was therefore to be mended at all costs.
Sig. L/Nk. Qabala Singh and Signaller Shambhu Nath were sent from the O.P. and Sig. Nur Mohd from the Bty position to repair the line.
On reaching the spot they found some trucks damaged and some drivers killed on account of shelling which was still going on as heavily as ever. All this did not deter them, and they repaired the line, and and enabled the shelling to be conducted without much delay. Sig. L/Nk. Qabala Singh was the first from the O.P. and Nur Mohd from the Bty position to reach the spot & mend the wire. Sig. Shambhu Nath also assisted them while they were mending the wire, a shell landed so close to them that one of their telephones (D-III) was actually buried under the earth raised by the shell and a small splinter was later extracted from the D-III itself.’