Honours Records

Honours and Protocol Records of the Political and Secret Department, India Office, the Political Aide-de-Camp etc.- the Honours relate mainly to awards given for service in British India - they cover both Asians and Europeans and include Imperial Honours as well as the specifically Indian ones. The series falls into three main archival divisions 1) L/PS/15/1-69: the Political and Secret Department's central working and reference series on honours questions, 1856-1931, kept in a series of bound volumes 2) L/PS/15/70-116: a series of unbound files, bundles and individual notes, etc, 1780-1947, mostly unregistered, which were discovered in the old India Office building in Whitehall circa 1967 - they include 'inter alia' all the surviving files of the Secretary of State for India's Political Aide-de-Camp relating to Darbars, external affairs and general Honours questions. The Political ADC - the office was established in 1872 - was primarily responsible for looking after visiting Indian princes and nobility and overseeing the English education of the sons of Indian gentry 3) L/PS/15/117-265: a series of printed volumes, ranging in date from 1877 to 1939, originally kept by the Political and Secret Department and its successors for reference purposes. For the most part they consist of the statutes for the several Indian and Imperial Orders together with annual lists of members of the Orders or holders of the main Honours.

For indexes and registers see IOR/Z/L/PS/15/1-17. For the Honours records of the Political (Internal) Department and its Successors 1931-1950, see IOR/L/PS/13/322-520 indexed at IOR/Z/L/PS/13/1-21. For the Honours records of the Political (External) Department and its Successors 1931-1948 see IOR/L/PS/12/4468-4480; for other records relating to Honours see the relevant sections of IOR/L/PS/18/D 57-303; see also IOR/L/MIL/5/42-141; IOR/R/1/10/15-173, 14/1-153, 15/1-10, 16/1-107, 17/1-26; IOR/R/3/1/195-269, and the relevant sections of European Manuscripts [Mss Eur]

Unrestricted