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This is Subedar-Major Kishan Singh, Sardar Bahadur, OBI, IOM, 1/13 Frontier Force Rifles. He enlisted in the army on 25 June 1898. He was commissioned as a Jemadar on 7 April 1918, promoted to Subedar on 9 February 1920 and then finally to Subedar-Major, the highest rank open to Indian infantrymen, on 21 June 1925.
He took part in in the North West Frontier campaign of 1901-02 in Waziristan and also engaged in the Mohmand/Kargha operations of 1908.
During the Great War he served on the North West Frontier against the Mahsuds (17 May 1917 to 4 August 1917) in German East Africa (12 August 1917 to 26 February 1918), in Marris (3 March 1918 to 15 May 1918), and finally in Persia (8 November 1919 to 22 April 1919).
While peace had been declared in Europe, Kishan Singh continued to serve in the Third Afghan War (1919) and Waziristan (1919-20), where he was awarded the Indian Order of Merit and mentioned in despatches. He was also awarded the Indian Meritorious Service Medal. He served in Kurdistan in 1923.
Picture credit: We are grateful to the CAFHR for the historical research on this photograph