Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain W. P. Crookshank, 1/1st King George’s Own Gurkha Rifles, who was killed in action during the battle of Dujaila on 8 March 1916

1914-15 Star (Capt. W. P. Crookshank, 1/1/Gurkha Rfls.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. W. P. Crookshank.); Memorial Plaque (Wilfred Plassy Crookshank); Memorial Scroll (Capt. Wilfred Plassey Crookshank 1st Gurkha Rifles) nearly extremely fine (5) £300-£400

Wilfred Plassey Crookshank was born in 1879, the fourth of the five sons of Colonel A. C. Crookshank, C.B., 34th Pioneers, who was killed in action on the North West Frontier in 1888. Wilfred was educated at Wellington College and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment in 1898. He transferred to the Indian Staff Corps in 1901 and was attached to the 32nd Punjab Pioneers, in which regiment his father had been adjutant. From the 32nd Pioneers, he was appointed to the 1st Gurkha Rifles where he passed the remainder of his service apart from a period when he was D.A.A.G. at Peshawar under General Sir John Dixon.

He was advanced to Captain in 1908, and in 1911 was one of the ten officers selected to represent the 1st Battalion of his regiment at the Coronation Durbar held at Delhi on 7 December 1911, during the State Visit of the newly crowned King George V and Queen Mary.

At the outbreak of war Crookshank was appointed to command the Regimental Deopt at Dharmsala, where he remained until he joined the regiment in Mesopotamia in January 1916, on its arrival there from the Western Front. Captain Crookshank was killed on 8 March 1916, in the attack on the Turkish-held Dujaila Redoubt, in yet another failed attempt to relieve Townshend’s beleaguered force at Kut. He has no known grave and is commemorated by name on the Basra Memorial, Iraq.

Note 1914-15 Star whilst correctly named appears to be in conflict with Chrokshank’s stated record of service and Medal Index Card only confirms British War and Victory Medals. Star possibly issued in error.