Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry

A Great War ‘Mesopotamia’ M.C. group of seven awarded to Lieutenant H. H. Tayler, Indian Army Reserve of Officers, attached 1st/66th Punjabis, who was badly wounded at Ctesiphon on 22 November 1915, and was Mentioned in Despatches for his services in Mesopotamia Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. H. H. Tayler 1/66th. Punjabis); British War Medal 1914-20 (Lieut. H. H. Tylor [sic].); Victory Medal 1914-19, naming erased; Delhi Durbar 1911, silver, unnamed as issued; Jubilee 1935, unnamed as issued; Volunteer Force Long Service Medal (India & the Colonies), G.V.R. (Pte. H. H. Tayler, Hyderabad Rif., A.F.I.) generally very fine and better (7) £1,200-£1,600 --- M.C. London Gazette 10 June 1920: ‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Field.’ M.I.D. London Gazette 13 July 1916. Henry Holroyd Tayler was born in Bhagalpur, Bengal, India, on 9 November 1884, the son of Henry Graham Tayler, of the Indian Civil Service, and, following in his father’s footsteps, joined the Civil Department in the Central Provinces on 23 December 1903. Serving on the Andaman Commission, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers on 4 November 1910. Promoted Lieutenant on 13 September 1914, he was attached to the 1st/66th Punjabis depot at Jhelum on 12 October 1914. The 66th Punjabis were mobilised in March 1915 for service in Mesopotamia and landed in Basra on 20 March. Tayler joined the battalion at Basra on 16 September 1915 where it was undertaking garrison duties. On 24 October 1915 the 66th Punjabis joined Major-General C. Townsend’s 6th (Poona) Division for the advance on Baghdad; on 22 November the first major engagement on the advance to Baghdad took place at Ctesiphon. The 66th Punjabis were heavily engaged in the attack on the Turkish positions and suffered a total of 242 casualties. This included all 10 of the British officers with the battalion who were either killed or wounded, including Tayler. Only two of the wounded British officers were available for duty. Tayler was then evacuated with the other wounded soldiers and so avoided the later siege and fall of Kut-al-Amara. For his services he was Mentioned in Despatches. Tayler was Gazetted with a Military Cross in 1920, and it is most likely that he was awarded the M.C. for his actions at Ctesiphon. The reason for the delay in the award was because it was awarded under the new provisions allowed for in Army Order 193 of 1919. Recognising that many acts of gallantry and devotion to duty during the Great War had previously gone unrecognised, because they were unwitnessed, or because those who had witnessed them were prisoners of war, it allowed rewards for these services in the Field, and in many cases (such as Tayler’s) they were for acts of gallantry that had been performed some years previously. Lieutenant Tayler died at Staines, Middlesex, on 26 April 1944, aged 59.