Collar of the Order of the Lion and Sun of General Sir William Keir Grant

Unique piece in gold and enamel. Circa 1830. Awarded Awarded by the Shah of Persia to Lieutenant-General Sir William Keir Grant "in consideration of his distinguished Services in The Persian Gulf" following his successful suppression of piracy the Persian Gulf and the signing of the Treaty of 1820. While the precise date of the award has not been traced it was acknowledged by William IV under a Royal Licence dated 24 October 1831.​

Collar of the Order of the Lion and Sun of General Sir William Keir Grant.jpg


Collar comprising 24 alternating links in the form of decorated star-framed oval lions couchant right, with sun rising behind (12, each 61 mm width), and crossed pairs of bows and quiver of arrows, with shamshir type sword across (12, each 73 mm width), with simple hook fastener and eye for the suspension of the badge, all 24 links plainly enamelled on their reverses also and the lion links with oval gold backing pieces (of which 3 are now missing.
Collar of the Order of the Lion  and Sun of General Sir William Keir Grant.jpg


Collar of the Order of  the Lion and Sun of General Sir William Keir Grant.jpg


Collar Badge of hollow construction in gold with blue and green translucent enamels, finely-worked lion couchant in high relief right before radiant sun [this now with plain centre, probably formerly enamelled with a sun-face], with hook-and-ring suspension for attachment to the Collar, the reverse in plain gold, 70.5mm (including suspension) x 54 mm.

Collar  of the Order of the Lion and Sun of General Sir William Keir Grant.jpg
 
Privately commissioned Russian-made breast star.

Silver. gold, enamel.
Size 88 mm.
Unmarked. Gold backplate engraved "Andrews à St Petersbourg".

Order of the Lion and Sun of General Sir William Keir Grant.jpg
Order of the Lion and Sun of General Sir William  Keir Grant.jpg


Central medallion.

Order of the Lion and Sun of  General Sir William Keir Grant.jpg
 
General Sir William Keir Grant.jpg


General Sir William Keir Grant, KCB, GCH (born William Keir; 25 May 1771 – 7 May 1852) was born in Fife, Scotland, the son of Archibald Keir of the East India Company and joined the British Army as a cornet in the 15th (The King's) Light Dragoons.

He was promoted lieutenant in 1793, and accompanied part of his regiment to Flanders, where he fought at Famars, Valenciennes, and elsewhere in the campaigns of 1793–4. He was present at the Villers-en-Cauchies on 24 April 1794, when two squadrons of the 15th and two of the Austrian Leopold Hussars, although finding themselves unexpectedly without infantry support, overthrew a much superior force of French cavalry, pursued them through the French infantry, and captured three guns. The action saved the Emperor of Germany, who was on his way to Coblenz, from being taken by the French. Keir and seven other officers were awarded a large gold medal by Francis II. Only nine of these medals were struck, one being given to each of the eight British officers present, and the ninth placed in the Imperial Museum, Vienna. The officers were also made knights of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, which, as in the case of other foreign orders of chivalry previous to 1814, carried the rank of a knight-bachelor in England and other countries. It also gave the recipient the rank of baron in Austria.

He was then promoted to a troop in the 6th Regiment of Dragoon Guards, with which he served in Germany in 1795 and Ireland in 1798. In the latter year Keir received permission from George III to wear the gold medal given by Francis II in commemoration of the action at Villers-en-Cauchies.

Keir joined the Russian and Austrian armies in Italy early in 1799, and served in the campaigns of 1799, 1800 and 1801. He was present at the battles of Novi, Rivoli, Mondovi, and Sanliano. He also served in the gunboats at the Siege of Genoa (1800) and in several actions in the mountains of Genoa, when the Austrians and Russians lost nearly thirty-three thousand men. He was also at the Battle of Marengo and the sieges of Alessandria, Sanaval, Tortona, Cunio and Savona.

On 3 December 1800 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the 22nd Light Dragoons, with which corps he landed in Egypt after the cessation of hostilities in 1801. The regiment was disbanded on the Peace of Amiens, and Keir was placed on half pay.

For a short time he was aide-de-camp to the Prince of Wales, and afterwards first aide-de-camp to Lord Moira, before being appointed adjutant-general of the king's troops in Bengal, where he commanded the advance of Major-general St. Leger's force on the Sutlej in 1810. Subsequently, while on the Bengal staff, Keir, who became colonel in 1810 and a major-general in 1813, was appointed to command a small force of cavalry and grenadiers sent against Ameer (Amir) Khan (afterwards the Nawab of Tonk) in 1814. In 1815 he was made commander-in-chief and second member of council on the island of Java, a position he held until the island was restored to the Dutch after the peace.

In 1817 he was appointed to the Bombay staff and commanded the Gujerat field force, part of the army of the Deccan, in the operations against the Pindaris. In February 1819 he was in command of a force assembled on the frontier of the Sawunt Warree state. The latter proving intractable the troops entered the country, carried the strong hill fort of Raree by storm and marched to the capital, where a treaty was signed with the regency. In March the same year he commanded a force sent against the Rajah of Cutch, which, after defeating the enemy and capturing the hill fortress of Bhooj, received the submission of that province.

In October 1819 Grant Keir was despatched by the Bombay government with a strong armament for the suppression of piracy in the Persian Gulf. The attack was specially directed against the Joasmi (Al Qasimi), a tribe of maritime Arabs of the sect of Wahhabis or followers of the Arab religious reformer, Abd-ul-Wahab (Bestower of Blessings), whose pirate craft had long been the terror of the coasts of western India. Ras Al Khaimah, their stronghold, had been destroyed by a small force from Bombay in 1809, but their power was again in the ascendant. Ras Al Khaimah was captured with small loss on 9 December 1819, and on 8 January 1820 Grant Keir signed a general treaty of peace on the part of the British government with the chiefs of the tribes of maritime Arabs of the Persian Gulf, by whom it was subsequently signed at different times and places. It provided for the entire suppression of piracy in the Gulf. For his services Grant Keir received the thanks of the governor-general in council and the Persian decoration of the Lion and Sun.

He returned home at the end of his staff service and was made KCB in 1822, lieutenant-general in 1825, GCH in 1835 and given the colonelcy in 1839 of the 2nd (Royal North British) Regiment of Dragoons (later the Scots Greys), an honour he held until his death in 1852. He was promoted to full general on 23 November 1841.

He died at his home in Chapel Street, Belgrave Square, London, aged 80.​
 
Imperial Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa, Knight's breast badge, awarded to General in 1800.

Gold, enamel.
Size 41mm (including suspension) x 28.5 mm.

Austria, Imperial Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa,.jpg
Austria, Imperial  Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa,.jpg


Order was conferred upon the eight recipients of the 1794 Villers-en-Cauchies gold medals (see preceding lot) on 7 November 1800 following a change in the statutes of the Order of Maria Theresa, allowing its award to foreigners for the first time. Permission to wear was granted by King George III and announced in the London Gazette, 2 June 1801. Together with the award came the title of Baron in Austria, considered equivalent to the award of the Knight Bachelor in Britain and in Europe. As one of the terms of this award, the Villers-en-Cauchies medal was no longer supposed to be worn although it was to be retained by the recipients. Awarded to Major-General Sir William Keir Grant K.C.B., G.C.H., 6th Dragoon Guards, late 15th Light Dragoons, who became Colonel of the Royal Scots Greys. William Keir (later Keir Grant) was one of just eight Officers of the 15th Light Dragoons to receive the spectacular gold Ehrenmedaille für Englische Kavalleriste, expressly awarded by the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, for gallantry in saving him personally from capture by French forces at the Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (which is variously spelled in historical records), near Cambrai, in 1794. As it so happened, Keir Grant was later to become the recipient of an equally rare honour – the Collar and insignia of the Order of the Lion and Sun of Persia - for commanding a major British military expedition to the "Pirate Coast" on the south-eastern Persian Gulf. Having roundly defeated the enemy and pacified the pirate stronghold of Ras al-Khaimah, Keir Grant succeeded in securing an agreement with a number of important tribal leaders, leading to an historic Peace Treaty of 1820 which heralded local truces and the foundation of the Trucial Sheikhdoms as well as the abolition of the Slave Trade in the area. Modifications to the Treaty and a full revision many decades later, in 1892, contributed to an enhanced British presence in the Southern Gulf and important new relationships with the Trucial Sheikhdoms. A loose British Protectorate was to last until the gaining of their independence on 2 December 1970, in turn leading to the creation of the United Arab Emirates.​

Silver Medal of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, struck in 1843 to commemorate 50 years of the Grand Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa that also belong to Major-General Sir William Keir Grant.

Size 52.5 mm.

Silver Medal of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria.jpg


Silver Medal of  Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria.jpg
 
Austrian Gold Medal of Honour for English Cavalrymen, 1794 /Ehrenmedaille für Englische Kavalleristen/ from the young Holy Roman Emperor Francis II in recognition of his personal rescue by eight Officers of the 15th Light Dragoons at the Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies on 24 April 1794.

Diameter 60mm, height (including suspension ring) 70mm.
Weight 136.75 g.

Ehrenmedaille für Englische Kavalleristen.jpg
Ehrenmedaille  für Englische Kavalleristen.jpg


Only nine examples were struck on the instructions of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (later to become Emperor Francis I of Austria and also known as the 'Doppelkaiser'). The medal was created as a gallantry award and reward to the eight British Cavalry Officers of the 15th Light Dragoons who took part at the Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies and who rescued Francis from capture by the French, with one specimen being retained for the Imperial Cabinet of Vienna. The action, against greatly superior numbers, was later likened to that of 'the renowned Black Prince at the hard fought battles of Cressy and Poictiers [sic]', and the eight recipients to be honoured were: Lieut.-Col. William Aylett (in command), Captains Robert Pocklington and Edward Michael Ryan, Lieutenants Thomas Granby Calcraft, William Keir (as he was known at the time) and Charles Burrell Blount, and Cornets Edward Gerald Butler and Robert Thomas Wilson. All eight were also awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresa in 1800​
 
Commander's badge of Légion d'Honneur, Henri IV, July Monarchy, circa 1830-1848.

Gold, enamel.
Size 89 (including crown suspension) x 59.5 mm.

Légion d'Honneur.jpg
 
Order of the Bath, Knight Commander’s breast star, circa 1822.

Silver, gold, enamel.
Size 62 mm.
Engraved with makers’ names "Storr & Mortimer, Bond Street".

Order of the Bath, Knight Commander’s breast star.jpg
Order of the Bath, Knight Commander’s breast  star.jpg
 
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    collar of the order of the lion and sun early order of the lion and sun ehrenmedaille für englische kavalleristen general sir william keir grant general sir william keir grant awards general william keir grant awards and decorations imperial austrian military order of maria theresa military order of maria theresa order of the bath made by storr & mortimer order of the lion and sun persian order of lion and sun sonnen- und löwenorden storr & mortimer
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