BHM 3061.
55mm. Silver. By W. Wyon.
Obverse with diademed head of Queen Victoria, reverse with arms of the City of London and legend around. Edge engraved 'Sir Nigel Kingscote, K.C.B.'
About Uncirculated, beautifully toned and housed in fitted case of issue. Extremely rare in silver (BHM only lists this medal in AE) and a magnificent reverse design alongside a beautiful depiction of Victoria.
1879 marked the fortieth anniversary of the Society and was held on an unprecedented scale taking on the form of an international exhibition. It even acquired the title 'International Agricultural Exhibition' and as a result of the increased running costs the Mansion House Committee was formed by the Lord Mayor of London to help some of the expenses.
Colonel Sir Robert Nigel Fitzhardinge Kingscote GCVO KCB JP (28 February 1830 – 22 September 1908) was a British soldier, Liberal politician, courtier and agriculturalist. He was generally known as Sir Nigel Kingscote.
Kingscote was Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire West between 1852 and 1885. He was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 1856. The latter year he was appointed a Commissioner of Woods and Forests, a post he held until 1895. He was also a justice of the peace for Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and a Trustee of the manor of Horsley.
Kingscote was a Groom-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria between 1859 and 1866, when he resigned, and as an Extra Equerry to the Prince of Wales in 1867. He served as Superintendent of the Prince of Wales's stables until 1885, was appointed to the Council of the Prince of Wales in 1886, and as Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall in 1888, Extra Equerry to Edward VII between 1901 and 1902 and Paymaster-General of the Royal Household between 1901 and 1908.
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1855, and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1889. After the accession of King Edward VII, he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order GCVO) in the November 1902 Birthday Honours, and was invested with the insignia by the King at Buckingham Palace on 18 December 1902.
Kingscote served as President of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1878.