Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Lieutenant Colonel S. Browning-Smith, Medical Officer of Colonel Kelly's force at the relief of Chitral.

ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE, C.M.G., silver gilt and enamel neck badge, reverse centre depressed; INDIA GENERAL SERVICE 1895-1902, 2 clasps, Relief of Chitral 1895, Waziristan 1901-2, this last a tailor's copy (Surgn. Captn., 32nd Bl. Infy), very fine (2)

Lieutenant Colonel Sydney Browning-Smith was appointed Captain in the Indian Medical Service on 29 July, 1891. He was present with the relief force from Gilgit under Lieut-Colonel J. G. Kelly, and was Medical Officer to the 32nd Pioneers. Kelly's force was made up of 396 Pioneers, 2 guns from No. 1 Kashmir Mountain Battery, 40 Kashmir Sappers and Miners, and 150 local levies. They left Gilgit on 23 March, arriving at Chitral on 20 April having marched 220 miles. On the 1st April they crossed the Shandur Pass (12,230 ft.) in deep snow, which resulted in 43 cases of frostbite and 63 of snow blindness. On the 9th April they brushed aside a force of 400-500 enemy, suffering only minor casualties, and on the 13th defeated a larger body of 1500 at Nisa Gol, losing one officer wounded, seven NCO's killed and twelve wounded. In a despatch published in the London Gazette of 16 July 1895 Lt. Col Kelly stated, 'I desire also to record that the medical arrangements were worked with precision throughout the march, particularly when crossing the Shandur Pass, when there were so many cases of frost-bite and snow-blindness to be dealt with.' Browning-Smith was not mentioned in this despatch, but in a subsequent one (No. 8- C, 26 July 1895) sent by Lt. Col. Kelly, which was not published in the London Gazette. He wrote: 'Surgeon-Captain S. Browning-Smith, officiating in medical charge of the 32nd Pioneers, crossed the Shandur Pass with the first party, and was present at the actions of Chakalwat and Nisa Gol and subsequent march to Chitral, showing great spirit throughout. I recommend him for some mark of distinction.' Captain Browning-Smith served in the Waziristan campaign 1901-2 and received a clasp to his India medal. In September, 1902, he was seconded to the Civil Administration on plague duty, going to the Punjab in December, 1904, being made Chief Plague Medical Officer there in April, 1905, and Sanitary Commissioner in the Punjab in November, 1914. He appears to have served in India throughout the First World War and was made C.M.G. in 1917. He was also mentioned in despatches, London Gazette 27 July, 1919. Browning-Smith was an accomplished artist and several of his sketches and watercolours appear in 'The Relief of Chitral' by Younghusband, 1895.