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Ed_Haynes is offline
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Earth, usually
Posts: 484
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Durbar qualifications
Basically (and it was rather more complex than this, being India after all):
1875 Prince of Wales Visit Medal - Seems to have been awarded by the PoW, as he wished, as a kind of personal souvenir. Definitely awarded (in gold) to the Princes present at the Durbar at Agra. No system on how silver medals were awarded (to "prominent individuals"?). He didn't consult the government of India about this one anyway and they remained (were kept?) totally ignorant regarding it. Issued unnamed, but gold ones were named by the mint if the recipient wished to ship them back. These medals SEEM to have been awarded pretty sparingly, unlike the Royal Victorian Medals that he gave out like peanuts.
1877 Empress of India Medal - Like Bertie's medal, little rime or reason here. Again, in gold to the princes at Delhi and in silver to others present at the durbar in Delhi. Issued unnamed, but gold ones were named by the mint if the recipient wished (like the 1875 medal). There was an issue in the army, but I was not able to find details in Delhi last year. Will quest again this summer. No real systematic meta-policy evolves on these things until the 1887 and 1897 Jubilee Medals.
1903 Durbar Medal - Carfeully thought out in detail. (Curzon, after all, was the viceroy!) Awarded in gold to princes and other dignataries who were ACTUALLY at the Durbar (though only the princes were actually allowed to wear the gold medal -- all European gold medal recipients also got a silver one that they were supposed to wear outside India -- there was a general admission, however, that those pesky foreigners like Hesse would probably wear whatever they wanted and that would mean "gold" and there was little that could be done about it). 144 gold medals awarded, 99 of these to Indian princes. The silver medal (2453 of them) was awarded to those actually AT the Durbar, so long as their status entitled them (it is, after all, 1903). This included a wide range of individuals in categories ranging downward from the 200 medals allotted to individuals chosen by the princes themselves (3 medals per state for those with salutes of 17 or above, 2 per state with salutes between 9 and 15, and 1 medal for each non-salute state -- there is, alas, no central roll of these, as they were just handed over to the princes to pass out as they wished -- you have to go to the individual state archives to get this). So far as I have traced, ALL medals were awarded to those actually at the Durbar. If you got one, you had to have been at the Durbar, but not all who were there got one. (The sole exception to this rule was a medal to Mirza Rahat Ju who designed the reverse calligraphy on the medal -- he was too sick to attend but got a medal anyway.) For troops at the Durbar (really there), there was a quota system. For each regiment (British and Indian and Imperial Services) present in Delhi, the commanding officer, adjutant, senior Indian officer, two senior havildars (sergeants), senior naik (corporal), and longest-service sepoy or sowar (private) got medals. (It is a bit more complex than this, but you get the point.) All surviving Mutiny veterans who were present at the Durbar (British and Indian) also got the medal. Some medals (basically, the gold ones) were named later, gold by the mint, most were not, though there are some regimental patterns in private naming that are enticing.
1905 Visit of Prince of Wales - Like daddy's medal, Georgie gave these silver medals to whom he wished (although, unlike Bertie, he was pretty tight-fisted with medals). Like daddy's medal, the government knew little about these awards until, years later, people began asking how to wear them (and the government had to say "we have no clue" -- difficult for any government to admit). No naming, no roll. Not allowed to be worn except in formal durbar (like the WWI recruiting badge).
1911 Durbar - This gets really complex and I'll grossly over-simplify. As (a) the King-Euperor was actually going to be "in town" and (b) the empire needed badly to advertise itself, the award was broadened way beyond those just at the Durbar ceremonials in Delhi. There was MUCH discussion and much division in government over this. As in 1903 (and 1877), given in gold to princes and in silver to others. I have the numbers about somewhere, but neither in front of me nor in my head. MYB says (that IS on my desk) 30,000 were awarded (so it is certainly NOT 30,000, since MYB says so, though it may well be close). For the military, a similar quota system was used to what had been in place in 1903, and the medal was certainly NOT awarded to all serving military (or civilian) personnel in India, either European or Indian; every regiment in India was, however, included, whether or not they were in Delhi for the festivities (though the regiments there did get a larger quota of the ~10,000 [MYB figure] military awards). Awards had to be to those prominent, loyal, and male (all awards to women had to be approved individually by the viceroy) and there was much to-and-fro-ing over how each quota would be allocated. There was, to repeat myself, a very conscious desire to use the medal as a cement for an empire that is showing cracks. Rolls exist, and are complex and lengthy. A fair number of medals were named (none excepty the gold by the mint) and as with the 1903 medals there are regimental and other patterns in play. And, like the 1903 medal, the award was worn proudly, ahead of all campaign medals (as it was a royal gift) until it was moved to the end of the bar during the Great War (but that's another tale...).
1921 Visit of Prince of Wales - Basically, a replay of the 1905 situation. Pretty much below the government radar, as the POW had a disinclination to ask anyone about anything. In addition, hge had a really, really bad time in India (aggressive demonstrative Indian nationalism and a much tighter Victorian morality) and didn't seem to be a medal-giving mood (though he, too, spread RVMs around the place). Like 1905, it was not allowed to be worn except in formal durbar (around the neck, like the WWI recruiting badge).
1937 Durbar - The "Durbar that Never Was". Due to (a) the succession crisis, (b) the stubborn reluctance of George VI to go anywhere, (c) the likely negative Indian response to any of that imperialist feudal nonsense, and (d) the looming war, no durbar ever took place. Yet the plans were well in place for a durbar, with or without the King-Emperor. The proposal was to issue the coronation medal in India (as usual, though two ribbons, civil/military, were originally intended) in largish numbers and to add a bar or clasp to the ribbon to represent attendance at the durbar (back to 1903?). None of this ever happened, though I think a design for a bar was drawn up. It would be in mint records, in Islamabad, which I have not seen (yet?).
I am, of course, generally ignoring the issue of Indian quotas for the coronation and jubilee medals and the policy on how to dewal with members of the Indian Contingent for the coronation who also qualified for a Durbar medal (e.g., clasp for the 1911 Coronation Medal).
Thanks for your tolerance of a mega-posting, but you asked! Await the book for more!!
Ed Haynes
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My brother's brother is my father's uncle
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