This week’s postcard takes us back once more to the sleepy hill static of Kasauli and a different view of its barracks, this time under a dusting of snow:
Despite being over 6000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Himalayas, Kasauli does not usually have temperatures in the winter lower that 2 degrees Celsius, so this must have been taken in a unseasonably cold snap. The mountains can be seen in the background, looming over the cantonment:
The barrack blocks can be seen in the foreground, each an elegant brick building with high ceilings to encourage the circulation of air and keep the interiors cool for the off duty soldiers:
Most of these face onto the parade ground, which sits as a large snow covered flat space to the right of the image:
In the background can be seen the tower of the local Church of England (now Church of India) church, Christ Church:
This attractive sandstone building with a green copper roof was built in 1853 and was the subject of an interesting story set during a rebellion by Gorkahs. The story goes that the rebelling Gorkahs had raided a treasury and secured loot of Rs. 20000. Somehow some British troops got hold of this loot and fearing for its safety buried it under a tree in the church yard…where it subsequently became lost as happens in all good treasure stories and despite searching has still not been found to this day.
In the foreground can be seen a set of wooden poles with a cross piece:
From other views taken at different angles, it seems that this was part of an assault course, with ropes for the troops to climb, bars for balancing on etc.
In the immediate foreground are a pair of galvanised tin baths:
Quite what these are doing in the snow isn’t clear- perhaps an officer felt that a hot bath in the snow would be an invigorating experience or perhaps they had just been washed and left out to dry when the snow fell…
This postcard has been marked up as a Christmas greetings and was printed in England for Moorli Dhur & Sons of Umballa. It is impossible to date these kind of images, but I suspect from the style of the reverse that it dates to the Edwardian Era.
The men are suspended over the side of the hull in bosun’s chairs:
A bosun’s chair was simply a plank of wood, with ropes attached to each end, that gave a temporary platform for a sailor to sit or stand on whilst working on the side of a ship.
The vessel itself is still painted in the Victorian colour scheme of black hull, with white or buff superstructure. The bow of this particular ship has an elegant gold scroll work clearly visible:
This colour scheme was dropped in about 1907 and ships were progressively repainted into grey, the colour offering far better camouflage at sea than the dark hulls of the old scheme. This postcard was sent in 1909, but may well be based on an image taken several years before. The ship in question is unknown, but had a white superstructure, just visible to the right of the image:
Even today, a century on from the Edwardian Navy and with far more resilient paints available, repainting the ship remains a constant chore for a ship’s crew and observers are quick to pass comment on a rust stained vessel!
This is clearly a posed photograph, but does depict a common event when action was expected, by sleeping next to the gun, a crew could be on hand to fire the weapon within seconds if an enemy ship came into sight.
This suggests it is the secondary armament of the ship and was of the light type of weaponry designed to protect a ship from attack by small, fast craft such as torpedo boats. These weapons were designed to fire rapidly and blow these lightly armed attack vessels out of the water before they came close enough to launch torpedoes that could damage or sink the larger ship.
Another sailor stands next to the gun awake and alert. It seems likely that he is representing the member of the gun crew who would remain awake in order to rouse his shipmates if needed:
A selection of shells sits on the deck next to the gun:
Again these seem to be posed, in reality they would be safely stowed in a ready use locker, far safer than being loose to roll around the deck or be detonated by enemy fire.
HM Troopship Rewa was built by William Denny for the British India Steam Navigation Company, and launched in 1905, completed 1906. This postcard was sent in 1908 by a soldier setting off on board her for India. The postcard is franked on 16th December 1908 in Southampton, presumably just before she set sail:
The sender has written
The sling has been pipeclayed White, the remaining pipe clay now rather fragile and liable to come off as dust in your hands if you manipulate the sling too much. Two pairs of holes are punched through the leather at one end to allow the sling to be secured around the rear sling swivel of a rifle:
Sadly the leather thong that was used to secure this is missing on my sling and so I have substituted a piece of string until I can find some leather strapping of the correct type:
At the opposite end of the sling are a pair of leather beckets:
The end loop is sewn to the sling, whilst the other is loose and free to slide up and down:
The end of the sling is passed through the front sling swivel of the rifle, doubled back on itself and passed through the two loops:
The free end is now passed back along the rifle and secured with the leather thong (or sting in this case) as illustrated above. The sling can then be adjusted to take up the slack to present a smart parade ground finish:
My apologies for the Gahendra but I do not own a Martini Henry and this is the closest equivalent in my collection, it does however show the concept nicely.
I don’t believe my sling is an original 1871 example as it is missing a third pair of holes for the leather securing thong, instead it was probably made up as part of a small batch for ceremonial duties in the twentieth century to broadly the 1871 pattern.
The large stone walls of the Embankment can be seen on the left of the image:
Of rather more interest though is the sloop, HMS Buzzard, moored a short distance away:
HMS Buzzard was a Nymphe-class composite screw sloop and the fourth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name. Developed and constructed for the Royal Navy on a design by William Henry White, Director of Naval Construction, she was launched at Sheerness Dockyard on 10 May 1887. The Nymphe-class sloops were ideal for service in the far distant outposts of the British Empire, and Buzzard was employed on the North America and West Indies Station. In early April 1902, under the command of Commander L. F. G. Tippinge, she left Bermuda for home waters, calling at Faial Island, before she arrived at Devonport on 20 April. She was paid off at Chatham on 13 May 1902. In 1904 she was converted to a drill ship for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve at Blackfriars, London as reported in the Daily Mail:
This memorial was unveiled in 1905 by King Edward VII and consists of a central, granite obelisk:
A small bronze sculptural plaque is fitted to the front of the obelisk:
The names of 314 officers and men of the Corps are recorded on 14 bronze name plaques arranged in a semi-circle behind the monument:
The memorial was designed by Robert Weir Schultz, whilst the sculpted group was by the Welsh sculptor William Goscombe John. In 2010 the memorial was listed, the reasons for this designation being given as: