Description
Tibet Medal, 1903-4, bar Gyantse, 9500 Lance Corporal B. Switzer, 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers, Confirmed on medal roll, rare to a British Regiment at the storming of the Gyantze Dzong fortress. Officially engraved in running script: “9500 L. Cpl B. Switzer 1st Bn Ryl Fuslrs” Very minor official correction only to “95” of service number.
The medal roll at WO11/395 confirms that 9500 Lce Corpl Switzer, was entitled to both the Tibet Medal, and the clasp for “Gyantse”. One of the British Troops who stormed what is known as the “The Forbidden City”, they were some of the earliest “Westerners” apart from a few earlier adventurers to gain access to Lhasa in Tibet.
An unusually encountered surname, believed to be British Medieval origin sometimes encountered as a localisation of Germans and some Russian Jews who came to England named Schweitzer.
