The wives of Army Officers offer a unique perspective into history.  They were often close to conflict and military action but distanced from their husbands and extended family.  Such is the case for Alice Deborah Marshall, known as Deborah, (1899-1993), whose letters sent to her mother document her life as a military wife between 1927-1933 in the North-West Frontier Provinces, India [now Pakistan].  These letters are now part of the India Office Private Papers series Mss Eur F307.

Extract from a letter sent by Deborah to her mother Isabella Alice Cree describing an incident where a young British soldier was shot on a train, 28 July 1931 - India Office Private Papers Mss Eur F307/5

Deborah was the wife of Major-General John Stuart Marshall (1883-1944), who served in the Indian Army between 1904-1940.  She came from a military family herself, born to Major General Gerald Cree (1862-1932) and Isabella Sophie Alice née Smith (1874-1966), with a brother, Brigadier Gerald Hilary Cree (1905-1998), whose very active career during World War Two is well documented.

The life described in her letters is one she seems at ease with despite the hazards and constant upheaval.  In her witty and descriptive manner, she documents the lively and gossipy social life of a military town and the characters involved, as well as the minutiae of how she occupied her days and her responsibilities as a mother to her daughter Suzanne Mary (1924-2007) .

We see the towns she lived in, Gulmarg and Peshawar primarily, changing over the year, becoming lonely ghost towns when the army moved on or weathering the destruction the monsoon caused.  Golfing and gardening are casually discussed alongside the daily conflicts of the Indian Army and the dramatic events of the Afridi Redshirt Rebellion (1930-1931).

Crowd on Khissa Khani Bazaar in Peshawar, 31 May 1930 -  British Library Photo 345 (66) Images Online

Her husband John Stuart Marshall’s military duties and his involvement in the conflict are described in detail.  Between 1930 and 1931 battles fought against the Afridi tribal freedom-fighters in the Tirah Valley as well as in the Khajuri Plains are described by Deborah to her mother.  At the end of the year in December and January 1931-2 we see the intensity of the mass arrests of ‘Redshirt’ sympathizers in Peshawar.  ‘Rebels’ were beaten bloody and imprisoned and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the anti-colonialist activist, was arrested. While living in Army-occupied Peshawar at that time Marshall writes to her father:
'They [the British soldiers] combed the City through and when they marched out (...) were salaamed on all sides by a perfectly silent crowd!  Those with any tendency to shouting hicalab [revolution] by that time were nursing horrible bruises at home! (…)  Everyone is very hopeful on the effect this may have on the rest of India, when they see what a very strong line they have taken here' (Mss Eur F307/5 f.287).

Scenes such as this and Deborah’s observations reveal the everyday British attitudes towards their own rule during a time when great political upheaval was imminent.  John Stuart Marshall would eventually go on to become Chief Administration Officer of Eastern Command in India and of the Eastern Army before passing away in 1944.  Deborah was re-married in 1946 to Major Arthur John Dring (1902-1991) of the Indian Political Service, subsequently becoming Lady Dring until her death in 1993.

Maddy Clark
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Deborah Alice Marshall Papers India Office Private Papers Mss Eur F307– a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.
Allen, C. 1975. Plain tales from the Raj : images of British India in the twentieth century. St Martin’s Press, New York.
Papers of Lt Col Arthur John Dring 1927-c.1948 India Office Private Papers Mss Eur F226/8.

 

In the 19th century the Bombay Gazette published lists of unclaimed packages and post.  The Custom House in Bombay advertised details of unclaimed goods, giving notice that they would be sold at public auction if not cleared before a certain date.

A list of packages which had been left at the Custom House between March and November 1863 was published in the Bombay Gazette on 3 February 1864.  Owners were given until 25 February to clear their goods.

First entries from the list of unclaimed goods published in the Bombay Gazette 3 February 1864 British Newspaper Archive

The list includes a wide variety of items arriving in ships from across the world.  Amongst the packages were:
• 2 bottles of spirits from Goa
• 2 bundles of snuff from Cutch
• 2 boxes of glass toys
• 4 ‘goolabdanees’ [gulabdanis] - rose water sprinklers
• 1 slab of copper (stolen property)
• 55 kegs of horseshoes from Liverpool
• I½ lbs of indigo
• 2 packages of goracco – tobacco paste smoked in a hookah
• 1 package of sticklac from Siam
• 2 mats from China
• 9 bowls from China
• I bale of cotton from Jodia
• 7 broken watch charms
• 2 bundles of matting from Hong Kong
• 2 bottles of country spirits from Goa
• 3 chairs from Suez
• I box of brass hinges from Surat
• 1 package from London addressed to T Crawford, Army Scripture Reader
• 4 bamboo stools from China
• 18 bags of sugar from Calcutta
• 12 bags of rice (damaged) from Calcutta
• 25 cases of wine from Liverpool – 8 broken
• 1 bag of rape seed
• 4 cases of cigars from Hong Kong, and 6 cases from London
Other packages contained brandy; spun yarn; chintz; iron bars, hoops, and plates; and writing desks.

The notices of unclaimed letters can reveal sad stories.  In this list from July 1836, at least two of the people had died.

List of unclaimed letters Bombay Gazette 30 July 1836 British Newspaper Archive

Major Thomas Michael Claridge of the 43rd Regiment Madras Native Infantry was buried at Ellore on 29 April 1836, just days before his 40th birthday.  The Church of England funeral service was read over Claridge’s remains by Archibald Goldie Young, a Lieutenant in his regiment.  Claridge’s widow Eliza and son Henry were living in London at the time of the 1841 census.  Henry went back to India in 1845 following in his father’s footsteps as a cadet in the Madras Army, and Eliza also returned to Madras in March 1845.  She died of smallpox at Kamptee in June 1853.

Hugh Coventry of the 20th Regiment Bombay Native Infantry had died on 22 March 1835 at Porbandar, aged 34.  In January 1830 he had been allowed furlough to Europe for three years for the benefit of his health, returning to Bombay in the ship Lady Melville in 1833.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading:
Bombay Gazette – British Newspaper Archive, also via Findmypast.
Burial of Thomas Michael Claridge 29 April 1836 IOR/N/2/18 p.291.
Cadet papers for Henry Charles Zachary Claridge IOR/L/MIL/9/208 ff.285-287v.
Burial of Eliza Thomasine Ann Claridge 27 June 1853 IOR/N/2/332 p.148.
Memorial inscription for Hugh Coventry at St Fillans Churchyard, Aberdour - Findmypast.

 

In November 1879, the India Office received a communication from the Foreign Office relating to a gentleman named Gholam Hosain, a native of the Indian city of Lahore, who was stranded in Italy and needed help to return home.  The India Office often received requests for help from individuals who found themselves in distressed circumstances.  Usually the India Office declined to help, but this was not the case with Gholam Hosain.

Case of Gholam Hosain, a native of Lahore, stranded at Venice, Italy, 1879, IOR/L/PJ/2/59, File 7/582.

Gholam Hosain’s case was laid out in a letter of 24 October 1879 to the Foreign Office in London from the Consul at Florence, D E Colnaghi.  Gholam Hosain was about 25 years old and had arrived at Venice from Alexandria on board the P&O steam ship Pera on 20 October 1879.  He had a passport issued to him by the British Consul, Charles Alfred Cookson at Alexandria, a copy being enclosed in Colnaghi’s letter.  He stated that he had been robbed of his clothes and £40 on arrival at Venice.  However he had made no complaint at the time as he did not speak Italian and was afraid that his story would not be believed.  He had intended to visit England to see Mr Brandreth, one of the Commissioners in the Punjab. Brandreth was on leave and staying in London.  Gholam Hosain had been in his service for several years.

Copy of passport issued to Gholam Hosain by the British Consul, Charles Alfred Cookson at Alexandria, , IOR/L/PJ/2/59, File 7/582

Enquiries were made to the P&O Office, and Captain Hyde of the Pera stated that there had been a deck passenger answering to Gholam Hosain’s description on the ship, but he had not been able to discover if there were grounds for complaint as there had been no report to the captain or any other person on board regarding a robbery.  Gholam Hosain did not appear to have any baggage, just the clothes he wore and a blanket.  Hyde was inclined to think from his appearance that he was a loafer.  A request was made to the P&O Agent to grant Gholam Hosain a free return deck passage to India, but the reply was that they only carried 1st and 2nd class passengers to India.  The Vice-Consul at Venice, Mr de Zuccats, granted Gholam Hosain a sailor’s allowance of 2 lira 50 centimes per diem to enable him to procure the actual necessaries of life pending further enquiries being made.

On 31 October 1879, Colnaghi informed the Foreign Office that he had heard from Mr Brandreth.  He stated that Gholam Hosain was a 'respectable Munshi or Professor of Persian and Arabic, late Tutor to the Raja of Lambragram', and although he was mistaken in his endeavour to reach England, his case was deserving of consideration.  A minute paper in the India Office file gives the additional information that Gholam Hosain had been travelling to see Mr Brandreth in the hope that he might be restored to an office from which he had been dismissed by one of Mr Brandreth’s subordinate officers.

Happily, the India Office agreed to fund a passage for Gholam Hosain to Bombay, and the P&O Company agreed to take him at the cost of £17.  The passage was duly arranged, and the Foreign Office reported that he had shipped for Bombay on the P&O steam ship Zanzibar which had sailed from Venice on 28 November 1879.  In addition, the cost of his stay in Italy came to 101 lira, which the Foreign Office reclaimed from India Office funds.

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Case of Gholam Hosain, a native of Lahore, stranded at Venice, Italy, 1879, shelfmark: IOR/L/PJ/2/59, File 7/582.
The service history of Arthur Brandreth, Commissioner at Lahore, can be traced in the India Office List.