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Auction: 22003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 290

(x) Pair: Acting Sergeant N. Hinchcliffe, Royal Welch Fusiliers, who served with Dunsterforce and McCarthy's Irregulars

British War and Victory Medals (49088 A. Sjt. N. Hinchcliffe. R. W. Fus.), good very fine (2)

Norman Hinchcliffe served initially with the 8th Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers as part of the Infantry Base Depot. He was subsequently deployed to join the famous Column of Dunsterforce.

Under the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention, Russia's sphere of influence extended across the north of Iran from Tabriz to Neyshabur. Russian armies in the region collapsed in the aftermath of the Revolution, leaving a power vacuum into which swept the Ottoman Empire. Turkish forces, with German officers, advanced towards the Caspian Sea in January 1918.

Britain rapidly assembled a task force under General Lionel Dunsterville at Basra on 4 March. Known as 'Dunsterforce', it comprised just 350 officers and N.C.O.s drawn from Australian, New Zealand, British and Canadian forces in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Hinchcliffe probably joined Dunsterforce at Baghdad that April.

In early July an Ottoman army captured Urmia in north-west Iran, displacing 80,000 Assyrians. Dunsterforce managed to turn back the Ottoman pursuit, forming a combined infantry and cavalry brigade from Assyrian volunteers. When a 14,000-strong Ottoman force surrounded the Russian port of Baku on the Caspian Sea on 29 July, its Bolshevik garrison fled in panic. Dunsterforce rushed to the port's defence, covering the 220 miles from Hamadan to Baku in 500 Ford armoured cars. The Allies were desperate to prevent their war matériel falling into enemy hands.

Every spare man in Dunsterforce was engaged in training the Armenians and Russians at Baku; this scratch force had to defend an 18-mile perimeter across the Baku peninsula. They were present at the Battle of Baku from 26 August-14 September. When the Ottomans moved against Dirty Volcano, a strongpoint on the perimeter, British Empire troops repulsed their attacks four times while the local troops melted away. A Canadian Captain commanding an Armenian brigade suddenly found himself fighting alone. The crew of a Bolshevik ship informed Dunsterville:

'We have witnessed with intense admiration the heroic conduct of your brave British soldiers in the defence of Baku. We have seen them suffering wounds and death bravely in defence of our town, which our own people were too feeble to defend.'

By 12 September the Ottomans were able to bombard the port with observed artillery-fire, and Dunsterforce was evacuated during the night of 14-15 September in two ships. The Ottoman bombardment continued throughout the night, and by dawn around 6,000 Armenian civilians had been killed. Dunsterforce regrouped at Bandar-e Anzali in Iran on 18 October.

Following Allied victories at Dobro Pole near Salonika on 18 September, and at Megiddo in Palestine on 25 September, Turkish forces in Iran were compelled to withdraw and protect their homeland. Dunsterforce then took on a humanitarian role, delivering supplies to famine-affected areas and resettling displaced populations. Major-General W. M. Thomson succeeded Dunsterville on 17 September; the force was renamed 'Norperforce' after its operational area, North Persia. Norperforce, assisted by the White Russian Bicherakov Cossacks, re-entered Baku on 17 November. By then, the Ottoman Empire had already surrendered. Sir William Raine Marshall's victory over the Turkish 6th Army at the Battle of Sharqat, near Mosul, led to the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October.

The Medal Roll also notes Hinchcliffe as being attached as a member of the 1st McCarthy's Irregulars. Another activity in the region in this period was the recruiting and training of local levies and bands of irregulars; theoretically, the levies would be able to guard vulnerable points anywhere whilst the irregulars would defend their own villages. Major J. J. McCarthy D.S.O., M.C., of the Northern Rhodesian Police was a leading figure in this activity.

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Sold for
£250

Starting price
£230