Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, K.C.B. (Military) Knight Commander’s Chapel Stall Plate, gilded brass with engraved and painted coat of arms, inscribed ‘Sir John Malcolm, Colonel in the Service of the East India Company & Member of the Royal Persian Order of the Lion & Sun, nominated a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, 7th April 1815,’ 225x185mm, the reverse with maker’s stamp G. Harris, No. 31 Shoe Lane, London, nearly extremely fine and rare £2500-3000

John Malcolm, who was born at Burnfoot, Dumfriesshire in May 1764, arrived in Madras as a newly commissioned officer in the H.E.I.C’s forces in 1783. Subsequently employed in the Seringapatam operations of 1792, under Lord Cornwallis as a Persian interpreter, he went home on furlough before returning to India with appointment as Secretary to the C.-in-C. Madras in 1796. Two years later he became the Resident of Hyderabad and in the Serigapatam operations of 1799 he served as a Political Officer to the Nizam, a post that was followed by his appointment as Joint Secretary to the Commission for the Settlement of Mysore.

It was around this time that Malcolm had also acted as Lord Wellesley’s Envoy to Persia, and in 1801 he became his Private Secretary, a post which in turn led to his appointment as Political Officer to General Arthur Wellesley (afterwards the Duke of Wellington) during the Mahratta War. Service as Resident to Sindia’s Court, and to Madras, followed, and in 1805 he was charged with carrying out the treaty negotiations with Sindia and Holkar.

Then between 1808-10, on appointment as Envoy and Plenipotentiary from the Supreme Government in India to the Court of Persia, he was sent by Lord Minto on several missions to Teheran, a period that also witnessed his despatch to Masulipatnam to quell a mutiny of officers. Interestingly, in reward for these services, and second only to Arthur Wellesley, he was created a Knight First Class of the Persian Order of the Lion and Sun, ‘as a distinguished testimony of the Royal regard and esteem of the King of Persia’; see Carlisle’s The Several Foreign Orders of Knighthood, etc., for interesting background information regarding the establishment of the Order, much of it supplied by Sir John Malcolm.

Malcolm returned home on furlough between 1812-16, where he gave testimony before the House of Commons on Indian matters, and was created a K.C.B. in April 1815.

Back in India, where he was appointed Brigadier-General and Political Agent during the Pindari-Mahratta War 1816-18, Malcolm reached the pinnacle of his career as Governor of Bombay between 1827-30 and was appointed G.C.B. The author of several works specialising in matters Persian, and latterly an M.P. for Launceston, he died in London in May 1833.