Style and Title
The Governor-General was styled Excellency and enjoyed precedence over all other government officials in India. He would be referred to as 'His Excellency' and addressed as 'Your Excellency'. From 1858 to 1947, the Governors-General was known as the Viceroy (from the French roi, meaning 'king'). Wives of Viceroys were known as Vicereines (from the French reine, meaning 'queen'). The Vicereine would be referred to as 'Her Excellency' and would also be addressed as 'Your Excellency'. Neither title was employed while the Sovereign was in India. However, the only reigning British Sovereign to visit India during the period of British rule was King George V, accompanied by his consort Queen Mary attended the Delhi Durbar in 1911.
When the Order of the Star of India was founded in 1861, the Viceroy was made its Grand Master ex officio. The Viceroy was also made the ex officio Grand Master of the Order of the Indian Empire upon its foundation in 1877.
Most Governors-General and Viceroys were peers. Frequently, a Viceroy who was already a peer would be granted a peerage of higher rank e.g. the grant of a marquessate to Lord Reading and an earldom and later a marquessate to Freeman Freeman-Thomas. Of those Viceroys who were not peers, Sir John Shore was a baronet, and Lord William Bentinck was entitled to the courtesy title 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke. Only the first and last Governors-General – Warren Hastings and Chakravarti Rajagopalachari – as well as some provisional Governors-General, had no special titles at all.
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