Networks of multiple realities
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (249) extends its analysis of resident British Indians to a concentration found living in Boscombe, 1901. This term refers to people belonging to British families born within the Indian sub-continent and the Indo-Sino peninsular. A study of their biographies reveals a shared lifestyle marked by global movement, marriage within their social group, frequent sea travel, and employment in colonial administration or commerce. Bournemouth’s version of English life perhaps aligned with the imagined realities of those who embodied multiple cultural experiences.
Victorian Bournemouth (249): survey
Rising numbers
By the end of the nineteenth century, the number of British Indians noted as present in Bournemouth had increased by a large amount. Census listings suggest the number more than doubled, reaching over 500. The figures include both genders and people of all ages. Their increasing presence suggests that Bournemouth became a growing attraction to people working within colonial administration or international commerce. Word-of-mouth may have contributed much here, percolating through a small, interconnected community that had continuous links, kinship and cultural, with the homeland. For them, Bournemouth’s beneficial climate and market positioning as a leisure venue may have resembled an Indian hill station. Thus, while some of these visitors to Bournemouth may have decided to settle after retirement, most others saw it as a venue to visit within England’s ‘spa circuit’. According to the census, British Indians preferred to live in select areas of Bournemouth.
Boscombe
Some British Indians preferred to reside in the west, within the area of Alum Chine. More, however, appear to have favoured Boscombe. Analysis shows that a part of the latter suburb included, in comparative terms, a high concentration of such people. During this period, Boscombe’s urbanisation had grown. The area, by then, included a theatre and shopping parade. Seaward to the Christchurch Road, there developed a grid of streets bordered by Sea Road, Crabton Close Road, and Percy Road. Several other connected roads appeared within this box. According to the 1901 census, over 75 British Indians resided here. The streets of highest concentration included Hawkwood, Westby, and Florence. Such tight grouping encourages further inspection. The clustering suggests that connections between the visitors may have existed. It also seems possible that agents and boarding-house owners may have aimed their marketing at this target group. Word-of-mouth seems evident.
Victorian Bournemouth (249): backgrounds
Occupations
Census listings of occupations show that the British Indian community fell into two occupations: colonial government or commerce. The administration consisted of the military, English and Indian regiments, the civil service (administrators, police, lawyers), and clergy. ‘Box-wallahs’ worked in the banks, other trading businesses, and planted tea or coffee. On Westby Road, for example, Elizabeth Russ’s first husband died in service (1857) as a Dacoity Commissioner (Bengal Civil Service). The Litchfields’ head served in the Madras Cavalry as a major-general. Alice Pyper’s husband planted tea in Sri Lanka. On Hawkwood Road, a similar pattern existed. Examples included ‘Queenie’ Boys, 15, father working for the Madras Bank, while nearby lived Annie Biss, widow of a Calcutta bank clerk. Elsewhere on the street lived kin of planters and civil servants. On Florence Road lived young Lillian Birch, granddaughter of a Madras Army officer, daughter of an officer in the 29th Lancers.
Geography
British India consisted of the three presidencies (Calcutta, Bombay, Madras) and the apparent independent states, where maharajahs remained in nominal control. As a rule, the census enumerators applied the collective shorthand of ‘India’ or ‘East Indies’ when recording birthplaces of British Indians. Genealogical analysis, however, helps to clarify such instances by identifying individuals’ birthplaces with greater detail. Thus, streets in this Boscombe neighbourhood included a few natives of Calcutta, but most of the families came from either Madras or Bombay. A handful included natives of Sri Lanka and the Straits Settlements, the latter, at one time, part of the Bengal administrative area. Others came from an independent state, for example, Mysore. In a few cases, family members came from all three Presidencies. Most often, however, the families appear to have lived and worked in a single area. Once again, this geographic concentration suggests networks of connected families.
Victorian Bournemouth (249): later lives
World Wars
Paternal occupations, both military and civil, drew many of the boys present in Boscombe (1901) into World War I. Their collective experience included both casualty and continuation. For example, the war made a severe impact on the family of Sir Duncan Colvin Baillie, ICS. Three of his sons attended Elizabeth Robinson’s school on Hawkwood Road. A fourth, a few years older, died in Neuve Chapelle, 1914, while two of the others died within three days of each other, a year later, around Loos and Hill 70. The youngest boy served but survived. William Leefe Robinson, a young son of Elizabeth, a pilot, brought down the first Zeppelin, securing him the VC. By this time, he had lost another brother at Kut-el-Amara. William later became a prisoner of war. Several escape attempts placed him in hardship camps, perhaps weakening him. On return, he could not escape the Spanish flu.
Nomadic colonials
Colonial administrators and businesspeople often took their rest and recreation in Britain, whether natives or expatriates. Their names appear and reappear on liners’ surviving manifests, tracing their ocean travels between India and Britain. A snapshot of the adult ‘Queenie’ Boys surfaces: fair complexion, brown hair and eyes, around 180 cm tall. The culture on board replicated their Indian life and what they expected in Britain. Victorian Bournemouth also would have reflected that mannered fantasy. These journeys often appear to have formed part of maternal duties, with husbands continuing at their work behind desks or riding around their tea plantations. In adult life, having survived the first war, they often continued in careers identical or similar to those of their fathers. Thus, many of those rubbing shoulders with people at ‘Home’ knew that their real home lay in India. Continuing imperial duty after 1947 brought one to the Nigerian police.
Settlement
Some of those found in Boscombe, 1901, lived elsewhere in England. Two widows, both on Florence Road (Carrick, Beaumont Hall), fell into this category. The Biss family occupied Sharuken (Hawkwood Road) at least from 1891-1921. Probate records suggest occupants of several houses (or kin) maintained a connection with Boscombe or Bournemouth: Avoca, Tapynham (Westby Road); Wynbourne, Glencoe (Florence Road); Casa Cuoli, Cuolavin (Hawkwood Road). Charles Fairlie Dobbs, at least the third generation of a military family born in India, married in Ballari, Madras, 1896, British Indian, the daughter of a Scottish engineer, of identical origin. In 1901, they spent time with her parents at Pine Lodge, Westby Road. By 1911, his father-in-law had moved to 68 Wellington Road, Malmesbury Park area. The couple stayed with them then, and again in 1921, Charles having improved his military rank. Later, probate records would show this property as the final destination for Charles and his wife.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (249) reports on a notable concentration of Anglo-Indian individuals listed by the 1901 census for Boscombe, Bournemouth. These individuals, most born in the Madras and Bombay Presidencies, shared common social characteristics: involvement in colonial administration or commerce, and a transient lifestyle within the British Empire. While some family connections have emerged, more may have existed. After 1901, some continued their travels while others settled in Bournemouth, drawn perhaps by its idealised English atmosphere, a reflection of their own complex cultural identities.
References
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