Photo albums that focus on the British Raj

By Amit Roy

AN “ASTONISHING pair of photo albums depicting the life of a British army officer in India during the first half of the 20th century” are set to be auctioned at Rowley’s of Ely, Cambridgeshire, on Saturday (7).

Roddy Lloyd, from the auction house, makes a very perceptive sociological point: “Interestingly, many of the shots show the British and Indians as equals – playing polo, hunting and relaxing together.”

The albums, with more than 400 blackand-white photographs and a sale estimate of £200-300, were put together by an unnamed officer, who belonged to the Indian Army’s 28th Light Cavalry.

Its job was to prevent “the infiltration of German and Ottoman agents from Persia into Afghanistan” from the turn of the 20th century until the 1930s.

The Germans believed that if this could be achieved, then British troops would have to be removed from the Western Front in France and sent to defend India. After the end of the First World War and up to 1920, the 28th Light Cavalry continued on active operational service in Russian Turkestan.

Lloyd adds: “We see the men enjoying themselves playing polo, ‘pigsticking’, big game hunting and duck shooting.

“Their wives are often prominent and there are a number of informal shots of people as well as wonderful landscapes while holidaying in Kashmir and trekking with ponies and porters in the high foothills of the Himalayas and Karakorams. It is a remarkable record of a life that exists no more for the British.”

Digital photography has proved to be a boon for news photographers, who can send their images instantly to their picture desks, even from war zones.

But something has been lost. In these days of camera phones and selfies, almost no one has an album with evocative photographs from the past.