Can anyone tell me which Gurkha regiment was based at Malakand-Dargai fort in the Khyber Pass in 1926. Would this have been part of the Khyber Brigade, about which I can find nothing. Any enlightenment will be much appreciated, thank you, Chris

Very interesting.Just the kind of thing the British are especially good at - preserving history through the memories of ordinary and extraordinary people.I plan to point Capt Drew-Smythe's old regiment, the 1st Gorkhas towards this website. Mandeep ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar" <bosham@gmail.com> To: <india-british-raj@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 1:24 PM Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Captain R.D.S. Drew-Smythe and Burma Campaign > http://www.zipworld.com.au/~lnbdds/home/rdsds/index.htm > > ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar > Nagpur, India > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~lnbdds/home/rdsds/index.htm ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/2032986/Pakistan-renames-North-West-Frontier-Province-to-end-%27colonial-anachronism%27.html or http://tinyurl.com/494h4z ooroo If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door. Anon.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 http://jmjentiz.blogspot.com/2008/05/gurkhas-have-200-year-military.html ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

A most unusual medal - a VC awarded posthumously, solely on the evidence of the enemy. www.spink-online.com/departments/medals.asp see also... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Allan_Trigg The Spink web page has photos of important "India" medals. Including the "Relief of Lucknow" and the "Lucknow" medal. ooroo If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door. Anon.

Trying to locate information on my 2x Great Uncle, Joseph Chambers and his wife Annie Jane. Family history has it that he was the last governor of Dum Dum and also involved with the Esperanto Language Movement. 3 children were born in Dum Dum; Joseph Archibald b1882; John William(Will)b1884 and Annie Beatrice b1887. John William Chambers had one son Edward Hamilton Chambers, named Hamilton because of a family connection to Lord Horatio Nelson - another family story. Help gratefully received from anyone who can point me in the right direction to discover the Chambers Family. Diane Evans Western Australia.

Book Review from The Hindu 03/11/2002 http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/lr/2002/11/03/stories/2002110300280500.htm CASTE in India has been the subject of many scholarly works as well as public and private debate in the last century and a half. It still eludes understanding, in its role in Indian society in various periods, although it is often "valorised" as the central organising principle in Indian society. Nicholas Dirks is one of those historians whose work on the Poligars and colonialism has been significant and provided useful insights into the ways in which colonialism constructed "native" institutions and their history for building up its own technologies of imperial rule over the colonised and even shaping its future history to a large extent. The present book is about the historicity of caste and the ways in which caste came into being, and as such been "conditioned by history to condition (and make conditional) any possibility of a future beyond or without caste." [snip] ================= ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

The evolution of printmaking practices in India. Snipped from http://www.artindiamag.com/issue01_06/pre_lead_assay01.html Printmaking as an art form emerged in India less than eighty years ago. However, printing, in which lie the origins of contemporary printmaking, came to India in 1556, about a hundred years after Gutenberg's Bible. Calcutta, the capital of British India, was the hub of printing and publishing in colonial times. While European printing establishments were at the helm of all printing activities in India, the need for manpower gradually drew in Indian participants. The printed picture, in the form of the book illustration, developed in early 19th century British India. European printmakers in 18th century India remained entirely disconnected from mainstream, indigenous printing activity since they had little or nothing in common with Indian culture and tradition. Their prints depicted exotic Indian landscapes that tended to appeal mainly to the colonial European sensibility. With the growing interest in vernacular literatures arose an increasing demand for book illustrations; this, in turn, led to the gradual emergence of an indigenous printing industry. From 1816 onwards, hundreds of illustrated books were printed in Calcutta and its environs by indigenous presses that sprang up in the bazaars. The hitherto anonymous Indian printmaker gradually began to evolve as an 'artist'. In the mid-19th century, art schools were established in different cities in the country, and a new breed of 'gentlemen' artists with Western sensibilities, came into prominence. They established print studios (the Calcutta Art Studio, for instance) that emulated European academic art tenets. ====================== ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

Dear Listers, The technique of lithography was used not only for reproducing pictures but also for printing texts till about the middle of the 19th century. Though movable Devanagari type had been created by the Serampore missionaries in the 18th century - and possibly by the Portuguese of Goa even before that - texts continued to be printed by lithography till much later. In Marathi this technique was called Shila-press, literally 'stone-printing', a translation of the original term. You can see an example of this technique at http://www.archive.org/details/prakrutkaviteche025454mbp. This is a book of Marathi poems for school children published in 1860. The poems are translations of English poems and the translator was Mahadeo Govind Kolhatkar, one of my great-great-grandfathers. who was among the early students of western learning in Maharashtra. His other well-known work is a translation of "Othello'. He served as a Deputy Inspector of Schools. He died in 1861 at the somewhat early age of 51. Arvind Kolhatkar, May 26, 2008.

INDIA AND THE FLEET AIR ARM Salute to India and the Indian men and women who played such an important role in the history of the FAA and warime Naval Aviation [1939-1945]. http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/CommonwealthCountries/IndiaHomepage.html ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

Snipped from http://www.barnardf.demon.co.uk/ ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India Letters of a Victorian lady, Ada E Leslie, 1883 to 1894 Prussian (German), British and Greek Royal Palaces and travel in Royal Yachts occupy this Victorian lady's life after an eventful visit to India from England as a children's governess with a final move to Burma as the wife of a District Police Commander. Described as an epic traveller for those days she goes to India to work for an English Army Colonel - and almost immediately travels back to England via a small war in Egypt. Subsequently she goes to Potsdam, Marmor, Windsor, Osbourne, Homberg and Berlin working for the future Kaiser Wilhelm II ("Kaiser Bill" to the British soldier in World War I). Then she becomes a Lady-in-Waiting to Wilhelm's sister, Sophie (also a grandchild of Queen Victoria and the future Queen of Greece) travels to Greece then Berlin and back, Copenhagen, Russia, Weisbaden and back before resigning to marry and go to Prome in Burma. Ada describes all these events in 52 letters written to her cousin, some 34 000 words over 11 years. There are insights into the royal families and their way of life as well as the lives of others around them and descriptions of towns and places. I do not have her exact date of birth but it appears that she was born in 1860 as the 1881 census indicates that she is 21 and working in a large household as a 'domestic' nurse - probably for the young child of the family. (Snip) ===========================

>From - National Post Thursday, May 22, 2008 When the fourth of the Indiana Jones movies opens today, more than thrills and spills will be in evidence. Fans of the Jones saga all know how the U. S. government recruited the indestructible archaeologist in the first (and so far still the best) instalment to counter a Nazi plot. It is now clear that Jones is, in fact, a part-time secret agent, undertaking covert missions in the name of national security. For archaeologists in general, that is where the Jones series really becomes interesting, because archaeology and espionage have been entangled for generations. In 2003, Archaeology magazine brought the long-contentious issue of intelligence connections out in the open with an article by David Price, who detailed the escapades of more than a dozen scholars over the course of almost a century. Actually, Price underestimated the phenomenon, which appears to be up to 170 years old. Hints of what was to come were already visible in the first half of the 1800s. Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, in a 1999 study of imperialism in Central Asia, highlighted the case of James Lewis. A soldier in the British army in colonial India, he survived several years of warfare before deciding that the warrior's life was not for him. Deserting his unit, he fled to Afghanistan and, under the alias of "Charles Masson," developed a reputation as a traveler and connoisseur of antiquities. In fact, he was so adept at scouring Central Asia for old coins that his collection eventually wound up in the British Museum. By the 1830s, British authorities back in India were so impressed that they were forced to overlook the desertion and recruit him as an informant. He provided such good service that he felt free to return home in 1842. [snip] ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

Youngsters discover East India links to East End history 23 May 2008 YOUNGSTERS are researching the history of the East India Company to build up a 'heritage' picture of London's East End. Members of the Brick Lane Circle in Spitalfields have received a £46,000 Heritage Lottery grant to explore historical links with Bengal through researching and writing about former sites in East London that once belonged to the colonial trading company. The project emerged out of events the Circle organized last summer to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Plassey, when the British achieved victory in Bengal under Robert Clive in 1757. It was the beginning of the British Indian Empire, under the East India Company banner. The research findings are being put together to be published in October during Black History Month at the Museum in Docklands in Canary Wharf. The young researchers are being recruited mainly from Tower Hamlets for workshops and to go on guided tours to help them write their chapters and get to know about the East India trade and its historical links with Bengal. East London is dotted with locations and buildings with historical links with Bengal, especially the India & Millwall Docks on the Isle of Dogs. The East India took over vast areas of the Indian sub-continent, playing an important role in British economic and imperial history for 250 years from 1600 when it was first chartered by Elizabeth I. http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED23%20May%202008%2013%3A40%3A24%3A007 ========================================= ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

Quoting from the blog dated Thursday, May 22, 2008 of Murali RamaVarma: Sir Albion Raj Kumar Banerji (1871-1950) was the son of Sasipada Banerji who was a doyen of the Brahmo Samaj (The Society of God) founded by Raja Rammohun Roy in 1828 and a great social reformer in his own right. Sasipada Banerji along with his wife Rajkumari had visited England in 1871 at the invitation of Mary Carpenter, the renowned English educational and social reformer. Mrs. Rajkumari was the first Indian lady to visit England for which the couple was excommunicated from the community of conservative Bengali Brahmins. A son was born to them on the 10th of October 1871 while in England and they named him Albion Rajkumar Banerji. After his studies in England, Albion joined the Indian Civil Service. Mr.Banerji had a most distinguished career and was the Diwan, the role equivalent to that of the Prime Minister, in two princely states, viz. Cochin and Mysore. Between 1907 and 1914, he was the Diwan of Cochin under Maharajah Rama Varma XV, (Ozhinja Valiya Thampuran meaning the one who abdicated the crown) who reigned from 1895 to 1914 and brought much prosperity to the State. In 1911, during the Delhi Durbar of the King Emperor George V and Queen Mary, Sir Albion Raj Kumar Banerji was honoured by awarding the title, the Companion of the Indian Empire, CIE. [snip] Full text at: http://muralirvarma.blogspot.com/2008/05/sir-albion-raj-kumar-banerji-ics.html ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

The London Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1996617/AVM-Tom-Howell.html or http://tinyurl.com/3owjse AVM Tom Howell RAF. RAF armament officer who evaded capture in Java and survived Changi. Air Vice-marshal Tom Howell, who has died aged 94, rose to senior rank in the RAF's engineering branch having suffered great privation in Java and Changi Jail after the Japanese had overrun Singapore and the Dutch East Indies in 1942. Howell arrived in Singapore in October 1941 to join the armament staff of the RAF's main Far East aircraft depot and maintenance facility, No 151 Maintenance Unit, at RAF Seletar. After the Japanese invasion of Malaya on December 8 1941, the unit made desperate attempts to generate as many aircraft as possible and prepare the few that arrived as reinforcements. On January 29 1942, 90 Japanese bombers inflicted heavy damage on the airfield at Seletar and four days later the men of No 151 started to evacuate to Java. By February 10 the unit effectively ceased to exist and the men reinforced the few remaining flying units until all Allied resistance in the Dutch East Indies ceased on March 7. Howell joined a group of Allied and Australian men at a remote spot on the southern coast of Java, where they started to build a large raft with the intention of sailing for Australia. With the raft near completion, Howell left the site to find some rubber to use as a sealant. During his absence the Japanese discovered the party and, after a skirmish, the survivors were captured. Howell was posted as missing but he remained at large seeking refuge with the natives. He worked in the fields and learnt the habits of the locals, having darkened his skin with natural dyes to be less conspicuous. He was also short enough (5ft 8in) not to stand out. During regular bouts of malaria he was cared for by the natives but, after many months, the combination of increasing malnutrition, further bouts of malaria and a deep concern for the safety of those sheltering him compelled him to surrender to the Japanese. It was not until early February 1943 that the British authorities were informed that he was a prisoner of war. After his capture, Howell was assigned to a working party building an airstrip on Bangka Island, off the coast of Sumatra. In late 1943 he was transferred to Changi Jail where he shared a cell with James Clavell, the author of King Rat, and an American NCO who was apparently the model for the anti-hero of the book. During his imprisonment, Howell, a gifted and accomplished linguist, became very proficient in Chinese. By early August 1945 there were 17,000 starving prisoners in Singapore and aid started to arrive by the end of the month. On September 5 Howell and his colleagues were freed when Indian troops arrived to re- occupy the jail. Evelyn Michael Thomas Howell was born on September 9 1913 at Bagshot, Surrey, the son of Sir Evelyn Howell, the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India. Tom spent his early childhood in India and Baghdad before returning to a prep school in Sussex, followed by Downside. He chose to flout his father's wishes that he should go to university and entered the RAF College Cranwell in January 1933, where he gained his swimming colours, played for the rugby XV and was a fine rifle shot. On graduation as a pilot, he was one of the five prizewinners in his entry. In December 1934 Howell joined No 142 Squadron at Netheravon, which was equipped with the Hart biplane bomber; and the following October he accompanied the squadron to Egypt, where he remained for the next three years. On his return to England in late 1938 he attended the specialist armament course before joining the staff at Headquarters Fighter Command at Bentley Priory. He transferred to the Technical Branch (later the Engineering Branch) in April 1940 and remained at Fighter Command throughout the Battle of Britain. During this period he took the opportunity to fly a Hurricane on visits to the fighter airfields. In September 1941 he left for Singapore. After recuperating from his ordeal as a prisoner of the Japanese, Howell filled a number of armament policy appointments in the air ministry and the ministry of supply. In May 1955 he was loaned to the Institute of Armament Studies at the Indian Military College of Engineering at Kirkee, where he added Hindi to the list of languages he spoke. On promotion to group captain in October 1957 he became the chief armament officer at Headquarters Bomber Command, at a time when it was introducing the nuclear-capable V-bombers. After serving as the director of air armament research and development at the ministry of aviation, Howell was appointed commandant of the RAF Technical College at Henlow. In 1965 he became the senior air staff officer at the headquarters of Technical Training Command, and he retired from the RAF in March 1967. He was mentioned in dispatches (1942) and appointed CBE (1961). Howell now joined Van Dusen Aircraft Supplies, an American firm that wanted a European manager who was both a pilot and a French and Spanish speaker. He worked in Minnesota and Missouri for 10 years, before moving to Sweden for another two, retiring in 1979. An enthusiast for old cars, in 1936 Howell bought a Rolls-Royce that he kept until 1960, when he decided it was no longer practical – although he found he missed the sliding glass partition that had allowed him to shut off the noise of the children in the rear seats. He continued to fly light aircraft for many years and was a keen yachtsman. In 1979 he settled in Cumbria, where he enjoyed village life, natural history and conservation. By his death on May 5, he was the oldest surviving Liveryman of the Clothworkers' Company, which he had joined in 1938. Tom Howell married first, in 1937 (dissolved 1972), Helen Hayes. He married secondly, in 1972, Rosemary Cram, who survives him, together with a son and three daughters from his first marriage, and a son and a daughter from his second. ooroo If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door. Anon.

Begin forwarded message: Greetings everyone, I've just finished reading what can only be described as a truly well-written and wonderfully informative book, THE ARGUMENTATIVE INDIAN penned by an erudite scholar and commentator, Amartya Sen. The author is a Nobel Prize Winner in Economics (the first Asian to be so honored). He is the current Lamont University Professor at Harvard and previously was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. The book is a collection of essays on Indian History, Culture and Identity. For those of you unfamiliar with this work I highly recommend it as a eye-opening read for anyone who has left a bit of their soul in India. Cheers, ooroo If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door. Anon.

>From NYT, June 10, 1901, Wednesday AMERICAN ENGINES ON INDIAN RAILROADS; Lord George Hamilton Explains Loss of Contracts by British. They Wanted Greater Price and Longer Time -- Contracts Were Decided on Strict Business Basis. The following, taken from The London Times, is the full text of the letter addressed by Lord George Hamilton. Secretary of State for India, to Sir Alfred Hickman, M.P., to which reference has been made in recent cable dispatches. Free pdf (1363 words) download at :- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9507E5DA1139E733A25753C1A9609C946097D6CF or http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9507E5DA1139E733A25753C1A9609C946097D6CF ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

G'day folks, Vince is not a member of the Raj List. Replies to him direct please otherwise he won't see them. ooroo On 19/05/2008, at 6:13 AM, Vince Collins wrote: I am sending this note to as many Anglo Indian contacts as I can find. I hope you can help. I am trying to trace the Anglo-Indian part of my family, of which I am very proud. They were living in and around Madras at the start of the 20th century. The details I have are as follows: Martin EDWARDS married ??, children: 1. Grace Lillian Edwards (my grandmother) born July 15 1906 in Madras. I have photos of her. 2. James Edwards (was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army Medical Corps in WW2. He was a surgeon.) I have his photo. 3. Not sure if there were others. Family story is that Grace was former head girl of Madras University or a girls' college - not sure if that was the case. She definitely had a brother, James who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army Medical Corps in WW2. He was a surgeon. I believe that the Edwards were an Anglo-Indian family. Grace Lillian EDWARDS (born July 15 1906 in Madras) married Joseph Collins in Trinity Chapel, Park Town, Madras on February 28 1927. Joseph was serving with 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, stationed in Calicut. Children: 1. James Joseph Edwards Collins (born in Fort St George Madras on April 29, 1927. He died in Bolton, Lancashire on April 30, 2003.) He was my father. 2. Phyllis Elaine Collins (born in Wellington, India on April 27, 1929.) 3. Other children were born subsequently in the UK. Anything you can add would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading my note. Vince Collins 40 The Leys Long Buckby Northants NN6 7YF England ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ooroo If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door. Anon.

PRESS RELEASE Events to Celebrate the 300th anniversary Of the laying of the foundation stone of the Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth, Kolkata The Committee of Armenian Church in Kolkata is delighted to announce the celebration of the historic 300th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the Holy Church of Nazareth in 1707, between the 8th November and 15th November 2008, in Kolkata. Included in the events is the re-consecration of the equally historic St. Mary's Church in Chennai (formerly Madras), the birthplace of Armenian newspaper journalism, which has recently been renovated. The Committee of the Armenian Church takes this opportunity to extend an invitation to all those who are interested to participate in these events to join in this special and unique occasion. A diverse range of events will take place throughout the week, which will include a thanksgiving service at the Holy Nazareth church, visit to the historic and renowned Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy, a cultural seminar featuring distinguished Armenian speakers and historians, tours to the two other Armenian churches in Kolkata as well as visits to the Armenian churches in Chinsurah and Saidabad. It is expected that His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos and Supreme Patriarch of all Armenians will grace the occasion with his presence and blessings. It is also expected that as many members of the community, local, national and international will attend all or some aspects of the events. Anyone wishing to participate should email the Pastor of the Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth, the Very Rev. Fr. Oshagan Gulgulian at the Armenian Church manager@armeniancollege.in , the Wardens of the Armenian Church at armenianchurch@sify.com , or the event assistant liz@chater-genealogy.com , as soon as possible to register their interest. You can also register your desire to attend at www.chater-genealogy.com . The sooner you communicate with one of the above the sooner we can assist you with the details of your visit to India. We look forward to seeing you in Kolkata Haik H. Sookias Jr. Chairman Armenian Church Committee 19th May 2008 Researching Chater or Armenians in India and Hong Kong in 2008? Please go to www.chater-genealogy.com.