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Auction: 7029 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 364

ORDERS AND MEDALS BESTOWED UPON SIR CHARLES STUART BAYLEY, FIRST LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF BIHAR AND ORISSA Sir Charles Stuart ´Carlo´ Bayley, G.C.I.E., K.C.S.I., I.S.O. (1854-1935), was born in Florence, Italy, into a family with a long history of service in India; he was the son of Captain Daniel Bayley, Bengal Cavalry, and the grandson of William Butterworth Bayley, a member of the Council of the Governor-General 1825-30, who officiated in 1828 as Governor-General pending the arrival of Lord William Bentinck, and was Chairman of the East India Company from 1840. Educated at Harrow, he passed the Indian Civil Service exam in 1875 head of his batch, and two years later, having been called to the Bar by Lincoln´s Inn, Bayley departed for India. After serving as an Under-Secretary in the Revenue and General Department, he was promoted, in 1884, to be Revenue and Agricultural Under-Secretary to the Government of India. He transferred to the Political Department in 1886 as Assistant Commissioner of Ajmenre, and in 1888 was appointed Political Agent to the State of Bikaner, which was under British control during the minority of the Maharajah Ganga Singh. In the six years until the Marahajah reached his majority, Bayley improved the administration, and, more importantly, supervised the education of the young Prince, who became one of the most progressive of the Princely Rulers. In 1894 Bayley was appointed Superintendent of Operations to the ´Thuggee and Dacoity Department´. With the thug cult having been extinct since the 1870´s, Bayley was chiefly concerned with political crime and sedition (and in 1904 the Department´s name was changed to the Central Criminal Intelligence Department to reflect the changed circumstances). During this period Bayley spent three months as Private Secretary to His Excellency The Viceroy and Governor-General of India, The Earl of Elgin, K.G., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E. In 1900 Bayley was selected Agent to the Governor-General in Central India, and in 1903 was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India. In 1905 he was appointed Resident in Hyderabad, the Premier Indian State, the senior representative of the Raj in an area twice the size of England, and advanced to a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India in 1908. In August 1911 Bayley was nominated by the new Viceroy and Governor-General, the Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, K.G., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E., G.C.V.O., I.S.O., his Harrow contemporary, to be Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam. He went to Dacca in the hope of completing the work begun by his two predecessors of re-establishing order following the partition of Bengal in 1905, and was not consulted on, or even informed of, the momentous changes announced at the Delhi Durbar in December 1911, by which Eastern and Western Bengal were re-united. Although disappointed by this, Bayley accepted the Lieutenant-Governorship of the brand new state of Bihar and Orissa, where for four years he ruled with ´untiring courtesy, tact, and patience.´ Receiving the Imperial Service Order in 1912, in June 1915 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Indian Empire, the crowning glory of his career. In November of that year, Bayley was appointed to the Council of India, and served on it up until his retirement in 1924, after 47 years´ official service in India. The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, Knight Grand Commander´s (G.C.I.E.) Collar Chain, comprising of sixteen medallions made up of two Imperial Crowns, four Indian Elephants, four Lotus flowers, four Peacocks in full splendour, and two Indian Roses, linked together by chains, 1480mm, silver-gilt, with screw-ring suspension from Imperial Crown medallion to support Badge Appendant, traces of lacquer, extremely fine and of the highest rarity Estimate £ 18,000-22,000 The Order of the Indian Empire does not have a separate Collar Badge, but utilises the sash Badge for this purpose (see following lot)

Sold for
£18,000