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oai:orbis.library.yale.edu:12471442
2024-02-05
bacrb
03074cpc a2200349 i 4500
12471442
20240205163347.0
t
150601s1918 ii eng d
12471442
CtY-BA
CtY-BA
Gurton, Alfred.
Diary of Alfred Gurton during a trip to India.
1918.
1 volume (152 pages) :
illustrations ;
21 cm
unspecified
rdacontent
unspecified
rdamedia
unspecified
rdacarrier
Manuscript diary and herbarium compiled by Alfred Gurton, of the 3rd Garrison Battalion, the Bedford Regiment. On the front pastedown, Gurton informally describes the volume as a "Diary of a Trip to India." Gurton writes in graphite throughout, on the lined pages of an exercise book. The text is interspersed with about 15 pages of preserved leaves and flowers of plants mounted in the form of a herbarium. Most specimens are unlabelled, although a couple of sheets give their origin in the Nilgiri Hills in southern India.
Gurton's journey from England to Delhi began on 27 January 1918, taking him across the Channel on the SS Viper, through war-torn France and Italy before embarking on the P & O liner Malwa to Bombay. Lively and observant throughout, Gurton describes his travels in detail. He arrives off Bombay in March 1918 about two thirds of the way through the diary, describing how the Malwa followed buoys through a minefield into the port. Soon after he takes the Baroda and Central India Railway to Delhi, observing that "the natives live in wretched hovels and keep a lot of goats - curious lop-eared and harmless animals of all colours." Gurton found himself quartered luxuriously at Delhi fort, feasting on rissoles and excited to spot (and sketch) a hoopoe. There are the usual inspections and physical drill including "a big dose of knee raising," but Gurton is thrilled to escape the fort and inspect the city. Gurton also finds time to attend Sunday service at St James's Church with a congregation of soldiers and "a fair sprinkling of white women looking very fair and fresh in their light summer frocks. A number of half caste and Indian women were also present." The diary closes before the regiment continued to Burma later in the year; Gurton notes: "continued in another book."
In English.
Bound in black cloth.
Gurton, Alfred
Diaries.
World War, 1914-1918
Regimental histories
India.
Pressed flower pictures.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85106526
Botanical specimens
Collection and preservation.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85102845
Flowers
Collection and preservation.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85049334
Great Britain.
Army.
India
Description and travel.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85064883
Diaries.
rbgenr
Herbals.
rbgenr
Chron.
1918.