Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Sergeant E. A. Cation, North West Railway Rifle Volunteers, Indian Army, late Royal Munster Fusiliers, East Surrey Regiment, and Agra Volunteer Rifles, who was the Best Shot of Volunteers in India, 1912-13

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Orange Free State, South Africa 1902 (6222 Corpl. E. Cation. Rl: Muns: Fus:); 1914-15 Star (No. 1 Sgt. E. A. Cation, N. W. Ry. Machine Gun Corps.); British War and Victory Medals (1 Sgt. E. A. Cation. M. G. Section.), BWM partially officially corrected; Volunteer Force Long Service, G.V.R. (Pte. E. A. Cation 1/24th N.W.Rly Bn. I.D.F.); together with the recipient’s Government of India Best Shot of the Volunteers Medal, 47mm, silver, the obverse featuring a soldier in the prone shooting position, the reverse engraved ‘1st 2nd & 3rd Div 1912-13 Corpl E. A. Cation North Western Ry. Vol. Rifles 47 points’, slight edge bruise to last, good very fine (6) £300-£400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Peter Duckers.

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Edward Alexander Cation was born in Calcutta in 1876 and served in the Agra Volunteer Rifles before attesting for the East Surrey Regiment in Agra in August 1894. He transferred to the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1898 and served with the 2nd Battalion in the South Africa during the Boer War, after which he returned to India and was posted to the Reserve in 1902.

Cation worked as a Guard for the N.W. Railway and served as a Volunteer in the North West Railway Rifles receiving Regimental Number 1 and winning the 1912/13 Best Shot of Volunteers in India Medal. The North West Railway ran the important Khyber Pass and North West Frontier route, carrying troops and supplies along the Frontier at times of unrest.

During the Great War, Cation served overseas in East Africa with the Machine Gun Section of the North West Railway Volunteer Rifles. The only section of the regiment to serve overseas during the Great War, the Machine Gun Section saw extensive service in East Africa before Indian forces were withdrawn from the theatre in 1917. He died in India aged 66.

Sold with copied research.