Cabinet Photograph
A. Swan Watson - Photographer
Edinburgh, Scotland
June 1896
Although this cabinet photograph was taken in Edinburgh, Scotland, its subject - Lieutenant Archibald Francis Stewart of the 1st Battalion, the Durham Light Infantry - spent almost his entire career with the Indian Army so it seems appropriate to include it in this section.
Archibald Francis Stewart was born on 12 September 1871 in Port Royal, Jamaica, West Indies the son of Francis Archibald Stewart and Grace Jane Malloch. The elder Stewart - born in Scotland - was an officer in the 1st Battalion, the West India Regiment. Archibald's mother Grace Jane was Canadian and his parent's wedding took place in Ontario, Canada on 10 November 1870.
Archibald Francis Stewart was living with his family on the Channel Island of Jersey when he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, the Durham Light Infantry from the West Regiment, the Royal Jersey Militia on 28 September 1892.
Promoted Lieutenant - 4 August 1894
Seconded to the Indian Staff Corp - 22 March 1897
Captain, Indian Staff Corps - 5 October 1901
Major, 116th Mahratta's Infantry - 28 September 1910
Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel -?
Deputy Assistant Adjutant & Quarter-Master General - 2 November 1915
Lieutenant-Colonel, 108th Infantry, Indian Army - 28 September 1918
Retires - 28th September 1922
Stewart's somewhat fragmentary military record seems to indicate that spent almost his entire career with the Indian Army. His World War I medal index card simply states that at the time of the issuance of his British War and Victory Medals that he was attached to the 108th Infantry (Indian Army). The 108th was part of the 9th (Secunderabad) Division which remained in India for training and security duties for the duration of World War I.
Stewart married Miss Hallgerda Fawcus at Poona, India on 5 April 1905. His wife died in India in 1908 and Stewart married a second time on 3 December 1909. This second marriage to Julia Beatrice Forbes took place at All Saints Church, Malabar Hill, Bombay (Mumbai). Touchingly, when Stewart passed away on Jersey in 1957 he requested that he be buried with both of his gold wedding rings.
A resident of the Isle of Jersey after his retirement, Stewart spent the duration of World War II as an "internee" of the German forces that occupied the island. It must have chaffed to the old officer to spend the duration of the war an unwilling guest of the Germans.
Below: Lt. Col. Archibald Francis Stewart's German issued identity card. He would have been about seventy years old at the time the card was created. Image source: Jersey Heritage.
