Cries for help: Letters to the British India Office in the 19th century

A common activity for the India Office was fielding enquiries from members of the public asking for help. These usually involved help in either travelling to India, in tracing friends or relatives, disputes over money, applications for jobs in government, requests for financial assistance. Many such enquiries survive in the Home Correspondence files of the Public Department in the India Office Records.

To the majority of such enquiries the India Office declined help, and it is unknown how the situation was resolved. However these small cries for help still survive in the archives, and here are a small selection.

In April 1873, the India Office received a letter from EF Saunders of Railway Street, Chatham. Her son, John Cowlishaw had travelled to India in 1868 to work as an engineer in the Bombay Dockyards. Mrs Saunders reported that he was very ill in the workhouse at Lahore, and asked for any help or advice on getting him home. An enquiry with the Military (Marine) Department revealed that he had resigned his position as a third Class Marine Engineer on December 20, 1871. Saunders was advised to address an enquiry to the Secretary to the Government of the Punjab...

Read more