14th (Murray’s Jat} Bengal Lancers, large stout leather trumk used by the Commandant. c. 1890s

The very sturdy black leathet trunk has brown leather trimming at corners and edges and has wooden runners attached to the base, It has suffered recently from being stored in damp conmditions but i have brushed off the excess evidence of that and it is eminently worthy of being a restoration project. What better place to store some of your Bengal Lancers uniform that trunk which has travelled around the North west Froniter. Its owner, painted on the lid and named on the remains of a label was Lieutenant Colonel Peter Bairnsfather, 14th (Murray’s Jat) Bengal Lancers. Its dimentions are 30 ins x 11½ lns and it is 12 ins deep. Old labels are mainly worn away but one has an ALLAHABAD stamp and another shows it has trqvelled with P & O, quite probably on its way back to Scotland where I bought it years ago from a family descendant. An atmospheric souvenir of the days of the Raj. We ask the buyer to collect or arrange shipping, It is currently in Cheltenham but will soon move to Kent.    jun13/1

Peter Robert Bairnsfather was Commandant of the 14th Bengal Lancers at the end of the Victorian era and had fought with the regiment in the Jowaki expedition of 1877 and the 2nd Afghan War where he was involved in the battles of Charasia and those around Kabul. Other items connected with Bairnsfather and a few photographs of the 14th Lancers can be found elsewhere on the website by using the SEARCH button and entering Bairnsfather. He was the a relation of the notable military cartoonist who created Old Bill.