Indian Volunteer Forces Officers Decoration, EVIIR reverse engraved to Lieut. H C Veasey Chota Nagpur Light Horse; Delhi Durbar 1911 Coronation Medal - unnamed as awarded.
Harley Cyril Veasey was born in Islington, London in 1865. By the time of his marriage at Barrakur in 1890 he was living in India - the nuptials taking place on 14 October 1890 at which point he was a Mining Engineer. According to the Volunteer Service Gazette of 4 December 1903, he was a Second Lieutenant in the Chota Nagpur Mounted Rifles where his father-in-law was a Captain. He attended a camp at Ranchi in 1903 where he was an officer with B Troop.
He was awarded the Delhi Durbar Coronation medal in 1911 in the rank of Major with the Chota Nagpur Light Horse and earned the Volunteer Decoration (India) as well. Not seeing any active service he was ineligible for WWI medals but was, in the London Gazette of 4 February 1919 confirmed in the rank of Major, alongside his brother-in-law, Frank Joseph Agabeg.
An interesting and lesser known aspect to Veasey was he was a close friend of the poet William Yeats while attending Godolphin School together in London. The friendship continued long after.
His sister Ethel and Yeats also became friends and kept up a correspondence even after the Yeats family returned to Ireland in 1880. Several letters between the two went on auction - the earliest letter contains two whimsical pen and ink sketches (one featuring an encounter between Cyril Veasey (as he was known) and a tiger, the other showing four hunters shooting at a single duck and captioned "game is scarce").
Veasey died at Kitale in Kenya's Rift Valley on 12 July 1925
Medals are in good condition unless indicated otherwise.
