Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A scarce ‘1st type’ C.I.E. pair awarded to Colonel O. Probyn, who served with the 3rd Regiment Native Infantry during the Second Sikh War, before transferring to the Bombay Invalid Establishment having lost his right arm in a shooting accident. Appointed Superintendent of Police, he served as Agent for Khandesh and Commandant of the Khandesh Bhil Corps, whilst simultaneously holding for over 20 years the appointment ‘Tiger Slayer to the Government of Bombay’

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 integral gold top suspension brooch, back plate slightly loose; Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Mooltan, Goojerat (Lieut. O. Probyn, Acting Qr. Mr. 3rd. Regt. N.I.) light pitting to obverse, otherwise good very fine, the C.I.E. extremely fine and scarce (2) £3200-3800

C.I.E. London Gazette 2 January 1883.

Oliver Probyn was born in Longhope, Gloucestershire, and joined the Honourable East India Company's service in 1843, being appointed to the 3rd Regiment Native Infantry the following year. He took part in the Second Sikh War of 1848-49 and was present at the siege of Mooltan and the battle of Goojerat. He was subsequently employed with the Field Force North of Peshawar and in the Swat Country.
In 1853 he was adjutant of his regiment at Sholapur, and soon after was severely injured when a gun exploded whilst he was loading it, blowing off his right hand entirely, and requiring the arm to be amputated near to the elbow. Posted to the Bombay Invalided Establishment, he was sent to Australia on deputation in 1856, before returning during the Mutiny, and was for a short time employed with the Rajputana Field Force.
He was promoted Major on 28 March 1860, and having been promoted Superintendent (First Grade) of Police subsequently served as Agent for Khandesh and Commandant of the Khandesh Bhil Corps for the next twenty years. Whilst there he also held the appointment of ‘Tiger Slayer to the Government of Bombay’:

‘In Khandesh the office of Tiger Slayer was by no means a useless or merely decorative office. The post- probably the only one of its kind in all India- was held in conjunction with that of Agent, and had been originally created to meet a pressing necessity due to the increase of wild animals in the District, a veritable paradise for wild animals, which figures, as everybody will remember, in Mr. Kipling's Jungle Book. In those disturbed times at the beginning of the last century, large tracts of land in Khandesh passed from villages into forest from which tigers roamed and dealt destruction in the very heart of the District. In 1822, for example, five hundred human beings and twenty thousand head of cattle were destroyed by wild animals, tigers being the principal destroyers. This District, more than almost any part of Western India, continued as a stronghold for wild beasts. Indeed, so dangerous and destructive had they become, that at length a special party of the Bhil Corps, consisting of forty men, to which were attached two Government elephants, were especially deputed as tiger hunters and placed at the disposal of the then Superintendent of Police.
Colonel Probyn, a redoubtable sportsman, whose marvellous shooting with one arm was the wonder of the Indian Continent, dispensed a sort of patriarchal justice to the complete satisfaction of the wild Bhils, and the offices of Agent and Slayer fitted in admirably with each other, since the shooting expeditions of the Slayer enabled him to come into a close understanding of the habits and methods of thought of the natives, The Bhils, who were all shikaris to the tips of their fingers, and who would talk to the Slayer in a free-and-easy, and therefore illuminating, manner, whereas they probably would have been dumb before the Agent.’ (Tiger Slayer by O. E. Gouldebury refers).

For his services in Khandesh Probyn was created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1883, shortly before his retirement later that year. Granted the rank of Honorary Colonel, he died in London on 20 July 1883, within a month after his departure from India:
‘Such was the last great commandant of the Khandesh Bhil Corps. Worse mutilated than Nelson, he had all Nelson's dash and vigour, and commanded as much as Nelson the affections of his men. As an officer who served with him said, “The Sahibs loved him, and the Bhils adored him.”’ (A Memoir of the Khandesh Bhil Corps 1825-91 refers).