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Auction: 17003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 441

A scarce India General Service Medal awarded to Captain R. G. Macdonald, Simla Rifles

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Burma 1885-7 (Capt. R. G. Macdonald. 2nd Punjab Vol. Rifles), edge bruising, otherwise good very fine

Robert Graham Macdonald was born in 1844 and served in the Public Works Department of India from 1863, rising to be the Examiner of Railway Accounts and Assistant Accountant General of Calcutta, prior to his services the in Third Burmese War with the 2nd Punjab Volunteer Rifle Corps (Simla Rifles) (Medal & clasp).

Macdonald remained in Simla and was appointed President of the Public Accounts Committee in October 1888. He later acted as a lecturer at the Royal Indian Engineering College (The India List, 1902, refers), as President of the Railway Accounts Committee, 1890 and as Accountant General and Deputy Secretary of India, 1893. Macdonald retired to England in 1897 and died, aged 60 at The Crescent, Plymouth on 13 November 1904, aged 60 (London Evening Standard, 14 November 1904, refers.

Raised in 1861, the Simla Rifles attracted some notable 'India hands' to its ranks, among Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, famous 'Peace-maker' and 'Boundary-maker' who plotted the Durand Line. He also established the Durand Cup, India's oldest football competition, which was established at Simla following the Burma campaign in 1888. Somewhat fittingly, the unit's team qualified for the finals in the following year; sold with copied research and newspaper entries.


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Sold for
£280