‘Poet Laureates’ Badge’, oval openwork badge, 50 x 41mm., gilt metal laurel wreath, with a crowned harp in the centre decorated with paste stones and gold appliqué, reverse inscribed, ‘Charles Doyne Sillery, K.M. and K.C.[?]. Poet Laureat(e)’, with fixed ring at apex for suspension, additionally with a brooch fitting to the reverse which obscures some of the inscription, nearly extremely fine, a rare and interesting piece £200-250

Charles Doyne Sillery was born in Athlone, Ireland on 2 March 1807, the son of an Irish artillery officer of the same name, who died at Talavera. Charles Doyne Sillery junior entered the Royal Navy at an early age and served as a Midshipman on a voyage to India and China. Delicate health prevented him from pursuing a naval career and in 1828 he settled in Edinburgh to study surgery at the university. This endeavour also would seem to have ended prematurely as there is no mention of him at the university after 1829. His remaining years were undoubtedly dedicated to his writings. He died at Edinburgh on 16 May 1837.

He is remembered as a Scottish/Irish poet and essayist of some note; his works published in several volumes. His essays of a religious nature were entitled, A Discourse on the Sufferings of Our Saviour (1833); An Essay on the Creation of the Universe (1833), and The Man of Sorrows (published posthumously). More significant were his volumes of verse: Vallery or the Citadel of the Lake (2 volumes, 1829); Eldred of Erin (1833); The Royal Mariner and other Poems (1833) and The Exiles of Chamouni (1834). Several of his poems have achieved a permanent place in Scottish anthologies - The Scottish Bluebells being one such. In the Royal Mariner - a poem celebrating the ‘Sailor King’ (William IV), he himself claimed descent from royalty. He also offered himself to be ‘Poet Laureate’ to the king, a post he was destined never to achieve.