In December 1919, Paris was awash with diplomats.  The victors of the First World War met to calculate reparations and carve new political entities from collapsed empires.  Amidst these negotiations, a smaller diplomatic mission was conducted.  On 25 December, a British Captain named Norman Bray found himself rushing from hotel to hotel.  He hoped to arrange a meeting between representatives of two men who now dominated the Arabian Peninsula, and thereby prevent war breaking out between two British allies.

Bray was the political officer accompanying the ‘Najd Mission’.  This was a delegation representing the ruler of the Emirate of Najd, ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Sa’ūd, and led by his teenage son, Shaikh Fayṣal bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd.  Under ibn Sa’ūd’s leadership, and with the help of an alliance with Britain, the Emirate had expanded rapidly.

Shaikh Fayṣal bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd, photographed in 1919 during the Mission’s visit to England. Source: Wikimedia Commons 

It now found itself clashing with its neighbour, the Hashemite Kingdom of the Hejaz.  The Hashemite ruler, King Husayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī, had initiated the British-backed Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.  His son Emir Fayṣal bin al-Husayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī, the Revolt’s battlefield leader, had travelled to France to argue for a unified Arab state under Husayn’s rule.  The British were anxious to avoid a military clash between their allies, and so Bray sought to arrange a meeting in the hope that the sons might influence their fathers towards a peaceful resolution.

Emir Fayṣal bin al-Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī (centre) with his delegation at Versailles. Source: Wikimedia Commons  

Despite Bray’s hopes, almost all the Mission’s time in Paris passed without a meeting between the Shaikh and the Emir.  But on the evening of 25 December, the night before the Mission was to depart for Najd, the party found that Emir Fayṣal had left a card at their hotel.

The Mission received an invitation to meet Emir Fayṣal on the evening of 25 December 1919 - IOR/L/PS/10/391/1 f.557

Bray was eager to take advantage of this ‘un-expected courtesy’, but Aḥmad bin ‘Abdullāh Āl Thunayān- a key advisor to ibn Sa’ūd and senior member of the Najd Mission- refused to allow Shaikh Fayṣal to meet the Emir.  Aḥmad argued that the Emir’s failure to contact them earlier was disrespectful.  Bray nonetheless endeavoured to make contact himself, visiting ‘all the principal Hotels in Paris’.  He failed to find the Emir, but did encounter one of his advisors, Brigadier General Gabriel Haddad Pasha; the two agreed to bring the parties together.

Bray spent the night of Christmas 1919 searching Paris hotels, eventually finding Haddad Pasha, an advisor to the Emir - IOR/L/PS/10/391/1 f.558 

As neither side was willing to visit the other, Bray proposed a compromise- he would host a ‘private luncheon’ that both parties could attend without losing status.  Haddad Pasha agreed, provided that it was preceded by an introductory meeting.  This meeting was almost derailed by the refusal of one member of the Najd Mission to attend.

‘Abdulla’, a member of the Najd Mission, initially refused to go to the meeting with Emir Fayṣal, but was persuaded by Bray’s reminder that the meeting could benefit ibn Sa’ūd - IOR/L/PS/10/391/1 f.559 

Eventually, the Mission found themselves in Emir Fayṣal’s hotel room.  The conversation was ‘harmless’, other than a ‘rather tactless question’ from the Emir regarding the Ikhwan, ibn Sa’ūd’s fiercely loyal shock troops.  A ‘strain both in attitude and conversation’ ended the meeting.  Aḥmad ‘very politely refused’ the suggestion of further discussions and Bray abandoned the idea, lamenting that his last-minute diplomacy had failed.

Conflict between Najd and Hejaz proved to be unavoidable.  In 1925, ibn Sa’ūd conquered the Hejaz, absorbing the Hashemite kingdom into his state, soon to be renamed Saudi Arabia.  Emir Fayṣal became ruler of the short-lived Kingdom of Syria, and after a French army had driven him out, was established by the British as the ruler of the new Kingdom of Iraq.

Dan McKee
Content Specialist Archivist
British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

Further reading:
File 2182/1913 Pt 11 'Arabia: relations with BIN SAUD Hedjaz-Nejd Dispute', British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/391/1, in Qatar Digital Library 

Revolutions and Rebellions: Arab Revolt (Ottoman Empire/Middle East)

 

In this summer of major sporting competitions, we’re looking back to the 1940s and the exploits of the cadets of the Indian training ship Dufferin.

Notice of the application procedure for the Dufferin from The Indian Cadet Second Term 1944 - IOR/L/E/8/4977

The Indian Mercantile Marine Training Ship Dufferin was established at Bombay in 1927.  The ship prepared Indian youths for a career at sea, with Executive and Marine Engineering Branches.  Regulations from the 1940s state that applicants had to be aged between thirteen years and eight months and sixteen years, and they had to have reached a certain standard in education.  Qualifying examinations were held in different parts of India, and successful candidates had to pass an interview and medical and eyesight tests.  Although the focus was on training officers for the Merchant Navy, there were opportunities for boys to compete for commissions in the Royal Indian Navy.

Front cover of The Indian Cadet Second Term 1944 - IOR/L/E/8/4977

Reports of the sporting activities of Dufferin cadets in the 1940s are found in The Indian Cadet, the ship’s own journal published twice a year.  The boys played football and hockey, and competed in athletics and swimming.

Photograph of the Dufferin hockey and football teams in their sports kit and uniform jackets - The Indian Cadet First Term 1944 - IOR/L/E/8/4977

The Indian Cadet for Winter 1943 lists the results of athletics events.  Some of the times and distances are impressive.  Netto came first in the 100 yards for under 16s in a time of 12 seconds (record 11 seconds), whilst Wellington won the 100 yards open in 11.7 seconds (record 10.2 seconds).  Rees won the 120 yards hurdles (senior) in 19 seconds (record 15.4 seconds), and also triumphed in the long jump (open) with a leap of 17 feet 8½ inches (record 19 feet 10 inches).  Harding smashed the javelin record of 109 feet 5 inches with a throw of 128 feet 3 inches, and Jellicoe won the pole vault by clearing 8 feet ½ inch, easily beating the previous best of 7 feet 2 inches.  Valladaras ran a mile in 5 minutes 45 seconds.  A new event, the ‘Hop, Step and Jump’ (triple jump) was won by Ramakrishnan with 36 feet 5½ inches.

Table of athletics results - The Indian Cadet Winter 1943 -  IOR/L/E/8/4977

At the end of 1944 only fifteen cadets had not passed the ship’s swimming test, whilst seventeen held badges for proficiency.  For the first time, a cadet was entered for the Western India Swimming Championships.  Cadet Captain Aubrey William Wise was hampered by the lack of intensive training but acquitted himself well, reaching the finals of the under 18s breaststroke, free style, and backstroke.  At the ship’s Annual Aquatic Sports held at Back Bay Baths on 10 November 1944, Wise was named the best swimmer in the Dufferin for a third time.

Champion swimmer Cadet Captain Aubrey William Wise - The Indian Cadet Second Term 1944 - IOR/L/E/8/4977

‘Football Notes’ for the Second Term of 1943 reported that the team’s performance was not up to the usual high standard at the start of the season, although enthusiasm was not lacking.  An assessment of each of the players was given. Goalkeeper Jellicoe never hesitated ‘to use his boxing ability against the ball’.  Centre-forward Bhattacharya played a very swift game, dribbled well, and was a sure shot, with ‘the grace of an expert ball-room dancer’.  Outside-left Pillai was a promising fresher, but ‘gentle to a fault and forgets that Football is a game meant for men and not for girls’.  I hope I heard a sharp intake of breath from our readers then?

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading:
IOR/L/E/8/4977 Issues of the Dufferin journal The Indian Cadet 1942-1945
IOR/L/E/9/861-862 Indian Mercantile Marine Training ship Dufferin 1933-1947
IOR/V/27/750/13 Copies of the Dufferin prospectus 1928-1951

 

The India Office, like all government departments, received a large number of enquiries every year from members of the public. Occasionally these enquiries could be a little out of the ordinary. This was the case on 2 January 1862, when the India Office received a letter asking for information relating to a safe allegedly stolen from the Cantonment in Agra.

The letter was from a woman named Alice Buckley of Harisson's Alley Way, off Hudson Avenue, Brooklyn, USA, dated 16 December 1861. She asked about a safe containing a large sum of money, stolen from Agra in India. She believed it was situated 9 or 10 hundred miles from Calcutta and thought that there was a large reward offered for its recovery. She said it had been stolen before the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny (more commonly referred to now as the 1857 Uprising). She claimed that she could give the India Office all the information required for the recovery of the safe.

Alice's letter was forwarded to India, and on 30 April 1862 Sir George Couper, Secretary to the Government of the North Western Provinces, replied. Sir George wrote that enquiries had been instituted through the Commissioner of Agra. He had advised that in consequence of the destruction during the Mutiny of the records of the records of the Magisterial Officers and police stations, and in the absence of former police officers who were no longer in the service, it was impossible to discover any traces of the theft. The current Magistrate of Agra District reported that no information on the subject had reached him or the city police. Sir George recommended asking Alice for more information and offering her a reward if it led to the recovery of the safe.

The India Office wrote to Alice on 3 July 1862, and she replied in a letter dated 17 July giving more information on this tantalising affair. She stated that the safe was taken from the Cantonment office in Agra by a clerk named Spelman and two other men. They hid the safe, but a short time later were ordered to Lucknow as they belonged to the First Fusiliers. Spelman died on the march, and another of the men was wounded and sent home but died on the passage back to England. The remaining man ended up in America where he later died. Whilst dying he Alice the story and even gave her a map showing the spot where they hid the safe. She described it as green with a black stripe round each end, about 2 feet square. She said that Spelman told the two men that he saw £30,000 in golds 'mores' (mohur) being put in the safe plus a bag, although he didn't know what was in the bag. The hid the safe in Agra not far from the Artillery Lines. Alice said she was the widow of John Buckley, a pensioner who was discharged from the 73rd Regiment of Foot on 11 October 1827 in consequence of a wounded right hand.

Disappointingly, Herman Merivale of the India Office wrote back to Alice on 15 December 1863 that a strict investigation had been made into all the circumstances stated by her, but no information whatever could be obtained which tended to the recovery of the safe or throw any light on the transaction to which she had referred.

So, was it just a tall tale told to Alice by a dying man, or is there a hidden safe still waiting to be discovered?

John O'Brien
India Office Records

Further reading:
Iron safe containing money alleged to have been stolen from the Cantonment Office at Agra before the Mutiny broke out, 1861-1863, shelfmark: IOR/L/PJ/2/40, File 7/24.

The National Archives hold the discharge papers for a John Buckley, born 1805 in Carragh, Kildare, who was discharged from the 73rd Regiment of Foot on 26 September 1827 due to a gunshot wound to the right hand, reference WO 97/847/130. This may have been Alice's husband.

On 12 April 1842, Captain John Lyons, Agent to the East India Company in Egypt, based at Alexandria, forwarded his quarterly accounts to the Secretary at East India House, London. He confirmed payment from Company funds of 10,000 Egyptian piastres - equating to £100 Sterling - in aid of a fund to build an Anglican Protestant church at Alexandria.

Quarterly accounts of Captain John Lyons confirming payment from Company funds of £100 in aid of a fund to build an Anglican Protestant church at Alexandria -IOR/G/17/13, f 2 Factory Records: Egypt and the Red Sea, 1842-1844.

Receipt confirming payment from Company funds in aid of a fund to build an Anglican Protestant church at Alexandria - IOR/G/17/13, f11: Factory Records: Egypt and the Red Sea, 1842-1844.

Lyons’ primary role at Alexandria was to oversee the mail service between England and India, and to manage the Company’s agents who were located at key points along the mail and passenger transit route through Egypt from Alexandria to Suez.  He liaised regularly with the Egyptian Government over operational and some diplomatic matters, and often became involved in local matters involving the merchants and the British community at Alexandria, such as the church building scheme.

In September 1846, Lyons received a letter from Mr Saunders of the Alexandria Church Building Committee, asking for another contribution from the East India Company.  Saunders appealed to the ‘liberality’ and ‘good feeling and Generosity of the Honorable Company’, and described the current state of construction: ‘The front wall is now raised to the height of 33 feet, the Chancel 32 and the sides 28 feet. The quantity of materials are already sufficient to complete the Body of the Church, but the Timber for the roof is not yet provided’. Without further funds, the works would soon have to be halted.

Statement of contributions in aid of funds for building a Protestant Church in Alexandria. - IOR/G/17/14, f 227. Factory Records: Egypt and the Red Sea, 1845-1848.

£2,595 had already been raised, but another £3,000 was needed to complete the body of the church, the west front, tower and enclosure walls.  Saunders appealed to Lyons’ ‘well known very kindly feelings towards all the English Residents and [his] active interest … in every thing relating to their welfare’.  Lyons was supportive in his message to the Company: ‘whilst the expense has greatly exceeded the expectation of the Committee the solidity and beauty of the Church is likely to be commensurate with the sum expended’.  Lyons had received from Saunders an engraving of the church, possibly similar to the one below, by its designer the British architect James William Wild.

Engraving of St Mark’s Church, Alexandria, detail, 1840s. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Wild spent many years in Egypt, travelling there in 1842 to work as an architectural draughtsman for Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius. He was commissioned in 1845 to build the Anglican church in Alexandria and his design was notably influenced by Islamic architecture.

St Mark’s Church, Alexandria. The South Façade, 1840s. Drawn by J W Wild and etched by John Henry Le Keux. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Drawing by J J Frey of James William Wild at the start of the Lepsius expedition in Egypt, 1842 Wikipedia

Saunders’ request to the Company was on this occasion ‘negatived’.  The church, now known as St Mark’s Pro-Cathedral, was completed in 1854 without the campanile, indicating that perhaps Saunders’ wider fund-raising efforts met with limited success.

Ecclesiastical Despatch to Bengal 8 September 1847 approving that Saunders’ request to the Company had been ‘negatived’ - IOR/E/4/793, f 543.

Modern photograph of  St Mark's by kind permission of St Mark’s Pro-Cathedral, Alexandria.

Wild may have been disappointed that his design did not come to full fruition.  However he could console himself knowing that he had already completed seven church projects by 1842, including, Christ Church in Streatham, south-west London.  A Grade I listed building, Christ Church is famous for its modern use of polychromatic brickwork and patterning and semi-detached campanile.

Scale drawing of the west front of Christ Church, Streatham, signed by Wild, 1841. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Images of Christ Church, Streatham, copyright Amanda Engineer, May 2024.

Amanda Engineer
Content Specialist, Archivist
British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

Further reading:
Egypt and Red Sea Factory Records British Library IOR/G/17/13 & IOR/G/17/14
East India Company correspondence IOR/E/4/793
St Mark’s Anglican Church in Alexandria, Egypt 
James William Wild - Wikipedia
Christ Church, Streatham, by James William Wild (1814-1892): Part I
Streatham, Christ Church - The Diocese of Southwark 
Owen Jones (architect) - Wikipedia
Christ Church, Streatham: a history and guide, Payne, Joan, 1917-; Hargreaves, Brenda, 1927--; Ivory, Christopher. 3rd ed. /revised by Christopher Ivory, c.2000

 

We continue the story of Jabez Tepper, cousin of JMW Turner...

Jabez Tepper is buried in Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey, in a grave that contains several other Turner relatives.

Gravestone for Jabez Tepper at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. Photograph by author.

In January 1872, letters of administration for Tepper’s estate were granted to his cousin, William Coham Turner, as it was thought that he had died intestate.  This grant was revoked in July 1872, following the discovery of a will dated January 1835 which named his mother and her heirs as beneficiaries.  Tepper’s brother, Samuel, a house painter and carpenter, now the sole heir, was located in Alabama USA.  He returned to England in May 1872 and stayed with William Coham Turner in St John’s Wood, London.  The will was granted probate in August 1872.  In the documents Tepper is described as a bachelor.

Arrival of Samuel Tepper in England from Alabama - Leeds Times 11 May 1872 British Newspaper Archive

Samuel Tepper met with Victoria Boyer, Jabez Tepper’s elder married daughter.  Because they were illegitimate, neither Victoria nor Catherina had any claim on the estate, but Samuel Tepper wanted to do the right thing and gave a substantial sum to each of the sisters.

Shortly after Jabez Tepper’s death, Mary Pennell went to his offices in Bedford Row, with a friend, and arranged for the removal of furniture, a large chest of silver plate and other valuables, including a diamond snuff box, which had been a gift to JMW Turner from King Louis-Phillipe of France.  She also visited and removed items from the farm in Sussex where she had lived with Tepper.  She was later apprehended and taken to court, charged with theft.  Mary claimed that she had a right to the property as she had lived as Tepper’s wife for sixteen years but could produce no proof of marriage.  She denied the existence of any will, although there were rumours that copies had been destroyed.  At the preliminary hearing it was judged that there was insufficient evidence for a successful prosecution and the case was dismissed.

Samuel Tepper returned to his home in Camden, Alabama, in October 1873, with a substantial sum of money and several Turner paintings and engraving plates.  He disposed of many others before he left, not wishing to pay the duty for importing them.  He suffered from ill health and probably depression and, in 1887, took his own life.

Gold snuff-box with floral and foliate ornament.  On the lid is the monogram LP with crown above for Louis Philippe, all in diamonds set in silver. © The Trustees of the British Museum 

After Samuel Tepper’s return from America, it appears that Mary Pennell had to return items that she had taken, including the Louis-Phillipe snuff box. The box was donated to the British Museum in 1944 by Maria Helena Turner, the great-grand-daughter of J.M.W. Turner's uncle, John Turner.

In 1877, the surviving beneficiaries of JMW Turner’s will brought a case against the estate of Jabez Tepper.  Tepper had bought their shares in Turner’s engravings for what he claimed was a fair price of £500 for each beneficiary.  This had netted him £2,500. When the engravings were auctioned after Tepper’s death, they fetched £35,000.  The family’s lawyers produced evidence that the engravings had been valued at £5,000 for legacy duty, so Tepper had been well aware of their real value.  The court found in the plaintiffs’ favour and ordered that the sale to Tepper be set aside.  An appeal by the Tepper estate failed.

Report of court ruling - Brief 15 December 1877 British Newspaper Archive

There is a certain irony in the coincidence that Jabez Tepper, having thwarted Turner’s plans for his inheritance, was similarly thwarted in his own. In both cases, large portions of the estate went to people they were never intended for.

CC-BY
David Meaden
Independent Researcher

Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive for reports on the court cases involving the Turner estate, the prosecution of Mary Pennell, and Samuel Tepper’s visit to England.

 

Turner’s restored house in Twickenham is open to visitors.

When JMW Turner died in 1851, his chief executor was solicitor Henry Harpur, a cousin on his mother’s side of the family.  The will, however, was contested by another cousin, Jabez Tepper, also a solicitor, representing Turner’s father’s relations.

Letter from Jabez Tepper published in The Times 24 December 1851

Tepper’s successful challenge meant that that ‘Turner’s Gift’, the proposed alms houses for ‘the maintenance and support of poor and decayed Male Artists being born in England’, was never established. Tepper invoked the Mortmain Law, under which the transfer of land in Twickenham to a trust had to be at least a year before Turner’s death.  This had not happened.

Extract from the will of Joseph Mallord William Turner, 10 June 1831 – The National Archives, document reference PROB 1/96

In 1856, the relatives represented by Tepper inherited a substantial part of Turner’s estate.  In January 1858 Tepper offered to buy the other relations’ shares of Turner’s engravings for £500 each.  All but one accepted his offer.

Jabez Tepper was born in South Molton in Devon in August 1815, one of seven children born to James Tepper, a wool stapler, and Mary Turner Tepper, JMW Turner’s cousin.  Jabez left Devon to join the legal profession, becoming an indentured clerk in London in 1835.

Like his cousin Turner, Tepper lived an unconventional private life, never marrying but fathering two daughters, Victoria Helen and Catherina Mary Jane, probably born in 1840 and 1841, although no records of their births have yet been traced.  In the 1841 census Tepper was described as a law student living in Gravesend, with wife Jane and seven-month-old daughter Helen.  Family historians have identified the woman who was the mother of Tepper’s daughters as Jane Cook, born in London in October 1817.  According to some family trees, she died in 1842, but the only death record I can find for a Jane Tepper in London that year is for a two-year old child.

There is, however, a Jane Tepper, also known as Cook, a shoebinder, who died aged 47 on 21 February 1865 in the London parish of St Giles.  This Jane lived in poverty; could they be one and the same and if so, when did she and Tepper separate?

About 1855, widow Mary Pennell moved in with Tepper,  She is also referred to as his wife, although they never married.  Born Mary Smith in Walworth in 1824, she married gardener Edward Pennell in 1846.  Their daughter, Mary Jane, died as a baby in 1848 and Edward Pennell died the following year.

After Mary moved in with Tepper, his two daughters lived with them for some time but there is some suggestion that Pennell treated them unkindly and they were found lodgings.  In the 1861 census, Tepper is living at 24 Notting Hill Square with Mary, whilst his daughters are boarding with the Taylor family in St Pancras.

In 1864, Tepper was granted freedom of the City.  He was an active freemason, and in 1871 he was Worshipful Master of the Metropolitan Grand Steward’s Lodge.

The Freemason, 25 March 1871 - Museum of Freemasony Masonic Periodicals Online

For some time between 1868 and 1871, Tepper lived at Turner’s former studio and gallery in Queen Anne Street.  The 1871 census shows Tepper living on a farm at Hellingly, Sussex, with Mary.

Death notice for Jabez Tepper - Morning Advertiser 14 December 1871 British Newspaper Archive 

Jabez Tepper died at his London home on 10 December 1871.  His actions would be challenged in the law courts in the years following his death.

To be continued…

CC-BY
David Meaden
Independent Researcher

Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive for Jabez Tepper’s career and reports on the court cases involving the Turner estate.

 

Turner’s restored house in Twickenham is open to visitors.

 

One of the distinctive features of Oman is that the majority of its population are adherents to the Ibadhi sect of Islam - neither Sunni nor Shi’a - which established itself in the early Islamic period on the periphery of Islamic empire and survives today in Oman and in North Africa on the island of Jerba, the Nafusa mountain range and the Mzab region. 

British India Office Records written in the 1920s and 1930s shed light on the life of one Ibadhi scholar and statesman', ‘Sulaiman al Baruni al Nafusi’,who traversed from Italian-occupied Tripoli to become an adviser in Muscat and Oman.

Cover of India Office file on Sulaiman al-Baruni and his relatives - British Library IOR/R/15/6/449

Al-Baruni was a notable author and had been a member of the last Ottoman parliament.  In November 1922 he wrote to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, Taimur bin Faisal, that he was attending the peace conference in Lausanne, Switzerland and after that hoped to travel to Oman.

Translation of letter from Sulaiman al-Baruni to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, November 1922 - British Library IOR/R/15/6/449 f.4

In December al-Baruni again wrote, saying that his options were becoming more and more constrained by French, Italian and British hostility to him.  British officials noted with suspicion that he ‘seems to claim three nationalities, Turkish, French and Italian’.

Owing to his espousal of nationalist ideas antipathetical to British dominance, in 1923 the Government of India described him as a ‘prominent figure in the turmoil of politics in North Africa’ - an ‘undesirable intriguer’ and ‘a person whom His Highness the Sultan of Muscat would do well to refuse admittance to his country’; however al-Baruni gained entry anyway on a pilgrim’s ship from Jeddah in 1924.

After the First World War al-Baruni had spent time in the Hijaz with the Sherif of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali, and in 1924 he visited his ‘old acquaintance’, Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali, recently installed by Britain as King Faisal I of the Hashemite monarchy of Iraq.  The British noted he was held in high esteem as of ‘religious consequence’ by both the Sultan of Muscat on the coast and the Imam of Oman in the mountainous interior.  In accordance with their strategic interests at the time, Britain had mediated a de facto separation of Muscat and Oman by the ‘Treaty of Sib’ in 1920.  From 1924-1932 al-Baruni served as Financial Adviser to the Imam of Oman in Nizwa. Sa’id bin Taimur, who became Sultan of Muscat in 1932, appointed him in 1938 as Advisor for Internal Affairs and Inspector of Walis.  The British surmised that it was part of Sa’id bin Taimur’s strategy to reunify Muscat and Oman.

Comment on appointment of al-Baruni as advisor for Internal Affairs and Inspector of Walis IOR/R/15/6, f 123

From September 1939 to April 1940 the British intercepted his correspondence with other members of Tripolitania diaspora as the circle of exiles contemplated the future and how they might be free of Italian colonial rule in Tripoli.  This included support of Muhammed Idris Al-Sanussi who was to become the first king of Libya when it gained independence in 1951.

Sulaiman al-Buruni died on his way to Mumbai with Sa’id bin Taimur in May 1940.  Today, on the island of Jerba, Ibadhi texts are still being collected, conserved and digitised for posterity by his descendants and the wider Ibadhi community, so his legacy lives on.

Francis Owtram
Gulf History Specialist, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

Further reading:
British Library, IOR/R/15/6/449 '15/3 Vol I XV - B/1 VISITORS SUSPECTS & UNDESIRABLES SULEMAN AL BARUNI AL NAFUSI & HIS RELATIVES Jan 1923 - June 1940.'
British Library, IOR/R/15/6/450 'FILE NO. 15/3 SULEIMAN AL BARUNI AND HIS RELATIVES'
British Library, IOR/L/PS/12/2990 Coll 20/30 'Muscat: Employment of one Suleman al Baruni al Nufusi'
British Library, IOR/R/15/6/264, 'File 8/67 MUSCAT STATE AFFAIRS: MUSCAT – OMAN TREATY.'

Al Muatasim Said Saif Al Maawali, ‘The Omani Experience of Multi-religious Coexistence and Dialogue: A Historical Approach to the Omani Principles and its Luminous Examples’, Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 11, no. 1 (2021). 59-78.
Adam Gaiser, Muslims, Scholars, Soldiers: The Origins and Elaboration of the Ibadhi Imamate Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2010)
Valerie J. Hofmann, The Essentials of Ibadhi Islam (Syracuse University Press, 2012)
Abdulrahman al-Salimi: From the First Renaissance to the Second: The Historical and Legal Basis for the Sultanate, in Allen James Fromherz and Abdulrahmen al-Salimi, (eds), Sultan Qaboos and Modern Oman, 1970-2020 (Edinburgh University Press, 2022)

 

When Edward Godfrey was born in Nettleton, Wiltshire, on 4 September 1820 it could perhaps be foreseen that he would go on to be a priest, following in the footsteps of his father the Reverend Daniel Race Godfrey.  But it is unlikely he could have predicted that he would become known as the last surviving Chaplain of the East India Company.

Edward attended Clare College, Cambridge achieving his M.A. in 1846.  He had already been serving as Curate of Chard in Somerset since 1844, and in 1847 was appointed to as Curate to St Peter’s in Plymouth.

Marriage announcement for the Reverend Edward Godfrey to Miss Emily Clare Payne, London Evening Standard 7 December 1844 British Newspaper Archive

That same year he applied for an appointment with the East India Company, and he was formally appointed as an Assistant Chaplain to Bengal on 29 March 1848.  He left England with his wife Emily Clare, daughter of Captain René Payne of the Bombay Army, whom he had married in 1844. They sailed for India aboard the Wellesley on 10 June 1848.  The couple already had two children, whom they appear not to have taken to India with them.  Their first child, Vaughan was born in 1846, and on the 1851 census is living in Bath with his paternal grandfather Daniel Race Godfrey.  Daughter Julia was born in 1847, and in 1851 was living in Cheltenham with her maternal grandmother Eliza Julia Payne.

Baptism of  second son Francis Edward Godfrey born at Meerut, Bengal 16 May 1849 (their first child born in India) - British Library IOR/N/1/75 f.193

The couple would have six more children, all born in India between 1849 and 1871 as Edward held appointments across Bengal over the next 25 years serving in places such as Meerut, Subathoo, Ferozepore, Saugor and Landour.  He was promoted to Chaplain in 1869.

Godfrey was a keen amateur photographer.  His photographs of tribes of Central India were displayed at the London International Exhibition in 1862.  He also contributed photographs to The People of India, an eight-volume publication compiled by John Forbes Watson and John William Kaye between 1868 and 1875.

Edward retired from service in India on 20 October 1873, and on returning to England was appointed Curate of Stainsby, Lincolnshire in 1875.  However, this was not the end of his travels as in 1878 he was appointed Chaplain at Coblenz in Germany, transferring to Dusseldorf in 1880, and then to Milan in 1889.  He returned to England in 1891 serving at St Peter’s Hospital in Covent Garden before being appointed as Vicar of Great Tey in Essex where he remained until 1916.

St Barnabas Church, Great Tey, Essex where Edward Godfrey served as Vicar from 1891 onwards. Wikipedia - attribution Robert Edwards, St Barnabas Church, Great Tey, Essex CC BY-SA 2.0 

Edward Godfrey died in Bedfordshire on 24 February 1918 at the age of 97.  He had followed his calling for over 72 years and at the time of his passing had been the very last living Chaplain appointed under the East India Company.  His wife Emily Clare passed away five years later aged 95.

Karen Stapley
Curator, India Office Records

Further Reading
The Chaplains of the East India Company, S.J. McNally, 1976 – British Library OIR 253.0954.
John Falconer, A Biographical Dictionary of 19th Century Photographers in South and South-East Asia.
London Evening Standard, 7 December 1844 – announcement of the marriage of Reverend Edward Godfrey to Emily Clare Payne British Newspaper Archive.
British Library IOR/N/1/75 f.193 - Bengal Baptisms – baptism of Francis Edward Godfrey, 2nd son of Edward & Mary Clare Godfrey.

St Barnabas Church, Great Tey, Essex