East India Company Officer's sword, Cadet William Swainson Suart, 1833 (c)

Pattern 1822 sword made by John Prosser, Charing Cross Road,London, 1833 (c). Gilt brass 'Gothic' guard, with a folding inner guard, or fall, inscribed with the East India Company lion holding a crown and laurels in a cartouche.

The blade is inscribed: 'William Swainson Suart (Cadet) of the Honourable Company's Engineers This sword presented to him at the Public Examination on the 15th December 1833 by the Honourable Court of Directors of the United East India Company as a Mark of the Court's Approbation of his General Good Conduct while in the Company's Military Seminary'.

Suart (1814-1882) went on to join the East India Company Engineers, gaining his commission as Second Lieutenant in 1833, Lieutenant in 1842, Captain in 1848 and finally Major in 1857. He died in 1882.