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Auction: 26002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 186

A C.I.E. group of four to Commissioner H. P. 'Tiger' Todd-Naylor, C.S.I., C.I.E., Indian Civil Service and Major, Upper Burma Volunteer Rifles

The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., breast Badge, gold and enamel, complete with top suspension; Delhi Durbar 1903, silver issue; India General Service 1854-95, 2 clasps, Burma 1885-7, Burma 1887-89 (Mr. H. P. Todd-Naylor C.S.); Indian Volunteer Forces Decoration, E.VII.R. (Major H. P. Todd-Naylor C.I.E., Upper Burma Voltr. Rfls.), complete with top suspension, good very fine (4)

C.I.E. London Gazette 1 January 1890 (Officiating Deputy Commissioner of Magwe, in Upper Burma).

[C.S.I.] London Gazette 1 January 1909 (Commissioner of the Mandalay Division, Burma).

I.V.D. Gazette of India 30 May 1908.

Henry Paul Todd-Naylor - or 'Harry' to his friends and comrades - was born at the family home Hartford Grange, Cheshire in July 1861. Educated at Shrewsbury in 1874-79 and University College, Oxford, the youthful Todd-Naylor rowed in the Trials of 1881.

He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1880 and served in Bengal as Assistant Magistrate and Collector; he transferred to Burma as Assistant Commissioner in March 1886, and became deputy Commissioner in May 1890. During his time in Burma he gained a reputation for high-handed and severe policing of the local dacoits, but his methods paid off and he established peace in all the areas in which he operated. Indeed, it was recalled in the Englishman that he had accounted for a notorious daciot headman in a hand-to-hand combat. He had also earned the nickname the 'Tiger Deputy Commissioner', for he had taken to walking barefoot when on patrol in the jungle in order to remain concealed.

Recognition came in 1890, when he was created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. Made 2nd Lieutenant in the Upper Burma Rifles at Magwe in November 1890, in 1892 he took a years leave in England and took his M.A..

In April 1902 he was confirmed as Commissioner in Burma and was found to be as good at reconstructing districts as he was at pacifying them, being made Major in June 1904. In 1909 he was further rewarded, this time as a Companion of the Order of the Star of India, but the pressure of work made it impossible for him to go to India to receive it himself at the hands of Lord Minto. He was listed as an A.D.C. at Mandalay when he died on 6 August 1910, it being probable the C.S.I. he had earned had never been issued.

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Estimate
£2,000 to £3,000

Starting price
£1600