----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Woods" My late uncle served from 1917 to 1947 with the Indian Army, and in the early 1940s rented the ground floor of a house known as Padham Castle. His family lived there for a time and he recouperated there from illness encoutered during withdrawing from Burma with the 17th. I would be very interested if anyone knows anything about this property, supposedly then owned by a senior Indian, and if a photograph might be available. ==================================================== Chris, I was sure you'd asked this question before - so I searched the India-List archives, and found this: Archiver > INDIA > 2004-03> 1079854663 Sun, 21 Mar 2004 >From "Chris Woods" Subject: [India-L] Simla 1930s/40s *** I'm trying to trace / identify a large property called Padam Castle in Simla. Apparently the building (referred to as a large bungalow but mysteriously with an upstairs) was owned by a "local Maharaja who lived upstairs" and apparently he was often invited to join the family on occassion for dinner etc. I would very much like to try and get a photo of this building for the family tree as it has fond memories for my cousin who stayed there as a young child, and if possible to find out who this Maharaja might have been.*** Going by the pointers in that message of, I'm resonably certain that what you are seeking is a building called ''Padam Palace'' and not ''Padham Castle''. Some years ago, I'd helped one of our lady members from Australia, the late Maria Suffolk, in her search for a small principality called ''BASHAHR''. Now you would be surprised to note that the ruler of this Bashahr state was the owner of this '' Padam Palace ''. The property is still very much in existence, and if you search for it by its correct name, you'll get several links to it. Apparently, there are not many images online. But with some patience, you may be able to locate them. RAMPUR is 134 kms from Shimla, and was once the capital of Bashahr/ Bushahar. It is one of the biggest commercial towns of Himachal Pradesh. It is located on the left bank of river Sutlej. The town was once a major center on the old trade routes to Kinnaur, Tibet, Ladakh and Chiana. In an interesting colonial and traditional styles, the Padam Palace is one of Rampur's major attractions. Some sites worth visiting: http://www.uq.net.au/%7Ezzhsoszy/ips/b/bashahr.html http://www.indiainfoweb.com/himachal-pradesh/monuments/padam-palace.html http://www.himachal-tourism.com/himachal-monuments.htm#3 http://www.indiasite.com/himachalpradesh/shimla/rampur.html http://suryavansh.com/Places%20of%20Interest.htm I'd be glad if this proves helpful to some extent. You might contact the owner of the www.uq.net.au site for further info. ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India