INDIA DURING THE RAJ: EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS
Diaries and related records held by the European Manuscripts Section in the Oriental and India Office Collections at the British Library, London

Part 2: Diaries and related records describing life in India, c.1819-1859

REEL 1

Mss Urdu 132 Description of the Mutiny, 1857

Ms Eur E.163 1828-1841 Charles Masson (1800-1853), traveller
Travels in Northern India, Afghanistan and Persia

REEL 2

Ms Eur F.377 1819-1858 John Bax, Bombay Civil Service 1808-c40 Description of journeys in India, the Middle East and Europe

REEL 3

Ms Eur E.359 1-4 1825-1857 John Russell Colvin (1807-57), Bengal Civil Service 1826-57, Private Secretary to the Governor-General Lord Auckland 1836-42,
Lt-Governor of North Western Provinces 1853-57
Papers of John Russell Colvin with some relating to other members of the family

REEL 4

Ms Eur E.359 5-7 1825-1857 John Russell Colvin (1807-57), Bengal Civil Service 1826-57, Private Secretary to the Governor-General Lord Auckland 1836-42,
Lt-Governor of North Western Provinces 1853-57
Papers of John Russell Colvin with some relating to other members of the family

REEL 5

Ms Eur E.359 8-12 1825-1857 John Russell Colvin (1807-57), Bengal Civil Service 1826-57, Private Secretary to the Governor-General Lord Auckland 1836-42,
Lt-Governor of North Western Provinces 1853-57
Papers of John Russell Colvin with some relating to other members of the family

REEL 6

C.70 1836-41, 1854-59 General Marcus de la Poer Beresford, British Army
Travels and social life as Military Secretary to Commander- in- Chief in India and Commandant in Bangalore

REEL 7

C.71 1836-41, 1854-59 General Marcus de la Poer Beresford, British Army
Travels and social life as Military Secretary to Commander- in- Chief in India and Commandant in Bangalore

REEL 8

C.72 1836-41, 1854-59 General Marcus de la Poer Beresford, British Army
Travels and social life as Military Secretary to Commander- in- Chief in India and Commandant in Bangalore

REEL 9

F.240/15-20 1837-1881 Arthur Herbert Cocks (1819-81), Bengal Civil Service 1837-63 Diaries, correspondence and miscellaneous papers relating to his career in India, including material relating to the Indian Mutiny

REEL 10

F.240/21-24 1837-1881 Arthur Herbert Cocks (1819-81), Bengal Civil Service 1837-63 Diaries, correspondence and miscellaneous papers relating to his career in India, including material relating to the Indian Mutiny

REEL 11

F.240/25-31 1837-1881 Arthur Herbert Cocks (1819-81), Bengal Civil Service 1837-63 Diaries, correspondence and miscellaneous papers relating to his career in India, including material relating to the Indian Mutiny

REEL 12

F.240/45-47, 55-59 1837-1881 Arthur Herbert Cocks (1819-81), Bengal
Civil Service 1837-63 Diaries, correspondence and miscellaneous papers
relating to his career in India, including material relating to the Indian Mutiny

B.139/1-5 1839, 1848-53, 1857 Lt Col Frederick Carleton Marsden, Bengal Army
Voyage to Inida; travel and military duties, mainly in the Punjab

REEL 13

B.369/1-2 1840-56 Thomas Machell, 1824-1862, merchant seaman/Indigo planter
Experiences at sea; life in India

REEL 14

B.369/3-4 1840-56 Thomas Machell, 1824-1862, merchant seaman/Indigo planter
Experiences at sea; life in India

REEL 15

B.369/5 1840-56 Thomas Machell, 1824-1862, merchant seaman/Indigo planter
Experiences at sea; life in India

REEL 16

B.167 1842-58 Maria Amelia Vansittart, wife of Colonel William Jervis, Bengal Army (Div 1844) and later of Henry Vansittart, Bengal Civil Service 1837-71
Intermittent notes on family and personal life in Bengal and Punjab

REEL 17

D.896 1842-49 Lt James Charles Curtis, Bengal Army 1841-68 Details of camp life and marches during service in various parts of Northern and Central India

D.1057 1842-49, 1854-56 General Sir John Fowler Bradford (1805-89)
Bengal Army 1821-76 Afghan, Gwalior and Sikh campaigns; military and social life in India; retirement in England

C.938 1843-1856 Mrs Hannah Ellerton, mother-in-law of Daniel Corrie (1777-1837, Bishop of Madras 1835-37 and by her second marriage widow of an indigo
planter who translated the New Testament into Bengali

Diaries relating social life and her involvement in running schools in Calcutta

REEL 18

A.140/1-4 1844-67 Surgeon-General Patrick Gerald Fitzgerald (1820- 1910), Madras Medical Service, 1846-80

Service and travel in India, including a description of Lucknow after the siege of 1857

REEL 19

D.168 1845-48 Major-General James Welsh (1775-1861), Madras Army, 1789-1861
Personal life at Waltair, Madras, and on voyage to England

A.106 1846,
1848-49 Ensign Thomas Pierce (1828-85), Bengal Army, 1844-76
Military service in the Punjab

F.58 1846 Anon “A journey to Cashmere” Journey from Ludhiana to Srinagar, Kashmir and thence to Simla with several English fellow- travellers. Includes administrative details of Kashmiri districts.

C.471 1846 Major Charles Hamilton Fenton, British Army 1839-54
Letters to his sister, Mary describing the defeat of the Sikhs at Aliwal and Sobraon,
and the occupation of Lahore; sketch map of action at Buddowal; army orders
given at Aliwal and Lahore and his journal of these and later events until his return to England

REEL 20

A.185 (a-c) 1846-47 James Fenn Clark (b1823)
Visit to India to see his parents; his father Hezekiah Clark (1792-1868) was in the Bengal Medical Service

REEL 21

D.1026 1847 Lt-Col D Birrell (1801-78), Bengal Army 1817-76
Miliary life; first Sikh War; battle of Sobroan

E.211/1 1847 Lt Herbert Benjamin Edwardes (1819-68), Bengal Army 1841-68
Expedition to Bannu

B.115 1848-49 Lt George Godfrey Pearse (1827-1905), Madras Army, Madras Army 1845-
Service in PunjabWar, with descriptions of camp life and fighting, and on
Afghan frontier; description of the Siege of Mooltan and the Punjab War

REEL 22

A.101/1-2 1849-51 Ensign Allen Baynard Johnson (1829-1907)
Bengal Army 1846-76
Personal life and opinions; military routine

E.299/1-4 1852-58 Capt William Robert Moorsom (d1858)

British Army
Voyage to India; travel in Kashmir and Ceylon;
survey of Lucknow; service as aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Sir Henry Havelock

REEL 23

C.241/1-5 1853-67 Surgeon John Henry Sylvester (1830-1903),
Bombay Medical Service 1853-75
Travels and service including experience of the 1857 Persian campaign and the Indian Mutiny

REEL 24

D.821 1853-57 Henry Gonne (1831-57), Bengal Civil Service 1851-57
Personal life, work and thoughts during service in Oudh, and experience of the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny

A.120 1854-55 George Latham, engineer, Madras Railway Company 1855-62
Voyage to and first impressions of India

A.127/1-3 1854-67 Surgeon William Alexander Davidson,
British Army Medical Service 1854-71

Brief notes of travels and service in
the Crimea, India, Canada and Great Britain

REEL 25

A.127/4-5 1854-67 Surgeon William Alexander Davidson,
British Army Medical Service 1854-71
Brief notes of travels and service in the Crimea, India, Canada and Great Britain

B.266 1856-60 George Fergusson Cockburn (1818-66)
Bengal Civil Service 1836-66
Tours of inspection as Commissioner of Revenue and Circuit, Cuttack

A.118 1856-60 Maria Adelaide Cust (1833-64), wife of Robert
Needham Cust, Bengal Civil Service 1843-67
Marriage and daily life in England, and from 1859 in the Punjab

REEL 26

C.718 1857-1858 Lt (later Lt-General) Octavius Ludlow Smith (1828-1927), Bengal Army 1847-94
Journal entitled “From the Outbreak of the Mutiny at Lucknow May 30th 1857 to the Recapture of Lucknow in March 1858”

D.1186/1, 7 1824-1850 Col Edmund Armitage Hardy (1824-1903) and his wife Grace Maxwell Hardy

Letters regarding their life in India

C.698 1857-1859 Capt (later Major-General) Henry Parlett Bishop
(1828-1908), Bengal Artillery 1845-78
Description of the outbreak of the Mutiny at Ambala, siege and capture of Delhi; actions at Gungeerie, Puttiali, Mynpoorie, operations round Cawnpore and Lucknow in 1858 and actions at Bareilly and Modipore; with photographs and postcards

REEL 27

C.428 1857-58 Lt William Kidstone Elles (1837-96), British Army 1855-96
Experiences during the Indian Mutiny and comments on life in India

A.69 1857-58 Katherine Bartrum, wife of Surgeon
Robert Henry Bartrum (1831-57)
Siege of Lucknow, death of her husband, escape to Calcutta and her child’s death

B.34 1857-59 Capt John Augustus Wood, Bombay Army 1839-78
Personal and regimental life

B.134 1857-58 Maria Germon, wife of Capt Richard Charles Germon, Bengal Army 1839-69
Detailed description of the siege of Lucknow and escape to Calcutta

C.310/1-2 1857 Assistant Surgeon Alexander Kerr Simpson (1829-59), Bombay Medical Service 1857-59

Voyage from England via Egypt to Bombay and Karachi

REEL 28

C.330 1857 Capt Edward Montgomery Mason,
British Army 1856-65
Siege of Lucknow (typed extracts)

D.568, D.720 1857-59,
1857-60 Richard Clifford, Bengal Civil Service, 1853-78
Indian Mutiny and its aftermath (different typed
versions)

D.706/2 1857 Capt William Shakespear, Madras Army, 1846-61
Indian Mutiny (typed copy)

D.747 1857 Major John Blick Spurgin (1821-1903), British Army 1842-83
Siege and relief of Lucknow
(typed extracts)

D.634 1857 Assistant Surgeon James Alexander Caldwell Hutchinson (1828-95)
Bengal Medical Service 1850-84
Indian Mutiny

REEL 29

C.148/1-2 1857 Roderick Mackenzie Edwards,
Bengal Civil Service 1847-83
Experience of the Indian Mutiny as a magistrate and collector in adjacent areas

D.1186/3-4 1857-71 Grace Maxwell Hardy and her husband Lt-Col Edmund Armitage Hardy (1824-1903),
Bombay Cavalry 1841-1870
Description of the mutiny at Nasirabad and life in India after the Mutiny

A.161(a-b) 1857-58 Lt-Col Chardin Philip Johnson,
British Army 1845-69
The Sepoy Rebellion

D.1122 1858-59 Dr Joseph Sawyers (1827-63),
British Army Surgeon 1850-63
Life in Rawalpindi, Gwalior and other parts of India during the Sepoy Rebellion;
voyage to Britain

C.603 1858-1859 Ensign (later Major-General) Talbot
Bradford Middleton Glascock (1839-1900)
Bengal Army 1857-87
Description of the campaign during the later stages of the Indian Mutiny