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Auction: 24111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 765

Sold by Order of a Direct Descendant

The well-documented C.I.E. awarded to Surgeon & Inspector-General of Jails of the North-Western Provinces Sir J. W. Tyler, Uncovenanted Indian Medical Service, who personally selected Abdul Karim to travel with him to assist Queen Victoria in her Golden Jubilee Celebrations; that famed relationship lasted for the remainder of the life of The Queen

The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., Companion’s 1st Type breast Badge, with ‘INDIA’ on the petals (1878-87), gold and enamel, complete with gold top suspension brooch, usual gold ‘stop’ between “Victoria” and “Imperatrix” on the legend, good very fine, in its R. & S. Garrard & Co. case of issue

Knighthood London Gazette 30 April 1888.

C.I.E. London Gazette 28 June 1886:'

The Queen has been graciously pleased to give directions for the preparation of a Special Statute...to provide for the admission into the said Order of such persons as have rendered special and important services in connection with the Exhibition of the Products, Manufactures, and Arts of Her Colonial and Indian Dominions now being held in London, and to ordain that all persons upon whom Her Majesty may think fit to confer the honour of being admitted into the said Most Honourable Order...John William Tyler, Esq., M.D., Superintendent of Central Prison, Agra, in charge of Indian Jail Manufactures at the Colonial and Indian
Exhibition...to be Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire.'

His obituary in the British Medical Journal gives more detail:

'Sir John William Tyler, a well-known Anglo-Indian Medical Officer, died at his residence in London on 12 May 1913. He was educated at the Deveton College in Calcutta, and at the Medical College in that city and in 1861 came to England and took the diplomas of LSA and LRCS and LRCP(Edin). In 1862 he graduated MD (St. Andrews), and in 1863 he was appointed to the Uncovenanted Indian Medical Service, in the North-West Provinces, and joined as a Civil Surgeon of Ebah District. In 1873, he entered the Gaol Department as Superintendent of Meerut Gaol and in April 1876, took over charge of the Agra Gaol, which he held for fourteen years. Under Tyler this Gaol became known as a great manufacturing Gaol, its special line being Indian carpets of the best quality.

He was employed on special duty in England at the Colonial & Indian Exhibition of 1886, and for his services on that occasion he was given the CIE. In December 1886, he was deputed on special duty in the Dholpur State, and in 1887 came to England again on the Staff of the Maharaka of Bhartpur for the Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. In 1888 he received the honour of knighthood, and in September 1890, was appointed Inspector-General of Jails of the North-Western Provinces, now the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. He retired in July 1896, after a career which may be said to be the most successful of any officer who ever served in the Indian Uncovenanted Medial Service.'

Little more need be said of the strong relationship which formed between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim 'The Munshi', which was all down to the work of Tyler. He came to prominence when in 1886 travelling with 34 of his charges from the Agra Jail for the Exhibition in London - they became known as 'Dr Tyler's Artisans'. So impressed was Queen Victoria that she tasked him with recruiting two Indian Assistants to help with the upcoming Jubilee Celebrations. At the end of 1886, Tyler was again headed back to London with Maharaja Ram Singh of Bharatpur, when his Clerk, Abdul Karim came to the fore. Karim had earlier chosen two gold bangles for Tyler to give to the Queen, and an 'interview' soon occurred, as noted in the diaries of Karim:

'Dr Tyler and I were instructed to take our station near the dining room and wait her Majesty's coming.' After presenting to her some gifts '...the Queen was thereafter pleased to speak to Dr Tyler a few words, and so ended my first interview with the Empress of India.'

The bond between the three was clearly very strong indeed, Karim went to stay with Tyler whenever he was on leave from The Queen and the depths of the relationship between Karim and The Queen have long been debated. Tyler presented The Queen with a finely bound album containing albumen photographs of Indian Prince's and rulers taken by Bourne and Shepherd in January 1887 (RCIN 2107577, refers), which was recently displayed in the exhibition Eastern Encounters at The Queen's Gallery.

Sold together with the following original archive comprising:

(i) Bestowal Document for the C.I.E.

(ii) Letter of congratulations for the 1887 Jubilee from the Maharaja of Bhartpur, 5 May 1887.

(iii) Letter of thanks from Queen Victoria, from Balmoral, 27 September 1886, related to the presentation gift from 'Dr Tylers Artisans'.

(iv) Letters patent and wax seal for his Knight Bachelor, wax rather cracked.

(v) Locket with his image, together with London Gazette for his Knighthood.

For his miniature dress Medal, please see Lot 978.

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Sold for
£4,800

Starting price
£2600