NAM.1996-01-180-1

India General Service Medal 1854-95, 2 clasps: Burma 1885-7, Burma 1887-89. Awarded to Sgn Lt Col Damodar Purshotum Warliker, Indian Medical Service. Silver medal with an effigy of Queen Victoria and inscription, ‘Victoria Regina’, on the obverse; on the reverse, the figure of Winged Victory crowning a kneeling figure with a laurel wreath; red and dark blue ribbon. Indians became eligible to serve in the Medical Department after the 1853 India Act opened the service to ‘all natural-born subjects of Her Majesty’ who passed a competitive examination. Although only three Indians had joined by the time of the Mutiny, a total of 109 were commissioned between January 1855 and August 1913. Among them was Damodar Warliker (1854-1932), who qualified as a surgeon in London in 1877. Warliker was one of the first Indian officers to be appointed to the Indian Medical Department (later Service), Madras, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1898. He served during the Rumpa Rebellion of 1878-1880 and was attached as a Medical Officer to the China Field Force during the 3rd China War (Boxer Rebellion) in 1900. Retiring from active service in 1909, Colonel Warliker rejoined the army for service in India during the First World War and was employed in Burma from 1915 until 1921.

Burma, Guerrilla Warfare (1885-1895)