Medal group, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Augustus Edwards, 35th Sikhs

Medal group (from left to right): India General Service Medal with clasp, 'Burma 1885-7'; Central Africa Medal with clasp, 'Central Africa 1894-98'.

Charles Augustus Edwards was born in London on 25 February 1864 and enlisted in the King's Own Borders in May 1885, transferring the following month to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was posted to India where he served in Burma, as indicated by the clasp on his India General Service Medal. Edwards was appointed to the Bengal Staff Corps in 1887 and then attached as a Wing Officer to the 35th Sikhs in 1888.

Between 1893 and 1897 Edwards, in command of the 35th Sikhs and subsequently as Commandant of Armed Forces in British Central Africa, progressed from the rank of Lieutenant to Lieutenant-Colonel in six months. Edwards' command of numerous successful anti-slavery campaigns significantly reduced slave raiding and trading in much of British Central Africa and he is considered to have changed the status of slavery in that region.