India General Service Medal 1936-39. With clasp 'North West Frontier 1937-39' (14259 Sep. Ram Kishan, 1-12 F.F.R.)

The recipient Ram Kishan was an Indian soldier of Dogra ethnicity & the Hindu faith, holding the rank of Sepoy (Private) serving with 1st Battalion (Prince of Wales's Own Sikhs) 12th Frontier Force Regiment, an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army

Killed-in-Action: Ram Kishan, then holding the rank of Lance-Naik (Lance-Corporal) was Killed-in-Action in Italy on 2 September 1944. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that a total of 4 x Indian 'Other-Ranks' of 1/12 F.F.R. were killed, or died of wounds on the same date as Ram Kishan

Ram Kishan who was 26 years of age at the time of his death, was the son of Ram Rakha and Lachmi & the husband of Pinji, of Kort, Janauri, Hoshiarpur, India

Interestingly CWGC records show that Kishan Ram who died on 02/09/1944 was initially buried in a communal grave in the Florence Military Cemetery (at least one of the other Indian Army soldiers in that communal grave included a regimental comrade, No 3151 Sepoy Khazana Singh 1-12 F.F.R.) Post-war the bodies of fallen comrades Ram Kishan & Khazana Singh, and others in the same communal grave were later re-exhumed and cremated in accordance to the respective religious rites for Hindu's and Sikh's, on 19 December 1945 

Hindu soldiers of the British Indian Army who died during active combat in Italy in 1944 would have been placed in a temporary communal grave or field burial due to intense active combat, severe weather, or logistical impossibilities that prevented individual graves or religious cremation at the front lines
While traditional Hindu funerary rites prescribe cremation, wartime military authorities and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission noted that frontline conditions during the Italian Campaign (such as freezing mountainous terrain, active shelling, or rapid retreats and advances) often made immediate individual pyres impossible. Under these emergency field conditions, fallen soldiers—regardless of faith—were hastily laid to rest together in localized trench burials or temporary communal graves. Later, the remains were systematically accounted for, with Hindu and Sikh soldiers typically commemorated on dedicated regional cremation memorials (such as those at the Forli Indian Army Cemeteryor Sangro River) rather than traditional headstones
Forli Cremation Memorial: The memorial is located inside the CWGC Indian War Cemetery, located in Forli, Italy. The Forli Cremation Memorial commemorates early 800 Hindu and Sikh officers and men of the British Indian Army, who lost their lives on active service in Italy, and is just one of three specific cremation memorials located in Italy, in respect of the fallen of the British Indian Army, the others being in Sangro River War Cemetery and in Rimini Gurkha War Cemetery

1/12 F.F.R. 1939-45: Between May 1941 to 5 June 1945, 1/12 F.F.R. served with the 17th Indian Infantry Brigade, mostly under higher formation 8th Indian Division. The battalion served overseas in Iraq, Syria and Italy

Condition: Suspension loose otherwise GVF

Code: 26152