BIKANER. H. H. Maharaja Ganga Singh in Camel Corps uniform.

BIKANER. An exceptional Bikaner photograph by Herzog & Higgins, Mhow, Central India of the large Royal card size 12½ x 7½ins showing H. H. Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner in the white dress uniform of his Ganga Risala Camel Corps seated with Colonel Rao Bahadur Thakur Shri Deep Singhi of Garsisar, the Commandant of the Corps, standing between him and a British military adviser, Major Herbert Vaughan Cox of the 21^st Madras Pioneers. Cox was promoted to the rank of major in January 1900 and the photograph probably dates from around that date, just before the young Maharaja led his troops in support of the British Army in the China War. The Indian Army List 1899  shows Cox as 2^nd in command of the regiment and, from  31 December 1895 Inspecting Officer Rajputana Imperial Service Infantry and it is no doubt in this capacity that he was visiting Bikaner. The Maharaja does not yet wear any medals but the Commandant wears the Order of British India. The sword expert will notice that whereas the Maharaja wears the late 19th century British cavalry honeysuckle hilt pattern sword, the commandant seems to wear the earlier 1821 pattern light cavalry officer’s sword.  oct17/2

Major Herbert Vaughan Cox [1860 – 1923] of the 21^st Madras Pioneers wears three medals recorded in Hart’s Army List as: 2^nd Afghan War for service with the Khyber Line Force; IGS 1854 with two clasps for service in the Burmese Wars 1883-1888, and IGS 1895 with two clasps for service on the North West Frontier with the Mohmand FF, the Tirah Expeditionary Force & the Buner FF. He appears in the 1895 list as serving with Imperial State Forces.  He had been commissioned initially into the 25^th  King’s Own Scottish Borderers. He was later to command the 69^th Punjabis and ended his career General Sir H. V. Cox, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.S.I.. He was awarded his C.S.I. on 12^th December 1911 when he was a brigadier general and a military member of the Coronation Durbar Committee.