Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1908 (138 Sowar Zaid Gul Khyber Rifles); British War Medal 1914-20 (S-M. Tor Khan. N. Waz. Mil.) small erasure between name and unit; Indian Army Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (2) (33 Nk. Nur Khan, 694 (M.T. Coy) R.A.S.C.; 3837 B. Lce. Naik Saida Khan. 58th. Rfls. (F.F.)) polished and worn, fine and better (4) £100-£140

Tor Khan served successively with the Kurram Militia, the Khyber Rifles, and the North Waziristan Militia. He was awarded the Indian Order of Merit, 3rd Class, on 1 September 1897, and the Order of British India on 26 June 1908. He was awarded the Indian Distinguished Service Medal for service with the Waziristan Force, and was twice Mentioned in Despatches, for services on the North West Frontier of India in 1908 (London Gazette 14 August 1908); and again during the Third Afghan War (London Gazette 3 August 1920).

A contemporary account of Tor Khan describes him as ‘[o]ne of the more colourful characters who served the British cause along the Northwest Frontier of India. Reputedly the offspring of a Gordon Highlander, he was admitted to the 3rd Class of the Indian Order of Merit for conspicuous gallantry during the successful defence of an outpost against greatly superior numbers of dissident tribesmen in 1897. He obtained great notoriety for this action after shooting dead a Mullah who, approaching the outpost Koran in hand, had attempted to persuade the defenders to desert. His young son was also no disappointment to his father. When no more than nine years old, he cut the throat of his seven year old cousin (this son went on to become a Subadar in the Tochi Scouts, winning first the 2nd Class and then the 1st Class IOM for gallantry on the Frontier).’ (The Frontier Scouts by C. Chenevix Trench refers)

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