A Royal Memento of the Delhi Durbar

A Royal Memento of the Dehli Dhurbar, presented 1911

In 1911, shortly after his coronation, King George V and Queen Mary were on an official tour of India. Major Henry Ball Holmes was then an officer in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers appointed to serve as an equerry on the Royal Train and at the Delhi Durbar. The Delhi Durbar was a mass gathering held to mark the coronation of a British King or Queen during the time of empire. In appreciation of this service the King presented him with this diamond encrusted monogrammed stick pin.

Major Holmes served in the Boer War and was severely wounded during the Second Battle of Ypres in the First World War. He died as a result of those wounds on 27 November 1915.