Great War Mesopotamia and Indian Civil Service group awarded to Albert James Mainwaring, C.I.E., District Magistrate and Collector of Monghyr, Bihar and Orissa, formerly a Lieutenant in the Cavalry Branch of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers. Mainwaring joined the Indian Civil Service in the Bihar and Orissa area from 1915 through to his death in November 1941, and for his services as the District Magistrate and Collector of Monghyr, Bihar and Orissa he was appointed to become a Companion of The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire in the King’s Birthday Honours List of June 1934.
Group of 4: British War Medal and Victory Medal; (LT. A.J. MAINWARING.); Jubilee Medal 1935; Jubilee Medal 1937. Mounted swing style as worn.
Condition: Good Very Fine or better.
Together with the following:
Recipient’s full set of miniature medals, including the Companion of The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., silver-gilt and enamels, these mounted swing style as worn, and also accompanied by both of his earlier mounted sets of miniatures, the first with just his Great War pair, the second comprising Great War pair and Jubilee Medal 1935.
Sets of tunic medal ribbons bars, both full size and miniature form, varying combinations, all prior to the issue of his Coronation Medal 1937.
A selection of Indian Civil Service tunic buttons.
3 x Eton College ‘For Regular Attendance’ Medal, pewter, two complete with original suspension, ribbon, and top brooch pin. These believed related.
Also 5 x Prize Medals=, these silver and hallmarked, possibly related.
Albert James Mainwaring was born on 30 November 1891 in Worcester, Worcestershire, the son of Albert Owen Mainwaring and Edith Mary Otty, and the eldest of three children, having two younger sisters, with the second of whom, born in October 1895, resulting in the death of his mother during child birth. As of 1901 he was still in Worcester, where his father was a shopkeeper and running a grocery business. The family were then residing at 9 Green Hill. Mainwaring was educated at King’s School in Worcester, and he then went on to Oxford University in 1909, where he was as of 1911 when in Pembroke College. In that same year his father is shown as a farmer, and residing in Elsdon, near to Lyonshall in Herefordshire. Whilst at Oxford, he rowed in his college togger which made three bumps.
Mainwaring had been studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Law at Oxford, and after an examination in 1914 passed into the Indian Civil Service, and eventually arrived out in India on 4 December 1915, where he then took up an appointment as the Assistant Magistrate and Collector in Bihar and Orissa. Owing to the ongoing Great War, and having previously been a member of the Oxford University Officer Training Corps, he was then commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Indian Army and was appointed to the Cavalry Branch of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers on 14 August 1916. He was then promoted to Lieutenant on 14 August 1917, and was appointed an Aide-de-Camp on 25 August 1915, and continued to see military service through until June 1919, having been on operations in Mesopotamia.
Mainwaring then returned to his duties with the Indian Civil Service in Bihar and Orissa, resuming his role as the Assistant Magistrate and Collector and additionally that of Assistant Settlement Officer from November 1919. He was the officiating Under-Secretary to the Government, Police and Appointments Department from February 1923, and was the Assistant Political Agent for Orissa and the Feudatory States from November 1924. He was then the officiating Private Secretary to the Governor of Orissa from March 1926, and was confirming in the position of Private Secretary from October 1926. Mainwaring then took up the position of officiating Magistrate and Collector from October 1928, and held the same position but for the entire province sub-area from November 1930, being then confirmed in the position of District Magistrate and Collector of Monghyr, Bihar and Orissa from August 1933.
For his distinguished services to the Indian Civil Service, Mainwaring was appointed to become a Companion of The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire in the King’s Birthday Honours List as published in the London Gazette for 4 June 1934. He was further awarded both the Jubilee Medal 1935 and the Coronation Medal 1937.
As of 1939 he was in London and a resident of the Great Western Royal Hotel at Paddington, but he returned to India where he died in Ranchi in Bihar on 30 November 1941, with his estate being passed to his sisters.
