Silver case: 10.2cm (4.1in) x 6.3cm (2.5in)
Silver. Combination cigarette and vesta case, the hinged lid to the main compartment engraved the crowned GRI cypher of George V and inscribed 'H.M.S. Medina, India 1911-12’. The rear inscribed verso 'H.S. Bowlby / Flag Lieutenant’, the right side fitted with tinder cord. Maker’s mark of Frederick Thomas Buckthorpe, London. Hallmarked London 1911. Contained in original green Morocco case gilt embossed to the upper left with the State Imperial Crown, the case silk bearing the name of the Royal Warrant holder of Collingwood, 46 Conduit Street, London. Case: 13cm (5in) x 11cm (4.4in).
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Captain Hugh Salvin Bowlby RN (1888-1977) entered the navy as Britannia cadet in 1903. In 1911 he was appointed Flag-Lieutenant, with Special Service Squadron which escorted George V and Queen Mary to India for the Delhi Durbar of that year. During the First World War he served as Flag Lieutenant and Signal Officer to Vice Admiral J.M. de Robeck, commanding Cruiser Force I in the East Atlantic, August 1914-January 1915, and afterwards in the battleship Lord Nelson at the Gallipoli landings and later the evacuation of Cape Helles, being twice mentioned in despatches and being awarded the French Croix de Guerre. He was later Flag Lieutenant to Rear Admiral Fergusson, 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron in HMS Birmingham at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in November 1918. He was later Fleet Signal Officer, Mediterranean Fleet, and captain of the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla leader HMS Broke. He retired in 1934 and was recalled to active at the start of the Second World War and given command of a requisitioned armed ‘luxury’ yacht, HMS Philante in which he evacuated the Lieutenant-Governors of Jersey and Guernsey prior to Nazi occupation of the islands. He served on escort / convoy duties 1939-1941 under Western Approaches Command and was appointed Naval Officer in Charge Stranraer, Scotland (HMS Fortitude) 2 February 1943 to July 1945. Bowlby was the brother-in-law of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover.