This unnamed rifleman was in all likelihood a member of the 1st Battalion, the King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC), of which companies A, C, G, and H were stationed on Mauritius between 1897 and 1899. He wears the 1895 India General Service Medal with the clasp "Relief of Chitral 1895" for the action by the same name in which the battalion had taken part in the Northwest Frontier of India. The battalion was stationed at Jullunder when it was ordered to proceed to Mauritius via Cape Town on board the RIMS Warren Hastings and the trip would not be an uneventful one.

The Hastings arrived safely at Cape Town and then departed for Mauritius with some 933 passengers including the headquarters staff and A, C, G, and H companies of the KRRC on 6 January 1897. About a week later she would wreck on rocks just off the French island of Réunion. Two Indian members of the ship's crew were lost in the wreck. After making their way onto Réunion itself the survivors were picked up by the ship Lalpoora and completed their trip to Mauritius.

The companies of 1/KRRC would be reunited in Natal in 1899 and would take part in the Anglo-Boer War in which this rifleman probably took part.


Cabinet Photograph
Alex. Rambert & Cles. Drenning - Photographers
Port Louis & Curepipe, Mauritius
c. 1897