Orders, Decorations and Medals

A C.S.I., C.I.E. group of six awarded to Austen Havelock Layard, Indian Civil Service

The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, C.S.I., Companion’s neck badge, in gold and enamel with central onyx cameo of a youthful Queen Victoria, the motto of the Order set with small diamonds, with silver star and ring suspension, compleat with neck cravat, in Garrard, London case of issue, slight enamel damage; The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., Companion’s 3rd type neck badge, gold and enamel, compleat with neck cravat, in Garrard, London case of issue; British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, these four mounted as worn, good very fine and better (6) £3500-4500

Austen Havelock Layard was born on 20 February 1895, the son of Sir Charles Layard, Chief Justice of Ceylon. Educated at Rugby and King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained an M.A., he was called to the Bar at Grays Inn in 1926. During the Great War he was commissioned a Lieutenant and served with the Royal Sussex Regiment, attached to the 2nd Battalion East Surrey Regiment and served in Egypt and Salonika. After the war he entered the Indian Civil Service and was a Deputy Commissioner, 1926; Deputy Commissioner, Delhi, 1932-38; Deputy Commissioner, Nagpur, 1942; Officiating Commissioner, 1943-45; Officiating Chief Secretary, 1946, and Secretary to the Governor of Central Provinces, 1946-47. He retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1948. For his services he was awarded the C.I.E. in 1937 and C.S.I. in 1947. Post-independence of India, he held appointments in the Office of the High Commissioner for the U.K. in India, at Delhi and Calcutta, 1948-49. Austen Havelock Layard died on 24 March 1956.

Sold with a CD of related family photographs including his receiving the C.S.I. from Lord Mountbatten in the last investiture before he left India.