Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The General Service Medal for South Persia awarded to Clerk Salamuddeen, South Persia Rifles

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, S. Persia (Clerk Salamuddeen.) small test cut to reverse, very fine, rare to unit £200-£240

Salamuddeen is recorded upon the UK, Military Campaign Medal and Award Roll, 1793-1949, as serving as 'Clerk, No Unit, M.E.S., attached to the South Persia Rifles, working in the financial Adviser's Officer, Shiraz (substantive), from 6-5-18 A.N. to 12-5-1919 A.N.' Likely a Persian, Baluch or Arab man from the earliest and most loyal recruiting ground of Bandar Abbas, he served as part of a native Middle East secretariat who acted as the intermediaries between the British officer class and the rank and file troops and local tribesmen - with the ability to converse and write in both English and Farsi. The work was particularly specialist and dangerous, involving a constant flow of backhanders to maintain loyalty, often in the face of increasingly successful espionage operations led by Captain Wilhelm Wassmus - a former consul in Shiraz, later compared as the 'German Lawrence of Arabia'. It also risked the wrath of his own tribal leaders who grew increasingly unhappy with Britain's attempts to protect its own interests via a subjugation by stealth.

The South Persia Rifles

Established with the agreement of the Persian Government in August 1916 under the command of Brigadier-General Sir Percy Sykes, the Rifles were initially tasked with challenging the German and Ottoman threat to British interests in the Middle East. This mostly focused upon the Anglo-Persian Oil Company oil fields at Khuzistan, whose output was crucial for the 'new breed' of dreadnought battleships. From a British perspective, the best policy was to 'keep Persia quiet' so that attentions could be targeted elsewhere; the Central Powers however desired the exact opposite by creating disturbances in Persia, Afghanistan and the N.W. Frontier of India, jockeying Persia into a war on their side. By attempting to exploit the weakness and corruption within the Persian Army, Germany hoped to threaten the security of British India, backed by German arms and money:
‘The Germans offered gold, promises of victory and liberation, with the aim of creating a large force in Persia to co-operate with Turkish forces.’ (F. Safiri, The South Persian Rifles, refers). 

In order to gather the most recruits and local influence, the British and Germans were compelled to offer cash; subsidising tribesmen became a means of recruitment, facilitated by intermediaries such as Salamuddeen who knew that the enemy were offering exactly the same thing and had to be outbid for loyalty; many local men joined the Rifles not due to any sentimentality towards the Crown, rather soldiery offered a more reliable livelihood than farming. 

The period from 1917-early 1918 resulted in considerable success for the Rifles; when hostile tribes, enemy agents and bandits attacked the villages of allied tribes and officials, they responded with force, rescuing hostages and retrieving stolen goods and cattle - a type of warfare familiar to the British officers who has previously served on the unruly N.W. Frontier. Yet, the influence of nationalist agitators soon began to undermine the force, notably the garrison mutiny at Abadeh; the British were forced to bring in Indian troops to suppress the mutineers, but not before bribes had been paid by Salamuddeen's office to several tribal leaders.

Despite the threat of the death penalty, desertions became more frequent. In May 1918, the Fars Brigade at Shiraz was reduced to a third of normal strength - with Indian troops of Sir Percy Sykes's bodyguard forming a defensive ring around headquarters, including Salamuddeen's office. On 6 July 1918, fourteen native soldiers of the Rifles were found guilty of taking part in murder and mutiny at Kana Zenya; all were executed by their former comrades in a heavy-handedness which stoked the rebellion by 3,500 Qashqai tribesmen at the gateway to Shiraz. With the men of the Rifles refusing to fight against fellow countrymen and with the gold sovereign reserves all 'spent', Sykes was forced to leave Persia; it fell to Dunsterforce and Indian units to fill the security vacuum and protect the oil fields. In 1921, the Treasury and India Office finally agreed to cease the funding of £100,000 per week to the South Persia Rifles and they were disbanded at Shiraz. According to Winston Churchill at the time: ‘Fancy spending the whole cost of a British Territorial Army on a weak and futile interference in the affairs of Persia!’

Salamuddeen survived the campaign and ongoing tribal conflicts and is named upon the medal roll taken at Mhow on 11 February 1929, one of an extremely small band of eligible loyalists who served in the South Persia Rifles during their 5 years of operation. According to the recipient's MIC, he was not awarded any medals for the Great War.