WW1 Allied Victory Medal, British Issue - 1st Battalion / 10th Gurkha Rifles - Rai

Medal looks to have been skimmed and renamed, but what remains looks original impressed lettering but heavily polished including the regimental number has been polished away, looks like 5888 but cannot be certain. The rest is legible and is "....RFMN. Garbuit Rai, 1/10 G.R." Short length of original ribbon in as found condition. A very poor example numismatically but a scarce medal name to a Gurkha. Sold as seen.

The 1st Battalion remained in Burma providing reinforcements and replacements to the 2nd Battalion which was on active service until 1916. At least five drafts were supplied. The third draft was sunk at sea by an Austrian submarine in the Aegean Sea with the loss of 187 men.

On 15 August 1916 the 1st Battalion embarked from Rangoon for the Middle East after a farewell ceremony given by the Governor of Burma. Both battalions of the regiment fought in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) from 1916, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of the Germans. The Mesopotamian campaign had started in 1914. Much of the regiment's involvement in the war was relatively quiet but it did take part in a number of engagements including the offensive against Baghdad in 1917 and the last battle of the Mesopotamian campaign in late October 1918, Sharqat.

The 1st Battalion remained in Mesopotamia upon the conclusion of the war. It saw service during the revolt of Southern Kurdistan in 1919 and the rest of Iraq. Elsewhere, the 2nd Battalion took part in the Third Afghan War in 1919 and in operations in the North-West Frontier.

Please note I will only post medals to a UK address.

Comm EdBr

Code: 67695