Dormant British order of chivalry established 1878
Imperial Order of the Crown of India
The insignia of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India
Awarded by the British monarch
Type
Order of Chivalry
Eligibility
British princesses, wives or female relatives of Indian princes
Status
Last appointment in 1947 Dormant order since 2022
Post-nominals
CI
Ribbon of the order
TheImperial Order of the Crown of India is an order in theBritish honours system. The Order was established byQueen Victoria when she becameEmpress of India in 1878.[1] The Order was open only to women, and no appointments have been made since thePartition of India in 1947. The Order was limited to British princesses, female Indian rulers (for example theNawab Begums of Bhopal), wives or female relatives of Indian princes, and the wife or female relatives of any person who held the office of:
The Order of theCrown of India was established byQueen Victoria in 1878 as a companion order to theOrder of Victoria and Albert. The order was intended to recognize women associated with India regardless of their social statuses. In practice, the Order of the Crown of India was mostly conferred on royalty, wives of peers, wives of members of India's ruling classes and wives of civil servants stationed in India. It is one of the honours reserved for women only, such as theRoyal Red Cross,Order of Victoria and Albert and theRoyal Family Order.
QueenElizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, and her sister,Princess Margaret, were appointed to the Order by their father, KingGeorge VI, in June 1947, before theBritish Raj was dissolvedthree months later, making them among the last women to be presented with the Order. By the late 20th century there were only four living recipients – Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, andPrincess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who was the last ordinary member at the time of her death in 2004.
With the death of the last surviving holder, Queen Elizabeth II, the last active imperial Indian order became Inactive in 2022.
The members of the Order could use thepost-nominal letters "CI", but did not acquire any special precedence or status due to it. Furthermore, they were entitled to wear the badge of the Order, which includedQueen Victoria's Imperial Cypher, VRI (Victoria Regina Imperatrix). The letters were set in diamonds, pearls, and turquoises, and were together surrounded by a border of pearls surmounted by a figure of the Imperial Crown.
The badge was normally worn attached to a light blue bow, edged in white, on the left shoulder. Recipients entitled to other medals wore the Order’s badge mounted on their medal groups.
Elizabeth II, in her uniform as Colonel-in-Chief of the Scots Guards, wears the badge of the order as a medal (first on left). (Trooping the Colour, 1986)
1895: Victoria Spencer, Lady Sandhurst (wife ofWilliam Mansfield, 1st Baron Sandhurst, later Viscount Sandhurst, Governor of the Presidency of Bombay, 1895–1900)
1895: Lady George Hamilton (wife ofLord George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India, 1895–1903)
^"No. 37325".The London Gazette. 26 October 1945. p. 5237.In recognition of her work for Indian service men and Indian seamen as Chairman of the Indian Comforts Fund.
^"No. 37598".The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1946. p. 2763.
^"No. 37905".The London Gazette. 14 March 1947. p. 1216.
^ab"No. 37976".The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1947. p. 2569.
^"No. 38041".The London Gazette. 8 August 1947. p. 3731.
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