The Prince of Wales’ Tour in India, 1875-76. 2 good group photographs

The Prince of Wales with Viceroy Lord Northbrook at Government House, Calcutta, 1875. A large group portrait with HRH the Prince of Wales [later King Edward VII] wearing a solar topi seated at a table with the Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, seated in a low chair on his right. The photograph measures 11¾ x 8¾ ins and it is mounted on an old card album leaf 17 x 13 ins with a contemporary title in ink at the base HRH The Prince of Wales, HE Lord Northbook + Part. Gov. House Calcutta. Thw Prince was in Calcutta over the Christmas period. The card has some old worm holes, mainly to the card or to the walls of Govt. House although there are five pin sized holes affecting some people to the right edge of the group. The other side of the card has another group portrait, this one measuring 11 x 7¼ ins titled HRH The Prince of Wales and party Agra during his tour. This time the Prince is surrounded by ladies while the men are further back or at the sides. On this side five small holes affect some figures on the extreme left, all the other holes are only in the card surround. There are relatively few photographs of this royal tour. Drawings were still illustrating newspapers and magazines and the only photograph in the standard work on the tour, by Russell, is the mounted photographic portrait of the Prince. oct27/1

These photographs present a challenging but rewarding task of identifying tthe many sitters. One of our illustrations shows a page from our reference copy of W. H. Russell: The Prince of Wales in India [1877]. The cavalry officer seated in front of the Prince in the Agra photogrpah is an officer of the 10th (The Prince of Wales’ Own) Royal Regt.of Hussars of which the Price was Colonel. The regiment was stationed at Muttra in Bnegla st this time. If I were to have to guess I would think this figure [identifiable by the unique pattern of shoulder belt worn by the regiment] is Lieutenant Edward Hartopp, Aide de Camp to the Governor General of India [Lord |Northbrook].