Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin

Three: Surgeon Charles Arthur Owen, Indian Subordinate Medical Department and Punjab Volunteer Rifles

Army L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (1st Cl. Asstt. Surgn., I.S.M.D.) officially engraved naming; Indian Volunteer Forces Officers Decoration, E.VII.R., reverse engraved, ‘Surgn-Maj., 3rd Punjab Rifles I.D.F.’, with top slip bar; Volunteer Force Long Service (India & the Colonies), G.V.R. (Sgn. Captn., 1st Pjb. Voltr. Rfls.) officially engraved naming, mounted court style for wear, good very fine (3) £320-380

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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Charles Arthur Owen was born on 2 October 1861. Entering medicine, he received his medical training in Calcutta and the Middlesex Hospital. He qualified as a M.R.C.S., England, and L.R.C.P., London, in 1889; he gained his M.D. at Brussels in 1899, and became a F.R.C.S., Edinburgh, in 1900.

Prior to gaining his medical qualifications he had joined the Indian Army, and was appointed a Sub-Assistant Apothecary in the Bengal Subordinate Medical Department on 31 January 1883. He was promoted to Assistant Apothecary 2nd Grade in June 1886, and Assistant Apothecary 1st Grade in December 1890. Owen was appointed an Assistant Surgeon, 2nd Class (ranking as Sub-Conductor), in the Indian Subordinate Medical Department (Bengal) in January 1895. In 1896 he was in Medical charge, Junior Clerical Establishments, at Simla; and from November 1896 he was Assistant to the Civil Surgeon at Lahore. In January 1902 he was appointed an Assistant Surgeon, 1st Class (ranking as Conductor). As such he was awarded the Army L.S. & G.C., this notified in the I.A.O. No. 126 of February 1905. In August 1906, Owen was promoted Senior Assistant Surgeon with the honorary rank of Lieutenant, and he was then Temporary Surgeon at Shahpur. In the same year Owen was also appointed a Medical Officer to the 1st Punjab Volunteer Rifles as Surgeon-Lieutenant, and was advanced to Surgeon-Captain in May 1909. He retired from the Indian Subordinate Medical Department on 1 June 1909 as a Senior Assistant Surgeon and Honorary Captain. Owen continued to live and practise in India and to serve with the Volunteers. As Surgeon-Captain in the 1st Punjab Volunteer Rifles he was awarded the Volunteer Force Long Service Medal, this published in the I.A.O. 485 of September 1914. He was promoted to Major in the I.D.F. Medical Corps in October 1918. As Surgeon-Major in the 3rd Punjab Rifles, Owen was awarded the Indian Volunteer Forces Officers’ Decoration, this published in the Gazette of India of 20 September 1919. He was promoted to Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel in the Auxiliary Forces Medical Corps on 10 November 1929, and resigned five days later. During his time in India he had been Physician to H.H. the Maharajah of Patiala. Returning to England in the 1930’s, he died in Topsham, Devon, on 2 April 1935. Sold with copied research.