Orders, Decorations and Medals

A C.I.E. group of four awarded to Major William John Bradshaw, Calcutta Port Defence Volunteer Corps

The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., Companion’s 3rd type neck badge, gold and enamel; Delhi Durbar 1911, silver, unnamed; Indian Volunteer Forces Officers’ Decoration, E.VII.R., reverse engraved, ‘Major W. J. Bradshaw, Calcutta Port Def. Voltrs.’, with top brooch bar; Volunteer Force Long Service (India & the Colonies), E.VII.R. (Captn. J. W. Bradshaw, Cal. Port Def. Voltr. Corps) engraved naming, note variation in initials, medals mounted court style for wear, good very fine and better (4) £700-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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C.I.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

William John Bradshaw arrived in India in 1885 and was employed as an Assistant with Walsh, Lovett & Co. Ltd. of Calcutta, Engineers and Contractors. Circa 1890 he was General Manager of Walter Locke & Co. of Calcutta, Engineers, and in about 1905 was Managing Director. He retired from the firm in 1922.

Bradshaw initially served in the ranks of the Calcutta Naval Volunteers, later called the Calcutta Port Defence Volunteer Corps. He was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant on 10 February 1893. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 31 July 1896; Captain of the Artillery Company on 1 April 1899, and granted the Honorary rank of Major on 30 November 1906.Bradshaw was awarded the Volunteer Force Long Service Medal, notified in I.A.O. 103 of March 1907, and the Indian Volunteer Forces Officers’ Decoration, notified in the Gazette of India of 13 June 1908. The Delhi Durbar of 1911 was awarded to him through a civil allotment of the Bengal Government. Bradshaw was transferred to the Supernumerary List on 1 October 1911 but later in 1914-15 was on the Staff of the Calcutta Port Defence Volunteer Corps. For his very many services, both civil and military, he was awarded the C.I.E. in 1919. A citation reads,

‘He is a respected member of the Calcutta Trades’ Association, of which he is a Past Master. His whole life in India, since he arrived in 1885, has been marked by unostentatious but untiring public service in every direction. He was a Volunteer until 1917, when with the introduction of the Indian Defence Force, he retired with the rank of Major. He was an Honorary Presidency Magistrate from 1896 to 1904. He has served on the Committee of the Presidency General Hospital, the Mayo Hospital, the Calcutta Free School, St. John’s Day School, Sailors’ Home and Seamans’ Mission. He was a Municipal Commissioner for 12 years and a Member of the Bengal Legislative Council for three years. He was very many years a visitor to the Presidency Jail, Reform School and Bhowanipur Lunatic Asylum, and he is the oldest member of the Cathedral Vestry. As Master of the Trades’ Assocation he served on the Committee which sent Lumsden’s Horse to South Africa in 1902, and he did excellent work in quieting public alarm in 1914 when the Emden was in the Bay of Bengal. He has been Secretary of three organisations for raising funds for war charities’.

Returning to England he lived at Heathersett, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and later at Burkes Grove, Burkes Road, Buckinghamshire. He died there on 11 January 1926. Sold with a quantity of copied research.