A rare Volunteer Force Long Service and Good Conduct Medal group awarded to Sergeant P.C. David, 3rd Battalion, Punjab Volunteer Rifles later Punjab Volunteer Machine Gun Company who having served initially with the Punjab Rifles would become 1 of 19 men of that unit to serve as part of the Punjab Volunteer Maxim Gun Company in East Africa between 1914-17 when he returned to India. He was awarded his Volunteer Force Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in Indian Army Order 247 of 30th March 1920 whilst serving with 3rd Battalion, Punjab Rifles, Indian Defence Force.
Group of 4: 1914-1915 Star; (No.3 SRGT. P.C. DAVID, VOL.MACH.GUN.COY.) British War Medal; (3 SGT. P.C. DAVID. MAC. GUN COY.) Victory Medal; (3 SGT. P.C. DAVID. 1 PJB. VOL.M.G. CO.) Volunteer Force Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVR, (SERGT. P.C. DAVID. 3/PJB. RFLS. I.D.F.)
Condition: the star lightly polished, light contact wear to the LSGC otherwise, Good Very Fine
Percival Charles David was born in Lahore, 23rd July 1889, son of Robert Charles David. He would serve in East Africa from 1914-17 with No. 3 Section of the Punjab Volunteer Maxim Gun Company, one of a contingent of nineteen men from the Punjab Volunteer Rifles. He would be awarded the Volunteer Forces Long Service and good Conduct Medal, on 30th March 1920 in Indian Army Order No. 247. David would subsequently marry Phyllis Isabelle Howe on 12th April 1919 at which time she was 22 and he was 40 year old bachelor employed by the Punjab Civil Service and resident of Jullunder Cantonment. Shipping registers show he embarked at Liverpool for Bombay in December 1946 on the Cunarder Brittanic as a 1st Class passenger. At this time he was a 57 year old barrister living at 165 Holland Park Avenue, W11, London. He would become a naturalised British Subject on 15th February 1963 and died in Kensington, London on 21st August 1972.
Authority was given to form the Punjab Volunteer Maxim Gun Company on 12th September 1914 with the headquarters of the Bombay Volunteers being chosen to be the assembly point. The Punjab Volunteer Maxim Battery was raised from various volunteer units in India. Volutneers arrived from the Bangalore Rifle Volunteers and the Bombay, Lucknow, Mussoorie and Nagpur Volunteer Rifles. This small company (approximately 120 men) served with great distinction in East Africa from 1914 onwards. The Battery left India for Mombasa, East Africa on 20th September 1914. They initially came into action after landing from lighters on the coast near Gazi where German field companies were still probing through the plantations following their move up the coastline from Tanga in German East Africa to attack Mombasa. The Germans often proved elusive but were not the only enemy on the insect-ridden coastline and by November half the company were sick with fever with medical evacuations in March 1915 requiring a replacement draft from the Cawnpore Rifle Volunteers.
Meanwhile to the North, No. 3 and No. 4 sections had been involved in a serious fight across the border as the British mounted an attack on the German garrison at Longido Mountain on 3rd November 1914. This attack failed.
During 1915 the company supported operations in the Lake Victoria and Kilimanjaro areas and manned their Maxims as train guards on the Uganda Railway which was being targeted by demolition parties.
The Maxim Gun unit was engaged many times in German East Africa in 1916, notably in February during the abortive attack on Salaita Hill, in March at the attack on Latema and at Kondoa Irangi in June. Their final operation, ordered by General Smuts, was an attack on a German unit on the Munganga Plateau. As usual on South Africa led operations, although long range contact was made, the envelopment plan appeared to be allowed to fail. A decisive battle was not forced and the Germans withdrew successfully. Disease and death by lightning strikes continued to thin their ranks and in February 1917 the company was instructed to return to Dar Es Salaam. Having made the treacherous journey through flooded swampland they arrived on 18th March 1917, handed in their guns and equipment and the surviving volunteers embarked for India.
