Length: 54cm (21in)
Bullion embroidered knee Garter, terminating in an eighteen carat gold buckle and contained in its case by Wilkinson & Son, 34-36 Maddox Street
Provenance: Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe (1858-1945)
Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, K.G., K.P., P.C. was made a Knight of the Garter in 1908. He was the Liberal Secretary of State for the Colonies and Secretary of State for India in Herbert Asquith’s cabinet just before and during the early days of the First World War. Asquith valued him highly as a colleague, for his common sense and sound judgment rather than any exceptional brilliance.
In the latter post, he was responsible for the removal of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi. His father-in-law, Lord Rosebery, the Liberal Leader in the House of Lords, thought Crewe a reliable politician but a poor speaker. When it was announced to him that his daughter, the Marchioness of Crewe, was in labour, Rosebery quipped, "I hope that her delivery is not as slow as Crewe's. Lord Crewe also held the dinner party at which Churchill met his future wife Clementine Hozier.