Description

Papers of A.S. MacWhirter, tea planter in Assam, and his wife, Mrs M.E. (Edith) MacWhirter, writer, 1930s-1950s. Collection of personal papers, official documents, writing and notes, letters and cuttings with a specific focus on the work of the Indian Tea Association during World War Two.

Diaries and journals; notes for stories and published articles:

• Various newspaper cuttings covering the Assam Riots — from both The Times and The Guardian. Dated from 11 February 1983 to 12 April 1983.
• Journal 1954 April to June (includes part of May)
• Journal part of May 1954 — 1950
• Four postcards — Madras Harbour; Ellerman lines SS ‘City of Lucknow’
• Personal letter dated Saturday 8th May 1954 on Grand Hotel, Calcutta writing paper Booklet of SS ‘City of Lucknow’, sailing from Calcutta, 7th May, 1954. Staff list; passenger list, itinerary, Ellerman Office information for UL, Great Britain, Canada and USA.
• Various press cuttings — Royal Bhutanese dancers, Ashcroft, Croydon — The Times 8th May 1980 The Last Page; BBC hunt for British Raj survivors; What the Raj gave to India by Terence Mullaly; Freedom of the Shires: shire horses who deliver Whitbread beer to public houses in the City of London gallop off at the start of a two-week holiday in the Kent countryside. Picture E. Hamilton-West. Newspaper advert for Assam.
• Handwritten Poem by Mrs Bose Andy B’s mama entitled “Passing Away”
• Two coloured pictures of tea adverts showing Indian ladies. One with household instructions handwritten on the back about the care of cats and birds.
• Pages from magazine Himalyan Times, dated Kalimpong, April 17, 1949.
• Report and Accounts 1980 for Lawrie Plantation Holdings Limited.
• Various pages from The Assam Review and Tea News magazine:
  • November 1937 ‘Club Nights’ by Macwhirter
  • November 1937 ‘A Memsahib’s Monday’ by Macwhirter
  • December 1937 ‘A Memsahib’s Christmas’ by Macwhirter
  • January 1938 poem entitled ‘And More Club Nights’ by Macwhirter
  • April 1938 ‘A Memsahib’s Tuesday’ by Macwhirter
  • April 1938 poem entitled ‘A Sad Tale of a Planter’s Wife’ by Macwhirter
  • April 1938 — photo of Lady Reid, wife of Asam Governor.
  • May 1938 article entitled ‘For the Memsahib’.
  • May 1938 ‘A Memsahib’s Wednesday’ by Macwhirter
  • June 1938 poem ‘On Living Among Scotsmen’ by Macwhirter
  • June 1938’A Memsahib’s Thursday’ by Macwhirter
  • July 1938 ‘A Memsahib’s Friday’ by Macwhirter
  • September 1938 poem entitled ‘I Told Him’ by Macwhirter
  • October 1938 ‘A Memsahib’s Saturday’ by Macwhirter
  • February 1940 ‘St. Valentine’s Day’ by Macwhirter
  • March 1940 — ‘Postman’s Knock’ story by Macwhirter
  • March 1940 ‘Then and Now’ by Macwhirter
  • May 1938 article entitled ‘For the Memsahib’.
• April 1938 — The Assam Review and Tea News picture of Lady Reid, wife of Asam Governor.
• May 1940 — The Assam Review and Tea News pictures of North Lakhimpur Golf showing Mr A S Macwhirter
• Newspaper cutting dated 10 November 1937 from The Times entitled ‘The Abominable Snowman: a Tibetan Mystery solved at last.’