LT. COLONEL CLEMENT FILOSE PRE WW1 ROYAL VICTORIAN ORDER BREAST BADGE MEDAL

LT. COLONEL CLEMENT FILOSE PRE WW1 ROYAL VICTORIAN ORDER BREAST BADGE MEDAL

Offered is an original Royal Victorian Order, 5th Class, Breast Badge, as awarded to Lieutenant Colonel Clement Filose, Scindia's Army and Military Secretary to His Highness the Maharaja of Gwalior, awarded for services during the royal visit to India 1905-1906.

42mm wide silver Maltese cross of multi-part construction with laterally-pierced loop and ring for ribbon suspension; the face with an oval central medallion imposed bearing the gilt cipher ‘VRI’ of Queen Victoria on a red enamel ground within a deep blue enamel ring with gilt arabesques above, inscribed ‘VICTORIA’ in gilt letters below, an Imperial crown in gilt and red enamel above; the reverse plain gilt and numbered 127 on original ribbon.

Sold together with copied portrait photograph (also wearing the 1902 Coronation Medal and a Vatican Order) and letter from Major-General Gillett at the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, confirming Filose was the recipient of Badge No. 127.

M.V.O. London Gazette 15 May 1906: '25 December 1905.

Lieutenant-Colonel in Scindia's Army and Military Secretary to His Highness the Maharaja of Gwalior.'

Lieutenant Colonel Clement Augustine Filose was born at Gwalior in 1853. The son of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Florence Filose, his family had been in India since 1770 and originally came from Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, when a General Michael Filose came to India as a mercenary. He was created a Knight of St. Gregory, by Pope Leo XIII (1894), he was the Military Secretary to His Highness the Maharajah of Gwalior. He was awarded the M.V.O. for his hospitality during the Royal Visit to India 1905 - 1906. He married Missouri-born Mary Sheehan in India, with issue of five children and died on 10/10/1938 at Worcester Park, Surrey, England.

The Order was instituted on 21 April 1896 to be awarded for service to the sovereign and is in his or her personal gift. It is most often given to members of the Royal Household, to those who are of service to the monarch during foreign tours and during state visits to heads of state and their personal entourage.

The Order is issued in small numbers and usually retained within families and is thus rarely available on the market.