Orders, Decorations and Medals

Six: Captain I. W. Beatty, Indian Army

India General Service 1908-35, 2 clasps, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919, North West Frontier 1930-31 (2-Lt., 31 Lancers); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, N.W. Persia (Lieut.); 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45; India Service Medal 1939-45, together with a set of related miniature dress medals, mounted as worn, contact marks and a little polished, otherwise very fine or better (12) £500-600

Ivan Wakefield Beatty was born in Painstown, Co. Meath in November 1895, the son of Surgeon-General T. B. Beatty, late Indian Medical Service, and a younger brother of the future Major-General G. A. H. Beatty, K.C.B., C.S.I., C.M.G., D.S.O & Bar.

Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in April 1918, Ivan was embarked for India in early 1919 and joined the Indian Cavalry, and was quickly employed in the Third Afghan War as a subaltern in the 31st Lancers. Of his subsequent service during the North-West Persia operations in August-December 1920, he was most probably employed on the lines of communication in the Guides Cavalry, for it was in the latter corps that he served as a Squadron Officer prior to resigning his commission as a Captain in the early 1930s. Re-employed in the 1939-45 War as a Garrison Company Commander, I.A., Beatty died in the Seychelles in September 1969.

Sold with a large quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s commission warrant for the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, Land Forces, Indian Army, but the vast majority of the archive appertaining to the life and times of his father, Surgeon-General T. B. Beatty, Indian Medical Service, with numerous vellum medical diplomas and certificates, among them Royal College of Surgeon appointments, commission warrants (4 - from ‘Surgeon in the Service of the East India Company’, dated in November 1851, through to that of Surgeon-Major, dated in May 1871), his official statement of services, numerous letters, etc., together with other family documentation, including further correspondence, birth, death and marriage certificates, typed family tree, wax seals, etc., and a photograph album. A most interesting archive worthy of further research.

Also sold with 1939-45 & Burma Stars, War Medal 1939-45, mounted as worn, together with a set of related dress miniature medals, as awarded to another member of the Beatty family; and a fine quality silver presentation key inscribed, ‘The Sir William Birdwood Ward, Datia, Opened by Major. Genl. G. A. H. Beatty, C.B., C.S.I., C.M.G., D.S.O., 1929’, 150mm. overall length.

Notes:

Thomas Berkeley Beatty was born in November 1827, qualified in medicine in 1851, and entered the service of the Honourable East India Company as an Assistant-Surgeon later in the same year. He does not appear to have witnessed any active service, but rose to the rank of Surgeon-General and was placed on the Retired List in March 1885. He died at Monkstown, Ireland in November 1916.

Guy Archibald Hastings Beatty was born in Poona in June 1870, where his father was then serving as a Surgeon-Major, and after being educated back home at Charterhouse, was commissioned in the Royal Irish Regiment. In 1892, however, he transferred to the Indian Army, gaining an appointment in the 9th Bengal Lancers, with whom he served on the North West Frontier 1897-98 and in the Boxer Rebellion, but it was for his subsequent services as C.O. of 9th Hodson’s Horse in France 1914-17 that he won his D.S.O. & Bar. Having then commanded the Lucknow Cavalry Brigade in Egypt, he witnessed further active service in Persia and Transcaspia in 1919, and was awarded the C.M.G. and the 1st Class Order of the Golden Star of Bokhara, to which distinctions he added the C.S.I. for services in 75th Brigade in Mesopotamia in 1920-21. Next appointed Colonel Commandant of the 1st Indian Cavalry Brigade, and awarded the C.B. in 1923, Beatty was latterly Military Adviser-in-Chief, Indian State Forces 1927-31, and promoted to K.C.B. on his retirement in the latter year. He died in Devon in May 1954.