British India
(Includes present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Myanmar/Burma)
Officers of the Indian Cavalry Escort for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee
Risaldar Major Sher Singh
Sirdar Bahadur
C.I.E., O.B.I., O.M.
2nd Punjab Cavalry
1887
Risaldar Major
Nadir Ali Khan
18th Bengal Cavalry
1887
Risaldar Major
Isri Singh, O.M.
19th Bengal Cavalry
1887
Woordi Major
Lena Singh
2nd Central India Horse
1887
These four outstanding photographic studies were once part of set of fifteen which depicted officers of the Anglo-Indian cavalry who were chosen to take part in Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee which took place in London in 1887. The set of photographs were in all likelihood the official portraits of these officers taken at the behest of the Queen by noted photographers Andrew and George Taylor. After supplying the Queen with her photographs the Taylor brothers would have offered additional sets for sale to the general public. These photographs came from one of those commercially available sets.
Sergeant & Bandsman
King's Own Scottish Borderers
c. 1890s
H. P. K. Skipton
Indian Police Service
1889
Private
The Derbyshire Regiment
(The Sherwood Foresters)
c.1888
Bombardier
Alexander J. H. Sturgeon
Royal Garrison Artillery
c. 1900
Private
The King's (Liverpool) Regt.
&
Regimental Servant
c. 1900s
Private
with
Colt Lightning Rifle
Royal Warwickshire Regiment
c. 1900
Subadar
7th (Duke of Connaught's Own)
Rajput Bengal Infantry
c. 1900s
Lance Corporal
Edward May
"E" Company
2nd Battalion
The Royal Scots
September, 1902
Captain
George William Deane
13th Bengal Cavalry
c. 1890
Drummer
The Gordon Highlanders
1900s
Subadar
Dalel Khan
25th Mountain Battery
c. 1900
Drummer
Fusilier Regiment
c. 1900
Colour-Sergeant Walter Anniss
Walter Anniss was born at Balham, Surrey on 26 February 1876 the son of Robert and Elizabeth Anniss. He received his education at Church School in Isleworth.
He enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Duke of Wellington's West
Riding Regiment for twelve years on 30 January 1893. At the time of his enlistment, he was described as being 5 feet 5 3/4 inches tall, weighing 117 pounds with hazel eyes and dark brown hair. He was also described as having a diamond tattoo on his right forearm and a cross & anchor tattoo on his left forearm.
Promotions were as follows:
Corporal - 15 May 1895
Lance Sergeant - 19 November 1895
Sergeant - 17 April 1897
His term expired and he re-enlisted to complete 12 years of service on 8 July 1902 while in the Transvaal.
Colour-Sergeant - 1 February 1908
Retired - 29 January 1914
During his initial 21 years with the colours Anniss saw active service during the Anglo-Boer War. He was entitled to the Queen's South Africa Medal with the clasps "Paardeberg", "Driefontein", "Relief of Kimberley" and "Transvaal" and the King's South Africa Medal with the clasps "1901" and "1902".
No. 3692 Colour-Sergeant Walter Anniss
West Riding Regiment
&
6/Royal West Surrey Regiment
Lucknow, British India
30 December 1904
Sergeant
2nd Battalion,
the Black Watch
and Family
c. 1900s
Gunner
Royal Artillery
c. 1900
Sepoy
2nd Anglo-Afghan War
Veteran
c. 1880s
Private
The Queen's
(Royal West Surrey)
Regiment
c. 1900
Colour-Sergeant
A. G. Bell
Shillong Volunteer Rifles
14 August 1902
Quartermaster
John Connolly
2/King's Own Scottish Borderers
&
Sergeant
Cawnpore Light Horse
c. 1892
Family Group
East Coast Rifle Volunteers
c. 1890s
Volunteer
Calcutta Volunteer Rifles
c. 1890
Acting Sergeant Major
Bangalore Rifle Volunteers
c. 1902
Achibald Francis Stewart
Durham Light Infantry
Indian Army
June 1896
Drummer F. Hayter
2nd Battalion,
The Suffolk Regiment
c. 1894
Pioneer Sergeant
Arthur J. L. L. Wills
2nd Battalion,
The Suffolk Regiment
c.1894
Jemadar
81st Pioneers
London, England
1900s
Troop Sergeant Major in Turban
Royal Engineers
c. 1900
Colonel of Pioneers
c. 1890s
Watercolour Sketch
of the Suswa River near Dehradun
Lieutenant
William James Logan-Home
Royal Engineers
April 1872
“The tiger will see you hundred times before you see it once”
― Anonymous
Cut from an album this photograph and associated newspaper clipping recount the demise of Lieutenant John Keith of Royal Artillery. Lieutenant Keith was killed by a wounded tiger while hunting with brother officers in the Wurdah District near Nagpore, British India.
John Keith was born about 1840 in Old Machar, Aberdeen, Scotland the third son of Dr. William Keith and the former Miss Burnette Silver.
Keith was commissioned into the Royal Artillery on 1 April 1861 and was assigned to the 13th Brigade, 8th Battery in Secunderabad, India on in May of the same year. He sailed from Gravesend aboard the steamer Hydaspes on 16 June 1861.
His military career being abruptly cut short a few short years after his arrival in India by his intended prey, Keith was never promoted nor did he seen any active service in the field.
His obituary appeared in the 27 April (no year) edition of The Central India Times and an abbreviated version showed up in the Saturday, 8 June 1867 issue of The Times (London).
Keith came from a large family of five brothers all of whom served in the military:
Above: The mounted photograph of Lt. John Keith, R.A. and the newspaper clipping taken from an album/scrapbook relating to his death under the jaws and claws of a wounded tiger.
Cyclists
The 3rd Kings Own Hussars
&
2nd Battalion,
The Gordon Highlanders
c. 1903
Sergeant William Meldrum
16th Lancers
with Wife & Servant
1865
Army Cyclist
c. 1890s
No. 1811 Private
William Robert Stubbings
72nd Highlanders
c. 1872
Colour-Sergeant Instructor
2/the King's Shropshire Light Infantry
c. 1905
No. 4452 Private
Joseph Stretton
1/South Lancashire Regiment
c. 1900s
Captain
Herbert Flamstead Walters
24th Baluchistan Infantry
c. 1896
Gerard Charles Lisle Howell
Indian Civil Service
Jacob's Horse
1900
Charles Lamont Robertson Glasfurd
Bihar Light Horse
1900
Privates
No. 4533 Arthur Ponder & No. 4479 Alfred Richardson
2nd Battalion, the Suffolk Regiment
20 June 1902
Surgeon-Major
Henry Charlesworth
Army Medical Service
December 1897
Sergeant
Edgar Job Evans
1/The King's (Shropshire) Light Infantry
c. 1900
No. 543
Private William Henry Wherry
10th Regiment of Foot
c. 1870
Officers Servant
Paulo Sebastiano de Souza
c. 1880s
Registered Postal Cover
Private Thomas Copeland
1/South Lancashire Regiment
16 March 1903
No. 2842
Private John Cotton
1/Northamptonshire Regiment c. 1895
Capatin Edmond Arthur Ponsonby Hobday
Captain Anthony Abdy
Royal Artillery
c. 1895
Up From the Ranks
Being promoted to officer status from the ranks was almost unheard of during the early part of the Victorian-era. With the increasing emphasis on military professionalism and ongoing reforms during the later years of Victoria's reign the practice become more common.
Edgar Vincent Thomas Alexander Spink was one such soldier. Enlisting as a private in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry late in Victoria's reign, he would be commissioned in his regiment during the Great War.
Our subject was born 16 September 1882 on the Ilse of Wight to Thomas Spink and Mary Ann Elizabeth Kelly.
Due to him being promoted from the ranks, Spink's enlisted service papers have not been found. As a result, the date of hid enlistment is not known.
Serving with the 2nd Battalion, the King's Shropshire Light Infantry during the Anglo-Boer War, Spink was entitled to the Queen's South Africa Medal (rank of corporal) with clasps: "Cape Colony", "Paardeberg", "Driefontein", and "Johannesburg". He also qualified for the King's South Africa Medal (rank of sergeant) with its usual "1901" and "1902" clasps.
The 2/Shropshire's roll for the Queen's South Africa Medal was compiled at Belfast, Transvaal on 26 July 1901 and lists Spink's rank as lance corporal. The battalion's roll for the King's medal, compiled at Rannikket, British India on 20 June 1903 shows Spink having been promoted sergeant then.
Sergeant
Edgar Vincent Thomas Alexander Spink
2/the King's Shropshire Light Infantry
India
1905
A Kut Hero
Ordnance Quartermaster Sergeant
George William Bonaker
Army Ordnance Corps
India
December 1910
This remarkably informal photograph shows No. 184 Armament Quartermaster Sergeant William Henry Bonaker, D.C.M. of the Royal Army Ordnance Corpsposing with his bicycle on a jungle road somewhere in India during the 1910-11 holiday season. Three locals also joined Bonaker in the photograph in which the road itself seems the center of the composition. Interestingly the road also forms a demarcation line between the Bonaker on the two Indian natives. The almost idyllic quality of the photograph belies the abject degradation and horror that Bonaker would face in just a few short years.
William Henry Bonaker was born in 1873 at King’s Langley, Hertfordshire. William’s father John Bonaker was a saddler by trade and his mother Louisa was listed in the 1881 census as a saddler’s apprentice as well as a wife and mother. Given the circumstances of Bonaker’s military career his service records have not been found but based on his marriage registration he must have enlisted in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps sometime after his marriage to Maud Mary Thwaites on 30 April, 1893 since at that time he was still living at his home in Luton, Hertfordshire. After enlistment much of Bonakers’ service seems to have been in India. There is a mention the Queen’s South Africa Medal Roll of a civilian saddler W. Bonaker serving with the Army Ordnance Corps and it is possible that the same Bonaker.
Ceylon/Sri Lanka
Five Veteran Soldiers
Unknown Regiment
Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
c. 1900