Page 76 - Bugle Issue 19 Spring 2022

SOUTH WEST
The Dorset’s’ Tirah Memorial Service
On 27th October the annual Tirah Memorial Service was held
in the Borough Gardens Dorchester, for the members of the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment who lost their lives in the 1897 Expedition to the Tirah on India’s North West Frontier.
Two Victoria Crosses were won capturing the Dargai Heights
in an inhospitable, rocky landscape familiar to those who served recently in neighbouring Afghanistan. At this year’s service Findlater came to mind as, escorted by the Devonshire and Dorset Regimental standards, Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Graham marched, playing his pipes, to the Dorset Memorial.
By the end of the Tirah Campaign the 1st Dorsets had lost 27 killed and 29 wounded while 122 officers and men had been invalided home. The 1st Devons also suffered 18 fatalities in the Expedition. The Mayor of Dorchester was one of several people who came to pay tribute to an ancestor who fought with the Dorsets in the Campaign. Among those laying wreaths was Elliot Metcalfe, the new Director of the Keep Military Museum.
Tirah Memorial, Borough Gardens, Dorchester, Dorset
Tirah Memorial, Borough Gardens, Dorchester, Dorset
Two Victoria Crosses were won capturing the Dargai Heights in an inhospitable, rocky landscape familiar
to those
who served recently in neighbouring Afghanistan
76 RIFLES The Bugle