Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel Onward Bayes Lacey, Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway Battalion, Auxiliary Forces India

Indian Volunteer Forces Officers’ Decoration, G.V.R., reverse engraved, ‘Capt. O. B. Lacey, O. & R. Ry. Bn. A.F.I.’, with top bar; Volunteer Force Long Service (India & the Colonies), G.V.R. (Capt., The O. and R. Bn. A.F.I.) officially impressed naming, unit corrected, mounted as worn, good very fine (2) £280-320

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

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Onward Bayes Lacey was born in Kiama, New South Wales, Australia, on 10 February 1883. He was educated at Colet House, Rhyl and at Ruthen Grammar School, North Wales. Lacey then trained as an Engineer, working as a journeyman millwright at the London & North Western Railway shops at Crewe, becoming a Foreman there, 1905-09. In 1910 he was Draughtsman at Naysmyth Wilson at Patricroft, Manchester. He was admitted as a Student of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1903, was elected an Associate Member in January 1911 and Member in January 1932. He was also a Member of the Institute of Locomotive Engineers.

Lacey joined the Indian State Railways in December 1910 as an Assistant Locomotive Superintendent with the North Western Railway at Kundian. During 1911-12 he held the same post at Rawalpindi. He was Works Manager of the Locomotive Shops at Lahore, 1912-16; during 1916-21 he was Personal Assistant to T. Gregson, Locomotive Superintendent on the Orissa and Rohilkhund Railway at Lucknow; then during 1921-28 he was District Locomotive Superintendent at Fyzabad, Moradabad and Howrah. In November 1928 he became the Works Manager of the East Bengal Railway and was latterly Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer, East Bengal Railway until he retired in 1937.

Serving in Volunteers for many years, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the North Western Railway Volunteer Rifles in July 1911 and was promoted to Lieutenant in December 1913. He transferred to the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway Volunteer Rifles in July 1916 and was promoted to Captain in October 1920. Lacey’s name was ‘brought to the notice of the Government of India for valuable services rendered in India in connection with the war up to the 4th August 1917’, and again ‘up to the 31st December 1918’. Captain Lacey was awarded the Volunteer Force Long Service Medal, this published in I.A.O. 136 of February 1924; and the Indian Volunteer Forces Officers’ Decoration, published in the Gazette of India of 30 May 1925. In 1926 the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway Battalion amalgamated with the East Indian Railway Regiment. In June 1929 Lacey was promoted to Major in the Eastern Bengal Railway Battalion, and attained the rank of Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel in about 1931-32. He was transferred from the Eastern Bengal Railway Battalion to the General List (A.F.I.) in October 1934. After his retirement he returned to England and died at Wincanton, Somerset, on 7 July 1960. Sold with copied research.