Gramps India 1899

Hopefully this is the right place to post this. If not my apologies and please send it to the right spot.

When I was a kid our grandparents lived with us and gramps had fought in India in the late 1900's. I was fortunate enough to have gramps tell me some of the stories.

He was a boxer and used to show me his form, only a little guy but tougher than nails. I remember when my dad bought our first gas mower; we lived on a couple of acres and gramps used to push a mower around it so dad thought gramps would be impressed. When dad came home and saw the grass cut he asked gramps what he thought of the new lawnmower. Not much replied gramps and complained to dad that he ruined a new pair of shoes. He pulled the lawnmower back and cut off the end of his shoe and a hunk of his toe. Gramps just wrapped some tape around the stub and went out and finished the lawn. It wasn't cutting off his toe that bothered gramps but that pair of shoes was almost new. Tough old guy.

He was wounded in the Khyber Pass and spent many months in the hospital where he had his body tattooed from top to bottom. Old blue ink stuff, 2 sailing ships fighting on his chest and a gladiator and a lion on his back. Plus many more some quite funny but not for polite company.

Here is a picture of him and if this is the right place I'll tell you a bit more about him. He was a hero to me.



This is a picture of what was called his small book; I’ll scan some of it if there are folks who are interested in this kind of thing.



KTK

 

Greetings mate,

Thanks for sharing this.
We would surely appreciate if you post more, as these documents are priceless.

I think a safer bet wuld be to post them here, but both forums are cool.

Do you know more about his life?

Regards,
TBA

 

Good day Mate,

I will repost as you have suggested. I am not yet familar with all of the various forums so your suggestion is most appreciated.

Where abouts in India are you located? After listening Gramp's stories I took a little trip around that part of the world.

I will scan and post some more of the stuff I have of Gramps.

An interesting thing about gramps in this part of his life was his name change. Apparently his mom was a lady in waiting to queen Victoria but gramps had to be punished for being born 3 months early and was farmed out to live with the Alderman family so as not to embarass his parents. After he served he found out what had happened and went and confronted his dad who denied everything. Gramps left but wasn't satisfied and sent a lawyer to see his father at which time his father broke down and told the truth and admitted that gramps was legit. Gramps was given a small monthly amount if he would leave England and bring no embrassment to his folks. I believe the correct term is a remittance man.

So that's how we ended up in Canada.

Cheers,

KTK

 

I am located in Mumbai, but have extensively visited North India.

Where have you travelled, In india?

Regards,
TBA

 

Landed in Calcutta from Burma flew to Nepal took a train to New Delhi, then train to Agra, then on to Bombay (Mumbai) through Aganta and Allora (sp). From there by boat to Goa, from Goa by bus to Madras, then train back up to Calcutta vis Puri. From there train to Darjeeling and then back across northern India by train to New Delhi (Varanasi, etc). From flew up to the Kashmir and then down to Amiritsar and then onto Afghanistan.

They still have those really neat trees in Bombay? The big bottle shaped ones on (Radcliffe Ave)?.

Do you know how to ask the moderator to move this thread?

Cheers,

Ken

 

Thanks for sharing! Personally, I think you posted in the right place!

 

A couple more scans as promised.

KTK

 

Thanks Biak,

I didn't think there was much interest, which is OK. I will try to post of gramp's stuff.

KTK

 

Hi Ken,

very interesting! Please send more.

Regards

Gunner

 

Really cool stuff. WOW you have a neat family history!

 

Hi All,

It’s taken me awhile to get back to Gramp’s Army book, life and laziness just keeps getting in the way.

But here are some more scans. Kind of neat to think that this is from more than a hundred years ago and I remember well growing up listening to Gramps.

Maybe in a hundred years from now someone will be showing others stuff from their ancestors. Us?

KTK

 

Thank you much Ken!

Really interesting documents!

Regards

Gunner