Distinguished Service Order awarded to Engineer Commander Richard Edmund Cornforth Bolton (1872-1951), Royal Indian Marine, on 2 February 1917, ‘for services rendered in connection with the Great War’.

The medal is an enamelled white cross edged in gold with a green central wreath containing the Imperial Crown in gold on a red background. On the reverse is the Royal Cypher within a green wreath on a red background. The ribbon has a wide central stripe of red edged with narrower stripes of blue. It is mounted on a bar with three others and two ribbons: Order of the British Empire, 4th class (military) (MED1544), Africa General Service Medal 1902-1910 (MED1545) and 1914-15 Star (MED1545).

Richard Bolton was born in the Khidirpur (Kolkata), the son of Alexander Joseph Bolton who was born in Sydney, New South Wales. Alexander was an engineer in the Royal Indian Marine (at that time the Indian Defence Force) and owned an engineering firm in Calcutta. Richard his son, served engineering apprenticeships with John & James Thompson, Paisley and Bow & McLaughlin, Glasgow before also being appointed an Assistant Engineer with the Royal Indian Marine on 18 February 1892. He served at sea including in the troop ship HMS 'Clive' (1882) during the campaign in Somaliland 1903-4. For this, Bolton was awarded the Africa General Service Medal. In 1903, he was appointed engineer - yard craft, Viceroy’s yacht establishment and engineer of the factory at Kidderpore Dockyard. In 1911 he became chief engineer of the troopship RIMS ‘Dalhousie’. At the outbreak of World War I, he took charge of workshops at Kilindi in British East Africa for the Admiralty and opened similar facilities on the German East Coast. He was appointed engineer of the former Imperial Dockyard at Dar es Salaam damaged by the retreating Germans. He put the machinery and plant in working order and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 2 February 1917 and the Order of the British Empire 'For valuable services in connection with the Naval Transport of the East African Force'. From 4 May 1920, Richard Bolton served as inspector of machinery at Kidderpore Dockyard and retired with the rank of Captain on 2 May 1923. Like his father, Alexander Joseph who retired to Bath, Richard returned to the United Kingdom and settled in Cookham, Berkshire with his second wife Isabel Mary and his children.