Victorian Pair. 2 clasp 1896 India General Service Medal with Queens South Africa Medal.

1896 IGSM correctly named 4923 Pte A Riddle 2nd Bn KO Sco Bord

QSA correctly named 4925 Pte A Riddle Scottish Bord

Please note the slight number error with the medals.

The IGS has the clasps Tirah 1897-98 and Punjab Frontier 1897-98.

The QSA has the clasps South Africa 1902 and Transvaal.

Andrew was born in Old Monkland, Lanark in 1876.

He enlisted into the Kings Own Scottish Borderers in 1894 when in civilian life he was working as a labourer.

He served in South Africa from 1902 until 1906 and his discharge.

His papers survive and confirm the award of both medals and clasps.

The Tirah Campaign, often referred to in contemporary British accounts as the Tirah Expedition, was an Indian frontier campaign from September 1897 to April 1898. Tirah is a mountainous tract of country in what was formerly known as Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Afridi tribe had received a subsidy from the government of British India for the safeguarding of the Khyber Pass for sixteen years; in addition to which the government had maintained for this purpose a local regiment entirely composed of Afridis, who were stationed in the pass. Suddenly, however, the tribesmen rose, captured all the posts in the Khyber held by their own countrymen, and attacked the forts on the Samana Range near the city of Peshawar. The Battle of Saragarhi occurred at this stage. It was estimated that the Afridis and Orakzais could, if united, bring from 40,000 to 50,000 men into the field. The preparations for the expedition occupied some time, and meanwhile British authorities first dealt with the Mohmand rising northwest of the Khyber Pass.