NigG (#216),
...I can't resist adding a shot of him!...
Whole series of questions:
Fine figure of a Sahib (monarch of all he surveys!) He is wearing a tunic (plus shirt, collar and tie) and
shorts. In my recollection, with that kit on top we would always be wearing slacks. Bush jacket or shirt with shorts - fine. But not this ! (our US friends, sweating in their trews, greatly envied us even if we
did look like overgrown Boy Scouts).
Line of ribbons; must have been in WWI.
What, in the name of all that's good and holy, has he got on his legs ? Looks like a long leather puttee or boot (snakes ?) with a peep-toe showing
chaplis (Jesus sandals) ?? Standard parade wear (with shorts) would have been long khaki woolen stockings and black shoes.
What is the bike ? Something tells me that it's a Matchless, but I don't know why.
The Bombay Bowler was
de rigeur then, I suppose. We chucked all ours away and wore Caps SD, or (preferably) Aussie Bush Hats. Just as good, and you could screw them up and push them into any odd corner of a cockpit.
Background looks like a Hill station, (down on the plains would be far too hot for tunic, shirt and tie).
...Materially, it was a jump into the realms of the affluent middle class...
Yes, it was "the life of Reilly". They lived "high on the hog", as befitted a
herrenvolk. Every European out there knew that, apart from anything else, he was there to
rule. Kindly if you can, harshly if you must, but always
rule. That was the way it had always been, and (we thought) always would be.
The beauty of it all was that Government of India paid for all this: it didn't cost the British taxpayer a penny. Not only that, they also paid for me (roughly at twice the home rate) as an officer - but our troops were paid by the UK at only the rupee equivalent of UK pay ! (work that one out, if you can).
... My generation has had the opportunity of higher education, the older generations had the opportunities of Empire!...
I've always thought that my five years of war (3½ in India/Burma) were the university education to which I could never otherwise have aspired.
Lastly:
...Having walked around many of the British Indian hill stations (before they were spoilt by modern development) I have such regret not to have been there in the old days...
Now you
must, absolutely
must, tell us all about it !
Danny.