In 1905 the Prince and Princess of Wales visited India. Captain Clive Wigram of the 18th Lancers joined the Prince’s staff at Bombay. On 1 Jan 1906 the announcement came that the Prince had been appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the 18th, that it would in future be known as the 18th (Prince of Wales’s Own) Tiwana Lancers, and that Major-General G L R Richardson was appointed Colonel of the Regiment. Major-General Richardson addressed the regiment after a display of horsemanship and tent-pegging at Aligarh:
“His Royal Highness considers it an honour to be Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment. He had especially applied for appointment to the 18th Tiwana Lancers. Having seen that all ranks are as good at sport as they are in the field, he feels all the more satisfied at the decision he has made.”
In May 1910 came the news of the death of King Edward VII and the succession of George V. Shortly after, Major Wigram was appointed as the King’s Assistant Military Secretary and Equerry in Ordinary. In December 1910 the Gazette of India published this announcement:
‘The Viceroy and Governor-General in Council has much gratification in announcing that His Majesty the King Emperor has been graciously pleased to alter the designation of the regiment to 18th King George’s Own Lancers, with the Royal and Imperial cypher as an additional honorary distinction’
The portrait is of King George (and Emperor of India) at Delhi, an original watercolour by Christopher Clarke, signed and dated 1915, in the Anne S K Brown Collection. According to R G Harris’s article on Royalty in Uniform in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research no. 257 (Spring 1986) the ‘Sphere’ of 9 Dec 1911 published a full page reproduction of King George V in the Indian full dress of this regiment. He also says that ‘As far as is known HM never wore this uniform or any other Indian full dress.’ So perhaps Clarke made two portraits, or else the date of 1911 is a misprint. The uniform does not agree in every detail with that worn by the officers. The white cuffs are incorrect as is the white collar and the waist-belt.
