LIEUTENANT (LATER COLONEL) H.W.E. GEORGES, 3RD MADRAS LIGHT CAVALRY (WHICH REGIMENT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY SUCCESSIVELY RE-TITLED 3RD MADRAS LANCERS, 28TH LIGHT CAVALRY AND 7TH LIGHT CAVALRY). India General Service Medal 1854, 2 clasps, Burma 1885-7

LIEUTENANT (LATER COLONEL) H.W.E. GEORGES, 3RD MADRAS LIGHT CAVALRY (WHICH REGIMENT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY SUCCESSIVELY RE-TITLED 3RD MADRAS LANCERS, 28TH LIGHT CAVALRY AND 7TH LIGHT CAVALRY). India General Service Medal 1854, 2 clasps, Burma 1885-7, Burma 1887-89 (officially engraved in running script: Lieutt. H.W.E. Georges 3d. Madras Lt. Cavy.). Minor planchett flaw to obverse rim at 5 o’clock, otherwise Good Very Fine to Almost Extremely Fine.

Scarce to regiment. Only one troop of the 3rd Madras Light Cavalry saw service during the operations in Upper Burma, 1885-7 and 1887-89.

Henry Wallace Edgcome Georges (1856-1938) was born in India on 1/9/1856, the son of Theodore and Mary Georges. He was first commissioned, 2nd Lieutenant, 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment (the post 1880 1st and 2nd Battalions, The Norfolk Regiment) 26/2/1876. Georges transferred to the Indian Army (Madras Staff Corps) 20/7/1877 and was promoted Lieutenant and posted for service with the 3rd Madras Light Cavalry 1/7/1882 (appointed Officiating Squadron Commander, 15/2/1883), Captain and Squadron Commander, 3rd Madras Light Cavalry, 25/9/1888, Temporary Major and Squadron Commander, 3rd Madras Lancers, 11/7/1890 (appointed second in command of the regiment, 11/8/1893), Major, 26/2/1898 (Major and Commandant, 3rd Madras Lancers, 11/8/1899), Lieutenant Colonel, commanding 28th Light Cavalry, 11/8/1900, Brevet Colonel, 26/2/1907 and retired on 12/4/1919.

Georges is recorded in the 1910 Indian Army Lists as being resident outside of India. The 1911 census return records him as an army Colonel then resident at a hotel in Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Colonel Georges died in Gloucestershire on 28/4/1938, aged 81, and left a considerable estate, valued at just over £4,000.

Only one troop (4 officers and approximately 40 men, commanded by Captain Lawford), “F” Troop of the 3rd Madras Light Cavalry saw service in Burma during the campaigns of 1885-7 and 1887-89. That troop, together with a troop from the 4th Madras Light cavalry, and a troop from the 1st Madras Lancers, saw service together as a composite squadron in Burma. That composite squadron, which was commanded in the field by the then Lieutenant Georges, saw extensive service during the campaigns in Upper Burma of 1885-7 and 1888-89, taking part in numerous advance and rear-guard patrols, as well as being extensively engaged in pursuing parties and columns of dacoit bandits. Georges, as a result, became one of the most actively engaged cavalry officers during those two campaigns and is mentioned on numerous occasions in the “Diary of the Services of the 1st Madras Lancers, and a Troop Each of the 3rd and 4th Madras Cavalry attached during the Operations in Upper Burma, 1886-87 and 1887-88” (“F” Troop of the 3rd Madras Light Cavalry saw service in Burma for only part of both the 1885-7 and 1887-9 campaigns, embarking from India for Burma on 21/9/1886 and receiving orders to return to India on 27/12/1888).

Officers and men of the 3rd Light Cavalry were often heavily outnumbered by the bands of dacoits that they encountered. On one occasion, early on in the campaign of 1885-7, a detachment of men under Captain Lawford had to contend with a body of 1,000 dacoits formed into three columns, many of the dacoits armed with, in addition to swords (dahs), heavy muskets (jingals). That force was supported in its operations against Captain Lawford and his detachment of men by two elephants.

A recent reprint of the “Diary of the Services of the 1st Madras Lancers, and a Troop Each of the 3rd and 4th Madras Cavalry attached during the Operations in Upper Burma, 1886-87 and 1887-88” accompanies the medal.

Army Lists of the period confirm Georges as having seen service in Burma, 1886-87 with the 6th Brigade (awarded medal and two clasps), and that Georges had previously seen active service during the Rumpa rebellion of 1879-80, including operations in the Rumpa and Golkonda Hills (no campaign medal awarded for that campaign).

This medal was at one time detached from its suspension and clasps. It has now been restored using genuine original suspender and clasps.

The IGS medal with 2 clasps was Colonel Georges’s sole medal entitlement.