Length overall: 9.2cm (3.6in)
Silver, rose gold and enamels. Cigarette case with engine turned decoration and rose gold banding, the hinged lid applied with the coronets and cyphers of the Heir Apparent and Princess of Wales; gilt interior and engraved with presentation inscriprion ‘To / Captain Clive Wigram, MVO / From / George and Victoria Mary / Prince and Princess of Wales / In remembrance of / Their visit to India / 1905-6’; Maker’s mark of Alfred Clark, 20 Old Bond Street, London. Cased.
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Clive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram, GCB, GCVO, CSI, PC, FZS (1873-1960) was Private Secretary to George V from 1931 to 1936. Educated at Winchester College and the RMA, Woolwich, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1893. In 1897 he transferred to the Indian Army and joined 18th (King George's Own) Bengal Lancers with whom he served on the Tirah Expedition. From 1899 to 1904 he was Aide-de-Camp to the Viceroy of India Lord Curzon. He resigned to serve with Kitchener's Horse in the Second Boer War for which he was mentioned in despatches. He was back as squadron officer in the 18th Bengal Lancers in April 1902 and was promoted to captain on 4 October 1902. Between 1905 and 1906 Wigram served as Assistant Chief of Staff to the Prince of Wales in India. In 1906, he was promoted and was appointed Equerry to the Prince of Wales, an office he held until the Prince became King in 1910. While in India he played first-class cricket for the Europeans club. Wigram then served as Assistant Private Secretary and Equerry to the King from 1910 to 1931. In 1931 Wigram was promoted to Private Secretary to the Sovereign and held office until he retired in 1936. He was later Keeper of the Archives, an Extra Equerry as a Permanent Lord in Waiting and Deputy Constable of Windsor Castle. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1932 and raised to the peerage as Baron Wigram, of Clewer in the County of Berkshire in 1935.
"When the Prince and Princess of Wales reached Calcutta during their 1905-06 tour of India they were photographed with various officials, one of whom was Captain Clive Wigram of the 18th Tiwana Lancers. He wears regimental Indian full dress, standing second from the right."