Indian General Service Medal 1908-1935, with bar for Waziristan 1919-21, awarded to Pvt. F. J. Connolly, 1922Image["Indian General Service Medal, 1911-1935"]
Obverse, a portrait of King George V in robesImage["Indian General Service Medal, 1911-1935"]
Reverse, Jamrud fort overlooking Khyber Pass with mountains behind
Indian General Service Medal, 1921
India Medal of 1895 having needed alteration for its last issues due to the death of Queen Victoria, in 1908 it was decided to replace it entirely with a
new medal of Edward VII, which was first issued in 1909. When the first issue was made under King George V, in 1911, Richard Garbe designed a new obverse but the medal was otherwise unaltered.
The ignominious defeat of Afghan forces in the Third Anglo-Afghan War left considerable dissatisfaction among the border tribesmen, resulting in persistent raiding. Various British punitive expeditions were mounted in retaliation into what was by then independent Waziristan (which spent part of 2006 again partly independent , in defiance of Pakistani claims) over the years 1919-1921, against the Tochi and Wana Wazir tribes.
This medal was awarded to Private F. J. Connolly of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers for participation in one such expedition. It was one of the last pieces acquired by Lester Watson, purchased from the London dealers Baldwin in 1936.