A Collection of India General Service Medals 1854-95

Lieutenant P. J. F. Macaulay, Royal Engineers, who was killed in the attack on the camp of the Waziristan-Afghan Boundary Commission in November 1894, the catalyst for the dispatch of the Waziristan Field Force

India General Service 1854-94, 1 clasp, Waziristan 1894-5 (Lieutt. P. J. Macaulay, R.E. Survey Dept.) extremely fine £1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of India General Service Medals 1854-95.

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Percy John Frederick Macaulay was born at Ambala on 1 January 1867, eldest son of Colonel C. E. Macaulay, Bengal Staff Corps. He entered the service from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, on 24 July 1886, as a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, and served at Chatham until September 1888, when he was posted to the Indian Establishment. He arrived in India towards the end of October 1888, and was attached to the Military Works Department until June 1889, when he was appointed an Assistant Engineer therein. During the next five years he was employed successively on the Mogal Serai Railway Survey, the Zhob Valley Survey, the Mushkaf-Bolan State Railway, and the Delhi-Minchinabad Railway Survey. In March 1894 he was appointed to the Survey Department as an Assistant Superintendent, and during the succeeding seven months he was attached to the party at Quetta. In October 1894 he was appointed to the Waziristan-Afghan Boundary Commision, and was one of the Afghan Frontier Delimitation Party which, towards the end of the month, proceeded to Wana, near the Inzar Kotal. The Delimitation Party was heavily attacked in its camp at Wana early on the morning of the 3rd November. It was delivered with such determination that the tribesmen penetrated into the centre of the camp and, in the darkness, it was only with the greatest difficulty that friend could be distinguished from foe. Lieutenant Macaulay was amongst the killed and he was later buried at Dera Ismail Khan.

As a result of this attack, the Waziristan Field Force was formed under Lieutenant-General Sir William Lockhart, K.C.B., C.S.I., to take punitive action against the Waziris who subsequently agreed to peace terms.