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Lot

№ 739

.

11 October 2023

Hammer Price:
£200

The British War Medal awarded to Sir Norman Strathie, K.C.I.E., Indian Civil Service, who served during the Great War as a Corporal in the Southern Provinces Mounted Rifles, Indian Defence Force

British War Medal 1914-20 (593 Cpl. D. N. Strathie, S. Prov. M. Rif. I.D.F.) good very fine, rare to unit £200-£240

K.C.I.E. London Gazette 1 January 1944: David Norman Strathie, Esq., C.I.E., Indian Civil Service, Adviser to His Excellency the Governor of Madras.

C.I.E. London Gazette 2 January 1939: David Norman Strathie, Esq., Indian Civil Service, Member, Board of Revenue, Madras.

Sir (David) Norman Strathie was born in Glasgow on 31 October 1886 and was educated at Glasgow Academy and Balliol College, Oxford. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1911 and served initially as Under Secretary in the Revenue, Judicial, and Public Departments, Madras. He served during the Great War with the Southern Provinces Mounted Rifles, Indian Defence Force, from November 1917 to February 1918 (entitled to British War Medal only). Thereafter he was Commissioner of Income Tax, Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Inspector of Local Boards, and Adviser to the Government of Madras. He served as Commissioned of Income Tax for Palestine, and became Chief Civil Representative with the Southern Army in India. During the Second World War he returned to the U.K. and served in the Home Guard in London.

Appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1944, for his services as tax expert and adviser to the Governor of Madras, he retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1946, and subsequently served as Financial Secretary of Jamaica from 1946 to 1949. He died on 3 August 1959.

Strathie was evidently an accomplished Baritone, as he entertained the listeners of Madras Radio on one occasion with a medley of songs (appearing on the programme just after a Violin Recital given by Yehudi Menuhin).

Sold with copied research.