Archive / Papers / Lorimer

Given by C. Lorimer

Burma, India general. 1732-1942

The family connections both commercial and military with India and Burma start with David Kelly who worked for the Dutch East India Co. in the early eighteenth century, and terminate with Mr. C. Lorimer’s departure from Burma during the evacuation in 1942, when he got out of Burma using the Tamu route into India. This exodus is particularly well-covered in the papers both in C.L.’s own account ‘Exit from Burma’ and in a memoir ‘Burma Exodus, January-June 1942’ by H.P. West on the staff of Steel Bros., and in other accompanying papers

The commercial aspect of these papers is shown in the connections of various members of the Lorimer family with the East India Co., and in this century C.L.’s employment since 1925 with Steel Bros., at their rice-mills in Rangoon. His letters to his mother (1929-30) and his diaries which cover the whole of his service in Burma (1925-42) give an insight into the social and business life of contemporary Burma.

The historical documents include 9 army commissions of the East India CO., conferred on. Colonel John Crow (1779-1813 and a distant relative of C.L.) and cover his career from Ensign to Colonel. There is also a xerox of 10 commissions of Major William Wyld great uncle of C.L., covering the period 1836-1862).

Relating to the Mutiny period in India are the papers of Major Laughton, Chief Engineer at the siege of Delhi until 22 June 1857. (See Laughton papers in Volume I of Catalogue). These came from the papers of Major W. Wyld (1817-1902) who was in the 4th Light Cavalry, and Military Secretary to Sir John Lawrence during the mutiny. There is a xerox copy of Major Wyld’s account of his efforts to round-up single handed, mutineers of the 4th Light Cavalry in 1857. Also letters and telegrams from this period. There is a xerox copy of the proclamation of the Mutiny in Urdu dated 28 May 1857 from the Covernor General.

Box 1 – Manuscript of proposed book entitled “East India Saga a Family Story 1732-1944” written in 1968. 507 ff.

Box 2 – Assorted maps and atlases (including Rennell’s 1781 Atlas of Bengal); notes on cemeteries; record of coffee planting in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Box 3 – Letters to Maj. Laughton and his own notes of his work during the siege of Delhi, 1857; memoirs and letters from the flight from Burma, 1942.

Box 4 – Correspondence, memoranda, proclamations and telegrams 1850-1858 (but mainly 1858) to Major William Wyld, great uncle of C.L., covering the time when Wyld was Assistant Military Secretary to Sir John Lawrence.

Box 5 – Family correspondence, largely relating to Wyld’s travels during and after the 1857 Uprising.