A Collection of Medals to the Indian Police

A well documented C.I.E., M.B.E. group of seven awarded to Colonel Gordon Herbert Ramsay Halland, Indian Police - latterly Chief Constable of Lincolnshire and first Commandant of the Metropolitan Police College

The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., Companion’s 3rd type neck badge, gold and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919, on 2nd type (military) ribbon; British War Medal 1914-20, M.I.D. oak lead (Maj.); Delhi Durbar 1911, silver; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Coronation 1953, these unnamed, these six cleaned and mounted court style for display, very fine and better (7) £1400-1800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the Indian Police.

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C.I.E. London Gazette 1 January 1931. ‘Indian Police Service, Senior Superintendent of Police, Punjab.’

O.B.E. London Gazette 19 December 1918. ‘Lieutenant (T./Major), Indian Army (Reserve of Officers)’

M.I.D. London Gazette 26 November 1918.

Gordon Herbert Ramsay Halland was born in 1888, the eldest son of The Reverend J. T. Halland, M.A., Rector of Blyburgh, Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire. He was educated privately and at the Royal Latin School, Buckingham. Halland was employed as a Science Master at Kirton Grammar School, Lincolnshire in 1906, before entering the Indian Police in 1908.

Posted to the Punjab, he served in the Ambala, Lahore, Rohtak, Hoshiarpur, Rawalpindi, Lyallpur, and Amritsar Districts. Served in the Great War in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers, for which service he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the military O.B.E. After the war he served as Principal at the Punjab Police Training School at Phillaur, 1921-26 but was on duty with the Duke of Connaugh at Delhi, 1921 and with the Prince of Wales at Delhi, 1922. Appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the I.A.R.O. in 1927 (London Gazette 8 April 1927) and was attached to the General Staff, H.Q. of Shanghai Defence Force and subsequently, the North China Command, 1927-30. Served as Senior Superintendent of Police, Punjab, 1930-31 and was Hon. A.D.C. to the Viceroy, with hon rank of Colonel. Awarded the C.I.E. for his services in 1931, he relinquished his commission in August that year when he retired from the Indian Police and returned to England.

Halland was appointed Chief Constable of Lincolnshire, 1931-34; after which he served as Deputy Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Metropolitan Police College, 1934-38. From 1938 until his retirement in 1943, he served as one of H.M. Inspector’s of Constabulary, with interludes in re-organising the Ceylon Police Force, 1942-44; and as Inspector General of Public Safety in Germany after the war.

After his retirement he served as a County Councillor for Parts of Lindsey and in 1954 was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Lincolnshire. Halland died in Stroud, Gloucestershire on 28 March 1981, aged 92 years.

He married firstly in 1916, Helen, daughter of Major-General J. M. Walker, by whom he had two daughters and, secondly in 1947, Baroness Sigrid von der Recke, of Latvia.

With an impressive typescript of 409 pages, cloth bound, entitled, ‘Punjab Patrol by Lieut. Colonel G. H. R. Halland C.I.E. O.B.E. Indian Police 1908-1931 Late Chief Constable of the County of Lincolnshire’ - with an original photograph of the recipient in uniform. The book recounts his experiences in serving in India.

With copied gazette extracts, m.i.c., obituary and other research.