Offered is a First World War set of medals as awarded to Lt. Colonel J. K. Douglas, who served in the Royal Engineers in Aden & Mesopotamia.
Medals include the following awards: 1914/15 Star, impressed named LIEUT. J. K. DOUGLAS. R.E.; War Medal & Victory Medals, impressed named MAJOR. J. K. DOUGLAS.
Lieutenant Colonel James Keith Douglas was born 28/5/1891 in Calcutta, India. Christened St James, Hampstead, London. Fathers occupation Auditor East India Railway. Calcutta. Note in the day it was common for parents to return to England for the birth for several reasons: family, health and most importantly to have England recorded on the birth certificate. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 23 December 1910, from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and served during the Great War with the 3rd Sappers and Miners, showing service in Aden from 4/8/1914. He saw further service in the Aden Field Force October 1917 to August 1918, then in Mesopotamia until end of October 1918.
The British Army Lists record him as: 1912 2nd Lieutenant. 1915 & 1916 Lieutenant. 1917 Captain, Major 1918 & reverting again to Captain in 1922. Cited in the ‘The Scotsman’ newspaper Tuesday 17th August 1937 as Lt. Colonel, stationed in Karachi.
His medal index card list his rank as Lieutenant with the 3rd Sappers and Miners with the theatre as Aden on the 4/8/1914 and Major with the Works Depot RE.
The correspondence covers Advanced Section Baghdad and Basra dating from 1919.
In the 1903 reorganisation of the Indian Army, the Corps was renamed in the newly unified Indian Army as the 3rd Sappers & Miners.The Bombay Sappers expanded greatly during the 'Great War' to meet a large number of Indian engineer troops required by the Empire. The Bombay Sappers fought against the Germans and the Turks in Europe, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Aden, Persia, East Africa and also in Afghanistan, Baluchistan and the North West Frontier Province, winning as many as 29 battle and theatre honours. The very large losses of 20 and 21 Field Companies in Europe in 1914–15 led to the Malerkotla Sappers & Miners joining the Corps where they remained affiliated till 1945 when all state forces sapper companies were transferred to the Bengal Sappers ostensibly on grounds of administrative convenience. In recognition of the prodigious contribution of the Bombay Sappers in World War I, the title 'Royal' was bestowed on the Corps in 1921 and they became the 3rd Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners. The numeral 3rd was removed in 1923 and the Corps became the Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners and were so-called right until the end of World War II.
