Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Hon. Colonel C. Routh, Indian Volunteer Forces, senior A.D.C. to the Governor of Bengal and onetime C.O. of the Assam-Bengal Railway Volunteer Rifles

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, 1 clasp, Alexandria 11th July (Mr. Claude Routh); Delhi Durbar 1911; Indian Volunteer Forces Officer’s Decoration, G.V.R., silver, silver-gilt (Lieutt. Colonel (Honorary Colonel) C. Routh, Assam Bl. Ry. Vol. Rifles); Turkey, Order of the Medjidie, 4th Class breast badge, silver, silver-gilt; Khedive’s Star 1882, mounted court-style as worn, clasp back-strap removed from the first for mounting purposes, minor enamel damage to the Medjidie badge, otherwise very fine and better (5) £600-700

Claude Routh, who was born in April 1860, pursued a career as an engineer on completing his education at Clifton College. It was in this capacity, as a civilian, that he was employed as Attache to the Controller of the port of Alexandria during the Egypt operations of 1882, which services qualified him for the Medal & clasp and the Khedive’s Star, in addition to gaining him appointment to the 4th Class of the Order of the Medjidie (London Gazette 14 August 1883, refers).

In February 1896, Routh was appointed a Lieutenant in the Chittagong Volunteer Rifles, in which corps he gained advancement to Captain in October 1898. Then on the formation of the Assam-Bengal Railway Volunteer Corps in early 1901, he was appointed the unit’s first Commandant in the rank of Major - and given the regimental number ‘1’. Routh clearly impressed his seniors, for he was rapidly advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel and, in early 1907, appointed an Honorary A.D.C. to the Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal and Assam. It was in this capacity that he qualified for the Delhi Durbar Medal in 1911.

In April 1912, and by then holding the rank of Honorary Colonel, Routh was appointed an A.D.C. to the Rt. Hon. Lord Carmichael of Stirling, G.C.I.E., K.C.M.G., the Governor of Bengal, the same year in which he was awarded the Indian Volunteer Officer’s Decoration (Gazette of India 14 September 1912, refers). Of his later career, little remans known, but he is believed to have died in India in 1929; sold with copied research.