In 1902 the British Army updated its standard clasp knife to a new specification that had either buffalo horn grips (116a/1902) or black horn (4563a/1902) in place of the Boer War era pattern that had used bone grips. This pattern was to be very short lived, being replaced with a new design in 1905 that introduced a can opener into the design for the first time. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to find a black horn gripped version of this 1902 clasp knife, that despite a hard life is still in reasonable condition bearing in mind it is nearly 120 years old:
The design features both a flat ‘sheep’s foot’ style blade:
And a Marlin spike on the rear:
A lanyard loop was fitted to one end of the knife. Sadly this example has lost its original loop and had it replaced with a piece of wire:
The grips are also damaged and the horn has shrunk and delaminated over the years:
The blade is marked up on one side with the letters WD for War Department and the /|\ mark:
The opposite side has the stamp of the manufacturer, Atkinson Brothers:
This company was based at the Milton Works and Britannia Steel Works in Sheffield and was in existence from the 1890s onwards specialising in cutlery and knives.
Despite being made obsolete in 1905, these clasp knives would of course have remained in service for a number of years afterwards as stocks were used up. This is the earliest clasp knife I have so far found for my collection and despite its less than stellar condition, I am very pleased with it.
This prison was constructed in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny in Secunderabad. The following, highly detailed description of the gaol draws heavily on an article published by the ‘Hans India’:
The entire building structure and its four wings were covered in 360 degrees–facing 0 and 360 degrees is Lal Bazaar, 90 degrees is Moulali, 180 degrees is West Marredpally and 270 degrees is Bowenapally.
Each wing has two rows of cells with each cell facing the rear of the other, so that the prisoners in no way could see or communicate with each other. Each has a solitary ventilator at a great height above the ground, each cell has three strong iron door and the cells have an arrangement in which particularly difficult prisoners could be chained to the walls. Each cell has a small window type hole which would allow the prisoner to see only what is directly in front of him. However, if one were to peep inside the cell from outside, one would get a full view of entire cell to enable the authorities to observe the prisoner. The construction and the design of the gaol was made in such a way that any time in the day, from dawn to dusk, the sunlight never falls on any cell, which ensures dim lighting.
Any prisoner who succeeded in escaping the gaol walls had to pass through the canal and would have fallen prey to the crocodiles. The prisoners were so secluded from any contact with the outside world that if they had to be medically treated at the adjoining Military Hospital, they were transported, treated and brought back through an underground tunnel. A warden office would monitor the gaol administration. A work shed was erected in 1881 to cater to the needs of infrastructure.
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.
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.
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…
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.