INDIA DURING THE RAJ: EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS
Diaries and Related Records Held at the British Library, London

Part 3: Diaries and Related Records Describing Life in India, c1861-1891

Biographical Notes on Diarists

Rev J B Wheeler

His diary, entitled “ Journal of a journey from Lucknow to London by land and sea” describes his passage home in 1861-1862 and is illustrated with drawings of ships, life on board ship, plants and topographical views.

Sir Frederick William Richards Fryer, 1845-1922

He entered the Bengal Civil Service in 1864, spending the first twenty-two years of his career in the Punjab. His later posts included: Financial Commissioner in Burma, 1888, Officiating Financial Commissioner, Punjab, Additional Member of the Governor-General’s Legislative Council, 1894-1895 and finally Lieutenant-Governor of Burma, 1897-1903. His extensive diaries from 1865-1880 describe his early life in the Punjab.

Major William Croker

He served in the British Army from 1845-1868.His diaries, including many photographs, describe his shooting trips in Kashmir and the Punjab, 1846-1864 and 1870.

Captain John Tisdall Annesley, 1820-1873

He served in the 26th Bombay Native Infantry from 1842-1873. His daily life is described as Paymaster in the Pensions Department of the Bombay Army, 1861-1864.

Robert Orr Sawers, 1837-1880

An account is given of his journey to India in 1861. He was General Manager at the National Bank of India from 1863-1880.

Major (later Major-General Sir) Frederick John Goldsmid, c1818-1908

He entered the Madras Army in 1839, serving in the China war, 1840-1841, and the Eastern Crimea, 1855-1856. From 1862-1864 he undertook special missions for the Bombay government before becoming Director of Government Indo-European Telegraph in 1865-1870. He served as the British representative on an International Commission for Indian immigrants in Reunion from 1877-1880 and was the author of “Telegraph and Travel”, 1874. His diary for 1864 describes his journey from Bombay to Constantinople during which he supervised the laying of the first telegraph cable from India to Europe.

Lt-Colonel Frederick Bailey, 1840-1912

He served in the Royal Engineers from 1859-1890. He was posted to India in 1864 and in 1871 joined the Indian Forest Service, becoming Superintendent of Forest Surveys and first Director of the Forest School at Dehra Dun. His final post was Conservator of Forests in the Punjab, 1887-1890. His diaries give brief details on his daily activities from 1864-1889.

Sarah Ann Fitzgibbon, d 1894

She was the third wife of Lt Richmond Fitzgibbon who served in the Madras Army from 1824-1861 and later became a coffee planter in Madras. Her diaries from 1864-1876 give details on her daily life and missionary activities.

Rev Arthur Octavius Hardy, 1838-1910

After teaching at Wellington College in England 1861-1865, he joined the Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment for a long period from 1865-1886 and in his diaries, covering 1865-1872, he describes his travels and duties as chaplain to two Bishops of Calcutta.

Annette Beveridge, 1842-1929

The wife of Henry Beveridge (1837-1929) who served in the Indian Civil Service, 1858-1893, and mother of Lord Beveridge (the founder of the welfare state). She founded a school for girls in Calcutta, the Hindu Mahila Bidyalaya, and her diary her diary and notebook describe her daily life in India and life as a schoolmistress in Calcutta from 1872-1873.

Sir George Campbell, 1824-1892

He went out to India in 1842 and after serving in the North Western Provinces, Cis-Sutlej States and the Punjab, from 1855 to 1857 he assisted J R Colvin in the government of the NWP. During the Indian Mutiny he acted as personal assistant to the Governor-General Lord Canning. In 1858 he became Commissioner of Oudh, in 1862 Judge of the High Court, Calcutta and in 1867 Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces. His final post as Lt-Governor of Bengal from 1871-1874 saw him involved in new regulations for education and in operations for the relief of famine in the area. His diary for 1865 covers a visit to Kashmir.

Colonel (later Lieutenant-General) Richard Strachey, 1817-1908

He began his career with the Bombay Engineers in 1836 and was then transferred to Bengal where he was employed in the Irrigation Department eventually becoming Inspector General of Irrigation in 1866. He served in the Governor-General’s Legislative Council in 1869 and, with his brother John, devised schemes for decentralising finances. He became Inspector General of railway material and stores at the India Office and then Lt-General and Member of the Council of India from 1875. Back in India, he presided over the Indian Famine Commission in 1878-1879. He was a member of various official bodies and prestigious societies and author of several books. The diary included in this collection is a record of his tour of inspection of irrigation and other engineering works in Sind from November 1866 to February 1867.

Stanley Leighton, 1837-1901

A barrister who became a Conservative MP from 1876-1901, his diaries record a trip to India and Ceylon 1867-1868.

Sir William James Herschel (2nd Baronet), 1833-1917

He belonged to the Bengal Civil Service from 1853-1878, becoming a Secretary to the Board of Revenue, then in 1872 Commissioner of Dacca, and finally in 1874 Commissioner of Cooch Behar. Included here are numerous papers relating to his administrative and judicial work in Bengal.

Middleton Rayne, 1830-1882

He worked in the Public Works Department from 1868-1879 and was Chief Engineer of the Indus Valley State Railway from 1876-1879. His diary for 1867 includes descriptions of railway engineering in India.

Colonel (later Major-General) Ralph Young

He served in the Bengal Engineers from 1844-1867. His diary for 1867 covers a visit to Kashmir.

Lt (later Major-General) William Cavaye, 1845-1926

He served in the British Army from 1865-1902 and was Military Secretary to the Duke of Connaught as Commander in Chief in Bombay, 1886-1890. In his diary he gives us details of his daily routine while stationed in Allahabad in 1867, and on leave in the hills of the United Provinces and the Punjab.

Sir Richard Temple, 1826-1902

He arrived in India in 1847 and from 1854-1860 was Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab. In 1862 he was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces and in 1867 he became Resident at Hyderabad. He later became Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, 1868, and Financial Member of Council, 1868-1874. From 1874-1877 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal where he supervised the relief operations in the famine districts of Bengal. He advised on famine relief in Madras and Bombay in 1877 and was Governor of Bombay 1877-1880. He later wrote many books about his experiences in India. His diary included in this collection gives information on his work while in Hyderabad in 1867.

H A K Wright, b 1850

He was a coffee planter in Northern Madras. His diaries cover his early years from 1870-1873.

Rev William Carey, b 1849

A medical missionary for the Baptist Missionary Society 1874-1884, his diary includes descriptions of his missionary work in north India, chiefly in Delhi.

Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert, 1841-1924

Before arriving in India in 1882, he had been a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and an English barrister with some experience as a parliamentary draftsman. His diaries for 1875-1886 cover his work as Legal Member of the Supreme Council, 1882-1886 and as the central figue in the “Ilbert Bill Controversy”. This concerned a proposal to allow Indian judges to try cases involving Europeans which aroused fierce opposition from the Europeans and had to be substantially watered down. He was later to serve as Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, 1885-1886.

Major Edward Young Kellett, b 1831

He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1854-1880. His diary for 1876 contains details on a two month hunting trip in the United Provinces organised for Edward, Prince of Wales.

Major-General William Henry Noble, 1834-1892

He served in the Royal Artillery from 1856-1892 in which he held a series of staff and technical appointments. In 1877 he was sent to India as a member and secretary of a special committee to reorganise the Indian Army Ordnance Department and its manufacturing establishments. On the outbreak of the Second Afghan War in 1878 he was appointed staff officer of the field train of the Kandahar Field Force and commanded it on its march through the Bolan pass. He returned to England in 1880. His diaries for 1877-1890 include a detailed account of his service in India.

Private William Atkinson

He served in the British Army’s 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment. His diaries for 1878-1880 describe his voyage out to India and his service in the Second Afghan War, as seen by an ordinary soldier.

Mrs Cawley

Wife of George John Cawley, who was the District Superintendent of Police for Assam from 1876-1883, her diary for 1879 recounts the siege of Kohima.

Florence Bailey, 1847-1932

Her husband Lt-Colonel Frederick Bailey worked for the Indian Forest Service, 1871-1890. She describes her domestic routine in her diaries for 1879-1880.

Private Thomas Melsom, b 1852

A private in the British Army since 1874, his diary for 11 October – 20 November 1880 recounts a punitive expedition by the Marri Field Force after the Second Afghan War. It also contains a list of the stages of the march from Kabul to Kandahar in August 1880.

Lt (later Lt-Colonel Sir) James Dunlop-Smith, 1858-1921

He served as Private Secretary to the Lt-Governor of the Punjab from 1883 to 1887 and then in the same capacity to the Viceroy from 1905-1910. From then until 1921 he was Political ADC to the Secretary of State for India. His diary November 1883 gives details of his official appointments and social life as Assistant Commissioner of Lahore.

Sir Walter Roper Lawrence, 1857-1940

He was a member of the Indian Civil Service from 1879-1896. He began his career as an Assistant Commissioner in the Punjab, worked in the Revenue Department of the Government of India and later became Settlement Commissioner in Kashmir from 1889-1895. After his retirement in 1896 he returned to India as Private Secretary to Lord Curzon, the Viceroy, holding the post from 1898-1903. At the time of World War I he became Commissioner for Indian Sick and Wounded in France and England, 1914-1916. He was in the USA, 1917-1918, on a recruitment and propaganda tour, and reported on Palestine, 1919. Included in this collection are letters from Lawrence to his family , 1879-1884, a diary and notebook for 1883-1886, and letters from his wife Lilian (please see below).

Lilian Lawrence (wife of the above)

Her letters, 1885-1890, written mainly from the Punjab, Simla, Calcutta and Kashmir, to her parents give a vivid account of her domestic and social life in India with her husband.

Sir Francis Younghusband, 1863-1942

Commissioned in the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards, he joined his regiment in India in 1882 and served in the Indian Political Service from 1889-1909. Beginning in 1884 he embarked on a series of travels which made his name as an explorer of Central Asia. From 1903-1904 he led an armed mission to Tibet (known as the Younghusband Expedition), and ended his Indian career as Resident in Kashmir 1906-1909. Thereafter he devoted himself to writing, in much of which he expounded his mystical beliefs, and to religious activities eventually founding the World Congress of Faiths in 1936.His diary for May1884 describes a journey from Dharmsala to Kulu and Simla.

Thomas Harding Going, 1827-1875

He went to India in 1857 to work as an engineer on the North West line of the Madras Railway Company. Included here are two of his diaries describing his life and work, plus a summary of his whole career in India written by his grandson, Lt-Col R J Going.

C B Clarke, 1832

He joined the Education Department in Bengal in 1857 and rose up the ranks to become Inspector of Schools from 1866-1887. The diaries, 1885-1886 cover his inspections of schools in Assam.

Colonel (later Field Marshal Sir) George Stuart White, 1835-1912

He served in the British Army from 1853-1900 seeing service during the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the Afghan War, 1878-1880 and the march from Kabul to Kandahar during which he won the VC. He also commanded a Brigade during the Burma Campaign and the pacification of the country thereafter, a period which he describes in his diary for 1886-1887. He subsequently became C-in-C, India, 1893-1898 and during the Boer War was in command of the British forces besieged in Ladysmith.

Colonel Henry St George Tucker

He served in the Indian Army from 1855 to 1897 and his diaries, 1886-1889 cover his time in the Burma campaign.

Sir (Herbert) John Maynard, 1865-1943

A member of the Indian Civil Service in the Punjab from 1886-1927, who rose to become Financial Commissioner and a member of the Governor’s Executive Council, his diaries, 1885-1891 describe his voyage out to India, his travels in Central India and life in the Punjab, and Mandi and Suket States as an Assistant Commissioner.

William Lochliel Sapte Lovett Cameron, 1854-1938

He was a member of the Indian Service of Engineers from 1877-1911, rising to become Chief Engineer and Secretary of the Bombay Public Works Department from 1904-1911. His diary describes his journey from Sholapur to Kashmir in 1887.

Katharine Way, b 1875

Her diaries for 1887-1889 give details on her voyage out to India, her life in Benares and an excellent description of camp life while with the 7th Rapputs Regiment on a march from Benares to Saugor.

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