The Late Bruce C Cazel Collection of British Campaign Awards

Six: Honorary Lieutenant Herbert Richard Selby, Indian Ordnance Department, murdered by rioters at Kasur in the Punjab, 12 April 1919

Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1902-04 (Store Sjt., I.O.D.); 1914-15 Star (Condr., I.O.D.); British War and Victory Medals (Condr.); Indian Army Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (Condr., I.O.D.); Army L.S. & G.C. G.V.R., 1st issue (Sub-Conductor, Indian Ordce. Dpt.) mounted for display, good very fine, rare (6)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Late Bruce C Cazel Collection of British Campaign Awards.

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Herbert Richard Selby was born in the Parish of Stepney, London, on 21 March 1871. A Clerk by occupation and member of the 4th (Militia) Battalion Middlesex Regiment, he attested for the Middlesex Regiment at Hounslow, on 21 March 1893, aged 22 years. With the 1st Battalion he served in Gibraltar, October 1893-February 1895 and South Africa, April 1896-April 1898, after which he was posted to India. He was promoted to Corporal in April 1895; Sergeant in April 1898 and Staff Orderly Room Clerk in July 1900. In February 1908 he was promoted to Sub-Conductor in the Indian Ordnance Department, being advanced to Conductor in June 1912, having been awarded the Army Long Service Medal in 1911. During the Great War, Selby served with the Indian Forces in the East African Campaign. For his services he was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 30 June 1916 & 28 January 1919) and was awarded the Indian Meritorious Service Medal (London Gazette 12 March 1918/The Gazette of India 24 May 1918). A rare award of the Indian Army M.S.M. to a European. He was specially promoted to Assistant Commissary and Honorary Lieutenant on 1 January 1919. Lieutenant Selby was murdered by rioters at Kasur Station on 12 April 1919, aged 48 years. His name is commemorated on the Kirkee 1914-1918 Memorial. He was the son of Mr and Mrs Richard Selby and husband of Susannah Elizabeth Selby, of 27 Quentin Road, Lee, London.

He was killed in the Punjab riots of 1919 when rioters in Kasur, a town in the Lahore District of the Punjab, attacked and looted the railway station and damaged the signalling and telegraphic equipment. Three trains were held up by the distant signals on the approach to the station, and it was to one of these, the Ferozepore train, that the crowd, in a thoroughly violent mood, made its way. The train contained several Europeans, amongst whom was Lieutenant Selby. The engine driver, inexplicably, drove his train to the station despite the endeavours of Captain Limby, R.E., and Lieutenant Munro, Loyals, to persuade him to pull away from it. Stopping at the station, the Europeans on board found themselves in the greatest danger. Mr and Mrs Sherbourn and their three small children were helped by Corporals Battson and Gringham of the Queen’s Regiment and Mr Khair Din, Inspector of Railway Accounts, to a nearby gateman’s hut. There the party was attacked, the two Corporals being knocked down and injured, eventually managed to escape, Gringham reaching the Ferozepore Road, Battson, with the aid of a Sikh villager, reaching one of the other stationary trains. Khair Din and the Sherbournes were saved by Ghulam Mahiuddin, one of the more level-headed leaders of the mob, who escorted them safely to a nearby hamlet where they were rescued by the police. Captain Limby and Lieutenant Munro after failing to induce the driver to pull back, ran down the line towards Ferozepore but were pursued and struck several times but managed to escape. Lieutenant Selby and Warrant Officer Mallet refused to leave the train. They were armed with revolvers and when the train reached the platform they got out and stood at the door of their carriage. The mob approached and began to stone them and the pair fired their revolvers, probably over the head of the crowd as nobody was hit. The mob closed in on them and they belatedly tried to escape along the platform. The two men were caught and beaten to death by the enraged mob. The crowd after murdering the two men then went on to loot a nearby post office, passing the city police station. The subordinate officer in charge had six armed men at his command but chose not to impede them. From elsewhere an Indian Deputy Superintendent of Police had arrived on the scene with a party of men. They found Selby and Mallet, one dead, the other dying and then went on to rescue the Sherbourne family. The mob had meanwhile headed for the Munsif’s Court and Tahsil. The Court was set on fire and a party of police at the Tahsil fired over the heads of the crowd but to no avail. The Deputy Superintendent and his men arrived and seeing the situation and obtaining leave from the senior magistrate present ordered his men and those of the Tahil to open fire on the crowd. Fifty-seven rounds were fired and the crowd fled, leaving one of their number dead and seven or eight wounded (three died of their wounds), a further eight were apprehended. In the days following further police and military arrived and twenty-one further arrests were made.

The events at Kasur were just one of many outbreaks of violence across the Punjab, instigated by the nationalists during 1919. The tragedy of Kasur, however, was largely overshadowed by the ‘Amritsar Massacre’ on the following day.

The medals are sold with the recipient’s commission document as Assistant Commissary and Lieutenant, 1 January 1919; M.I.D. Certificate, for being mentioned in Lieutenant-General Sir J. L. van Deventer’s despatch of 30 September 1918; a copied photograph of the recipient and a wealth of copied service papers and research.