Description

Small Collections Box 8

Punjab, N.W.F.P. U.P. Kashmir. 1919-1941.

Memoir: Memsahib

• 6 November 1918 Leaves for India for first time, arrives Bombay 23 December 1918 as the wife of Sub-Divisional Officer Malakand in N.W.F.P. 1918-1941.
• Frontier Mail to Malakand, N.W.F.P. Description of journey, via Agra, Delhi, Nowshera, Dargai. Description, character and influence of the bearer, Sardar.
• Camp at Amandara in Swat Valley.
• Archaeological finds.
• Camp life and customs.
• Temporary posting to Dera Ismail Khan, so live in rest house.
• In camp at Tank. Trouble in Frontier. Sandstorms.
• Women evacuated from D.I.K. to Murree hotel. Returns eventually to Malakand. More remarks on life in D.I.K.
• White Russian officers and families trek to Malakand.
• Baby born. Changes this brings. Leave. 2nd child born.
• On return, posted 130 miles from Lahore to Chichiwatni Road.
• Life in remote station in the plain. No other Europeans.
• Short break at Montgomery. Realisation how out of touch with European life they were. Spend summer in Dalhousie.
• Move to Montgomery. Following. summer in Simla, where third child born.
• Closing of Alliance Bank of Simla.
• Description of town and life of Montgomery. Harappa before excavation.
• Return to Upper Swat Canal and Malakand. By car on Grand Trunk Road from Lahore.
• Visit of King and Queen of the Belgians for the day in Malakand, also sons of Theodore Roosevelt.
• Leave in Ireland.
• Posted to Mardan. Description of life. Hot weather.
• Leave in Kashmir, description of car journeys from Rawalpindi to Gulmarg.
• Daily family life in Mardan. Incidents and characters.
• Completion of hydro-electric scheme for Mardan by Mr. Dench 1929/30.
• Leave, and two elder children remain at school.
• Autumn 1930: Lahore. Mr. Dench Under Secretary. Mrs. Dench gets job as journalist mainly reviewing books for the Civil and Military Gazette. Leave in Simla. Description of house and life.
• Moved to Amritsar. Jardine’s cricket team plays the Yuvraj of Patiala. They entertain the team, particularly Langridge.
• Back to England on leave. All the children remain including 5 year old who has had jaundice. ‘The great pain of parting.
• Sargodha, Punjab.
• Montgomery.
• Leave in England – return September 1938. Posted to Delhi.
• Starts a women’s magazine called Women In India.
• Trek from Simla out on Tibetan road for 10 days.
• Dog dies of rabies. Trip up the Kangra Valley.
• Simla – description of life there, including events on day of King George VI’s coronation.
• Leaving India. Bombay. Waiting for passages home 1941.
• Description of voyage home in war time.
• Copy of the first number of the Women’s Voluntary Service Magazine entitled Women In India for August 1942, edited by Mrs. M.O. Dench.