INDIA & PAKISTAN -- PARTITION 1947

Rare album of photographs of Indian and Pakistani Independence.

SPENCER COX, T.H. (b. 1924). [Photograph album, India and UK, 1947-1948.] 123 photographs (most approx. 60 x 85 mm., but several large format approx. 165 x 215 mm.) many with manuscript annotations, mounted on 24 leaves, large oblong 4to (234 x 311 mm.) (3 photographs missing.) Original leatherette, string tie (extremities lightly rubbed).

VERY RARE PHOTOGRAPHS OF INDIAN PARTITION from the perspective of a British Army serviceman under the command of Fld. Marshal Auchinleck. T.H. Spencer Cox the compiler of this album, appears to have been part of the 14th Field Regiment that sailed from England to India between May and June 1947 aboard S.S. Samaria. The photographs show him and his fellow servicemen at their base in Karachi, including shots of planes (1 after a crash-landing) and heavy weaponry. One photograph, dated in manuscript August 14, shows Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, being driven past Spencer Cox’s regiment on the day of official partition as they line the route in his honour. Other images show the regiment being visited by Auchinleck and, in October 1947, its departure from Karachi and journey back to the UK. Photographs towards the end of the album show Spencer Cox at Larkhill and Middle Wallop where he is involved in Army Flying displays.