Delhi Durbar Medal, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Mackenna, Upper Burma Volunteers and Indian Civil Service, 1911

Born in Scotland, Sir James Mackenna (1872-1940) was educated at Edinburgh and Oxford Universities, and joined the Indian Civil Service in 1894. He served in Burma and is listed in the 1910 Indian Army List as a supernumerary with the Upper Burma Volunteer Rifles with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Mackenna served as Director of Agriculture in India from 1906 and Director of the Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa, Delhi, from 1916 to 1920.

Mackenna qualified for a Delhi Durbar clasp to be worn with his 1911 Coronation Medal but his medal group includes this Delhi Durbar Medal 1911. The two medals were not supposed to be worn together. Mackenna was made a Companion of the Indian Empire in 1917 and he was knighted in 1925.

The Delhi Durbar of 1911 was held for the formal purpose of enabling King George V, as Emperor of India, to announce his coronation to his subjects in India, and to receive homage from the Viceroy and his officers, and from the Indian ruling princes. The total number of participants and spectators was estimated at 100,000, including over 30,000 British and Indian soldiers.

From a medal group awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Mackenna, Upper Burma Volunteers and Indian Civil Service.