Description
Africa General Service Medal, GV, bar Somaliland 1920, 315 Sergeant Ndala, 2nd Coy 2nd Batt King’s African Rifles, a Veteran of World War 1 serving in East Africa with 1 KAR.
Officially impressed: “315 Sjt. Ndala. 2-K.A.R.”
Confirmed on the medal roll. 1 of only 228 clasps issued to the 2nd KAR, out of about 2477 to the Army.
Well kept condition, minor wear and no edge bruising or knocks.
This clasp is rarely encountered to the King’s African Rifles, especially to the much smaller 2nd Battalion rather than the 1st Battalion which was 3 times their size.
Also earned the 1914-15 Star for his service during World War 1, starting off as a Private he rose to Sergeant in the war.
Ndala started off his service with the 1st King’s African Rifles sometime before World War 1.
He first entered into the war on 4th August 1914 into Theatre of War 4a in British East Africa.
He served throughout the war and afterwards transferred over to the 2nd K.A. Rifles.
WW1 Medal rolls note his medals were “Sent (to) Tabora 29th May 1922” Tabora is the capital city of Tanzania’s Tabora Region.
The “2nd Battalion The King’s African Rifles Roll of NCOs and Men issued with War Medals” records that he was later a Sergeant, and earned 4 medals, the 1914-15 Star Trio and the AGS Medal.
The roll for the WW1 Pair notes he was a Sergeant and received them on 29th August 1923.
To earn this medal, Sergeant Ndala took part in the “Fifth Expedition” against the Dervish Movement of British Somaliland.
In the campaign the British would finally land the blow that finished off the Dervish Movement putting an end to the decades long reign of terror of the so called “Mad Mullah” Muhammad Ibn Abdallah Ibn Hassan.
The Mad Mullah, as he was affectionately called by the British, was one of their most notorious enemies, he was a Somali Scholar, Poet, Religious, Political, Cultural and Military leader who headed and founded the Dervish Movement, leading them on a Holy War against all foreign intrusions in the Somali Peninsula.
The Dervish Movement began about 1896, and most of the many “Somaliland” clasps that were issued on many medals for the next 20 years were attempts to put a stop to the movement and their enigmatic leader.
Following on however from World War 1, the British had new technology to unleash on this thorn in their side.
They unleashed the “Z Force”, sending over a fleet of Aircraft Carriers and Ships carrying the newly founded Royal Air Force, who would use their air superiority to drop bombs and flush out the Mad Mullah, once and for all.
In co-ordination with their troops on the ground, such as Sgt Ndala, the British conducted various air and land attacks on the Dervish settlements which blasted the forts of the dervishes and inflicting great losses.
In response to the defeat, the Mullah fled over the border to Abyssinia to raid the Ogaden Bah Hawadle Clan, but after they assembled an army they decimated the Dervish force.
The Mullah died soon afterwards, having become a desperate fugitive he fled to the into the wastelands of the Ogaden, where he died on 21st December 1920, of influenza. Having evaded and harassed the British Empire for over 20 years, his reign of terror was now over and the British claimed victory over the country.
Nowadays in modern Somalia, they have come to consider Hassan, the Mullah, as one of their great revolutionaries and founder of Somali Nationalism.
