DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER.
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS.
A medal without bar was given to the following regiments: 12th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 25th, 31st, 53rd, 63rd; 6th Dragoon Guards; 8th and 15th Hussars. A number of men of the 65th were engaged as signallers, and took part in several of the actions.
The Afghan Medal.—With the Afghan medal, which was granted on March 19th, 1881, were issued six bars for ALI MUSJID, PEIWAR KOTAL, CHARASIA, AHMED KHEL, KABUL, and KANDAHAR. The medal bears on the obverse a crowned head of Queen Victoria, which is not truncated like her effigies on the other medals, but the shoulders are couped by the bevel of the medal, which is 1⅖ in. in diameter. The bust is surrounded by the legend VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX. This obverse is the fourth of the series facing page [188]. On the reverse a column of Anglo-Indian soldiery is depicted on the march; an officer leads the way, accompanied by an infantrymen; an elephant bearing a mounted gun on its back makes the central feature, with native cavalry to fill up the foreground of a picture which has a fortress-capped mountain for background. AFGHANISTAN is impressed above in raised letters, and the date 1878-9-80 in the exergue. The names of the British recipients were engraved in rather squat Roman capitals, but the medals given to native troops were generally engraved in slanting writing letters. The suspenders to this medal are straight, like the General Service medals, the bars rather broad with square ends; the ribbon, 1¼ in. wide, is green with broad dark-red edges.
Star for Kabul-Kandahar, 1880.—Her Majesty also bestowed a bronze decoration on the troops who accompanied Major-General Sir Frederick Roberts on his 318-mile march from Kabul to Kandahar. It was subsequently granted to the troops which then composed the garrison of Kelat-i-Ghilzie, and who accompanied the force from that place to Kandahar. The decoration is a five-pointed radiated star, with small balls between the inner angles, and was made from the bronze guns taken at the battle of Kandahar on September 1st. In the centre is the Imperial monogram V.R.I., encircled by a band, with raised border inscribed KABUL TO KANDAHAR, having 1880 below with a twig of laurel on either side. At the top is the Imperial crown, from which is a ring for suspension. The reverse is plain with a hollow centre, round the edge of which the name and regiment of the British recipient are indented in skeleton block letters. But those given to the native troops were generally engraved in a sloping script, as on the India 1895 medal, and occasionally in block capitals. The ribbon, 1½ in. wide, is of the rainbow pattern, but unwatered.
THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGNS
In 1882, owing to the rebellion of Arabi Pasha, British troops and ships were sent to Egypt. The bombardment of Alexandria took place on July 11th, followed by the decisive battle of Tel-el-Kebir, on September 13th. During this campaign the famous midnight charge of the heavy brigade at Kassasin took place. The British army of about 11,000 infantry, seamen, and marines, 2,000 cavalry, with 60 guns, marched on Tel-el-Kebir, under Sir Garnet Wolseley, who finding the rebel entrenchments reaching at least 4 miles from the canal out into the desert, and that his force would have to attack without a scrap of cover, decided to make a night march from Kassasin to get within charging distance of the enemy's position. The march was directed by Lieutenant Rawson, R.N., who steered by the stars, and the "monotonous tramp, the sombre lines, the dimly discerned sea of desert faintly lighted by the stars, were at once ghostly and impressive." When about 300 yards from the enemy's trenches the Highland Brigade, just before daybreak, rushed forward, and with a cheer went over the trenches, where after a stubborn resistance of about half an hour the rebels fled in confusion towards Zagazig, and the capture of Arabi at Cairo concluded the war. Nine British officers and 48 men were killed, 27 officers and 385 men wounded or missing. For his brilliant conduct of the war Sir Garnet Wolseley was raised to the peerage.