Volunteer Long Service Medal (India & the Colonies). GV issue (Sergt. T. N. Sturrock, 1/(Cossipore) Bde., Mobile Arty., I.D.F.)

Medal verification: Sergeant Thomas Nicoll Sturrock 1st (Cossipore) Brigade Mobile Artillery, Indian Defence Force, is confirmed having been awarded his VLSM in 1914, the medal published in Indian Army Order 693 of 1919, with award date of, 9 September 1919

Medals issued: Reference 'The Auxiliary Force India and its Predecessors...' (Harfield, 2015) an estimated total of only 38 x VLSM's were awarded named to the unit under its designation as 1/(Cossipore) Brigade. Mobile Artillery, IDF

Raised in 1884, the Cossipore Artillery Volunteers, was a Calcutta based volunteer artillery unit. The unit had its origins dating back to 1888, when the regiment was raised. Volunteers from the Cossipore Artillery Volunteers served with the Calcutta Volunteer Battery in East Africa during he Great War. Like several other Calcutta based volunteer units, the Cossipore Artillery Volunteers included large numbers of Scottish expatriates - in particular from the Scottish city of Dundee - many of which were employed in the Jute Mills and Jute Trade centred on Calcutta, but controlled by Scottish capital. So many Scots served in the regiment, that it boasted its own regimental kilted Pipe Band. In 1922, the unit was re-styled as IV (Cossipore) Brigade, RA, AFI. The regiment was eventually amalgamated to form the Bengal Artillery (Auxiliary Force India), that was stood down on 14 August 1947. Another key source of volunteers for the Cossipore Volunteer Artillery, was the pool of skilled European and Eurasian technicians and, who worked at the numerous Ordnance depots located at Cossipore and adjacent Dum Dum Cantonment

Thomas Nicoll Sturrock, son of James Sturrock (who in 1881 was described as a Linen Winding Overseer) and Margaret 'Maggie' Sturrock (nee Allardice) was a native of Forfar, Forfarshire, Scotland, where he was born in 1882. By the time of the compilation of the National Census for Scotland in 1901, Thomas was employed in Dundee, as a 'Jute Factory Loom Tenter', and residing with his mother, who was 'Housekeeper and Head of House' to his 3 x elder brothers (two of whom, William and David, were also employed in the Jute Industry, and another brother, Alexander was described as a Railway Goods Porter), at the family residence located at, Roseberry Place, 39, Strathmartine Road, Dundee. On, 24 January 1904, Thomas married Maragret 'Maggie' Hinton Davidson at Dundee. The couple were subsequently blessed with 2 x daughters & 1 x son. Prior to 1911, Thomas accepted an overseas appointment to work as an 'Overseer' in a Scottish owned 'Jute Factory' in Bengal, India. Thomas Nicoll Sturrock, is recorded to have died in Melbourne, Australia, on, 5 August 1953. A death obituary notice was published in the Dundee newspaper 'Courier & Advertiser' issue of, 11 August 1953, as quoted below:

Quote,

STURROCK. - On August 5, 1953, at Melbourne, Australia, Thomas Nicol, beloved husband of Maggie Davidson, late of 60 Abbotsford Street, Dundee, and Alliance Mills, Jagatdal, Bengal. Deeply mourned.

Unquote.

A scarce seen medal to the desirable 'Cossipore's' volunteer artillery

Condition: GVF

Code: 24476