Original 1909 sketchbook of British Gurkha officer in Kahmir & Baltistan
with 57 sketches of local people, views and animals
Author
Publisher
Printing Details
This is an original sketchbook, belonging to Wynyard Keith Brown, an officer in the 5th Gurkha Rifles while he was stationed in Kashmir and Balistan in 1909. It is a small pocket book with handwritten label to front ("Sketches, Kashmir and Balistan, 1909, WKB"), and measures 18.5 × 10.5cm, the pages perforated to the inner margin. There are 57 pencil sketches, and one loose by another hand, with a few blank pages.
The sketches are mostly the people he worked with (or worked for him), and in his language, they are titled as Fatteh Alma; an orderly, The Shikar (Guffara); the Tiffin Coolie; A Coolie (Kralpora); Pitamber wearing a puggra (?) after his go in the sun; a very poor attempt at the Dak coolie; Fergusson and "Stuffy" (a fellow officer in pith helmet and monkey); shikari Shabana; "Salaam Salut, my Hindoo bearer 'Dukki' elcoming me back; etc etc, as well as sketches of pets and local animals, and views (these are drawn in landscape format) such as "Labchakan Camp", a glimpse of the Wooler (Wular) Lake; Kralpora Camp; Camp Atwattoo (Athwatoo); Deasoi Plain; Fourth Bridge, Srinagar. Most of the sketches are quite detailed, if amateur, and a few are preliminary or unfinished. They form an interesting record of a soldier's life or travel and hunting in Northern India and regions in the years before the Great War.
The artist, Wynyard Keith Brown, was born in Lucknow in 1888, the son of Colonel Francis David Millet Brown VC, his Victoria Cross was awarded during the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and was educated at Wellington College. He commissioned into the Indian Army and posted to the 5th Ghurka Rifles in 1907. He served in Egypt at the start of the Great War, before being deployed to Gallipoli attached to the 9th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own). He was killed in action on 4 June 1915 leading a company to recover trenches lost by the 6th Gurkhas. He was mentioned twice in despatches.
Condition
The binding is heavily worn, with the front cover nearly detached and with loss to the spine. The inner binding is pulled but most contents still firmly attached. The first two or three pages have smudging / offsetting to the pencil drawings but this remains a unique item.
Books are currently zero-rated for duty (as of January 2026), so the price shown is the price you pay.
Price
£120.00
