Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The mounted group of four dress miniature medals worn by Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. Williams, Indian Army, who was killed in action in Malaya in January 1942
British War Medal 1914-20; India General Service 1908-35, 4 clasps, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919, Waziristan 1919-21, Waziristan 1921-24, North West Frontier 1930-31; India General Service 1936-39, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1936-37; Jubilee 1935, mounted as worn, together with assorted regimental badges and buttons and the recipient’s Book of Common Prayer, the inside ink inscription, ‘J. Whittaker Williams, ‘F’ Coy., R.M.C., 1st May 1917’, the first two somewhat polished, otherwise generally very fine (Lot) £180-220

John Whittaker Williams, who was born in November 1899, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in August 1918 and joined the Indian Army in January 1919, and quickly witnessed active service with the Burma Rifles in the Third Afghan War, so, too, in the Waziristan operations of 1919-24.

Having then been present in the operations on the North West Frontier in 1930-31, he was again employed in that theatre of war as a Major and Company Commander in the 2nd Battalion, 9th Jat Regiment in 1936-37, and was serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel and C.O. of the 4th Battalion at the outbreak of the 1939-45 War. And it was in this latter capacity that he was killed in action in Malaya on 19 January 1942. He is buried in the Kranji War cemetery, Singapore.