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Auction: 23003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 65

Four: Director of Telegraphs R. Meredith, C.S.I., C.I.E., Indian Telegraph Department

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Burma 1889-92 (Asstt. Supdt. R. Meredith. Telegraph Dept.); India General Service 1895-1908, 1 clasp, Relief of Chitral 1895 (Asstt. Supdt. R. Meredith. Tel. Dept.); British War Medal 1914-20 (R. Meredith, P & T. Dept.); Delhi Durbar 1911, silver, unnamed as issued, light contact marks, very fine (4)

[C.S.I.] London Gazette 3 June 1919.

[C.I.E.] London Gazette 22 June 1914.

Richard Meredith was born at 56 Upper Mount Street, Dublin on 21 May 1867. He was the son of Sir James Creed Meredith, Deputy Grand Master and Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, Chancellor of the Diocese of Limerick and Secretary of the Royal University of Ireland and his first wife, Florence Hargrave. Educated at the Royal School, Armagh, he later matriculated to Trinity College, Dublin where he studied Engineering.

Meredith decided to seek his fortune in India and was appointed to the Indian Army on 1 October 1889, arriving there on 5 November 1889. Appointed Assistant Superintendent, Class VI, Grade 2 at the Telegraph Works in Calcutta he moved to Bombay, joining the Construction Department in October 1890.

While here Meredith served with the Upper Burma Division on field telegraph construction between November 1881-June 1892. He married later that year to Ada Middleton and transferred to the Lahore Sub-Division of the Punjab Division, still working with telegraph construction. Here The Irish Independent wrote of him:

'We are glad to record that Mr. Richard Meredith (eldest son of Mr. J.C. Meredith, Secretary, Royal University of Ireland), who is in the telegraphic service of the Department of Public Works in India, who was selected to lay down the wires for the purposes of the mission to Cabul last year, has just received the thanks of the Governor General of India and the Indian Government for his special services.'

The year after this Meredith was part of the Field Telegraphs section of the British Expeditionary Force on the Chitral Expedition between 29 March-30 June 1895. His work here allowed the British to remain in touch both with their various units locally within the field but also with their supply bases in India. Meredith's telegraph wires even supported the suspension bridge over the Panjkora River.

Advanced superintendent, 1st Grade, on 4 February 1906 he was employed on special duty with the working of the East Indian Railway Company’s Telegraph system from January-March 1908. Meredith remained in India throughout the Great War, latterly as Chief Engineer of Telegraphs, and was named as brought to the notice of the Government of India ‘for valuable services rendered in India in connection with the War’ (Gazette of India 29 July 1919, refers).

Meredith returned to Ireland, he purchased Cliff House, Killney, Dublin. He died on 4 January 1957 at 12 Clarence Road, Windsor; sold together with copied research including Who's Who 1946 and officer's record of service.

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Sold for
£550

Starting price
£500