Order of the Star of India
British order of chivalry established 1861
The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:
Knight Grand Commander (GCSI)
Knight Commander (KCSI)
Companion (CSI)
No appointments have been made since the 1948 New Year Honours, shortly after the Partition of India in 1947. Following the death in 2009 of the last surviving knight, the Tej Singh Prabhakar, Maharaja of Alwar, the order became dormant.
The motto of the order was "Heaven's Light Our Guide". The Star of India emblem, the insignia of the order and the informal emblem of British India, was also used as the basis of a series of flags to represent the Indian Empire.
The order was the fifth most senior British order of chivalry, following the Order of the Garter, Order of the Thistle, Order of St Patrick and Order of the Bath. It is the senior order of chivalry associated with the British Raj; junior to it is the Order of the Indian Empire, and there is also, for women only, the Imperial Order of the Crown of India.
History
Several years after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the consolidation of Great Britain's power as the governing authority in India, it was decided by the British Crown to create a new order of knighthood to honour Indian Princes and Chiefs, as well as British officers and administrators who served in India. On 25 June 1861, the following proclamation was issued by Queen Victoria:
The Queen, being desirous of affording to the Princes, Chiefs and People of the Indian Empire, a public and signal testimony of Her regard, by the Institution of an Order of knighthood, whereby Her resolution to take upon Herself the Government of the Territories in India may be commemorated, and by which Her Majesty may be enabled to reward conspicuous merit and loyalty, has been graciously pleased, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to institute, erect, constitute, and create, an Order of Knighthood, to be known by, and have for ever hereafter, the name, style, and designation, of "The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India"
Recipients
Knights Companion
19 persons were appointed Knights Companion at the creation of the Order:
Albert, Prince Consort
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, GCB, Governor-General of India and Grand Master of the Order
Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet, GCB, Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council
George Harris, 3rd Baron Harris, Governor of Madras
Sir George Russell Clerk, Governor of Bombay
Sir John Laird Mair Lawrence, Bt, GCB, Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab
Sir Hugh Henry Rose, GCB, Commander-in-Chief, India
Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough, former Commander-in-Chief, India
Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, former Commander-in-Chief, India
Tukojirao Holkar II, Maharaja of Indore
Afzal-ud-Daulah, 5th Nizam of Hyderabad
Jayajirao Scindia, Maharaja of Gwalior
Duleep Singh, former Maharaja of the Sikh Empire
Ranbir Singh Dogra, Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir
Yusef Ali Khan, Nawab of Rampur
Nawab Sikander Begum, Nawab Begum of Bhopal
Narinder Singh of Patiala, Maharaja of Patiala
Khanderao II Gaekwad, Maharaja of Baroda
12 additional Knights Companion were appointed over the next five years.
19 August 1861
Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere, former Commander-in-Chief, India
Sir George Pollock, 1st Baronet GCB, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan
11 November 1863
Ram Singh II, Maharaja of Jaipur
Swarup Singh, Rajah of Jind
10 December 1864
Randhir Singh, Raja of Kapurthala
Raghuraj Singh Ju Deo Bahadur, Maharaja of Rewa
12 February 1866
Sir Robert Montgomery, former Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab
Sir Henry Bartle Frere, Bt., GCB, Governor of Bombay
Takht Singh, Maharaja of Jodhpur
Ayilyam Thirunal, Maharaja of Travancore
General Sir William Mansfield, 1st Baron Sandhurst, KCB, Commander-in-Chief, India
Madan Pal, Maharaja of Karauli
Sir Joginder Sen Bahadur KCSI, Maharaja of Mandi
On 24 May 1866, the Order was expanded to additional ranks.
“Order of the Star of India” enters the record as british order of chivalry established 1861. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Order, Star and India can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1330936. VIAF identifies the subject as 233025326. The Library of Congress control number is nb2012007068. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1861, 1948, 1947 and 2009.
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