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11 February 2025

Stories from Provenance Research: Records and Manuscripts Lost at Sea (Part 1): SS Oceana

The India Office often borrowed documents from India for administrative purposes and frequently sent out manuscripts from its Library to scholars across the world for academic research.  Until the middle of the 20th century, there was little alternative to transporting documents by ship.  As we shall see from this and a subsequent post, 1912 was a particularly bad year for both the Government of Bombay and the India Office for losing records and manuscripts at sea.

Wreck of the Oceana - just the masts showing above the water, a buoy marked 'Wreck', and another ship in the backgroundWreck of the Oceana from Illustrated London News 23 March 1912 Image © Illustrated London News Group, created courtesy of The British Library Board - British Newspaper Archive

On 16 March 1912, the SS Oceana was wrecked off Beachy Head on the Sussex coast after a collision with the Pisagua.  Tragically, seventeen people lost their lives when a lifeboat capsized.  The Oceana was heading for India on the run from Tilbury to Bombay and on board was the Surat Factory Inwards Letterbook, 1646-47, which was being returned to the Government of Bombay.  Part of a series of records charting the earliest years of the East India Company in Surat, it had been sent to London in November 1911 at the behest of Registrar William Foster.  Foster was working on a series of calendars of early records, published as The English Factories in India (1911 onwards).

It was the Surat volume’s second trip to London, having been previously sent by the Government of Bombay for conservation work due to its fragile state.  The volume was conserved and rebound at the Public Records Office in Chancery Lane in 1901-02 with eleven other volumes of ‘ancient records’ from Bombay.  The conservation work cost the Government of Bombay £74 10 shillings, above the original estimate of £68.  Before the volumes were finally returned to India in 1905, copies of anything not in the collection in London were made, primarily by Miss Ethel Bruce Sainsbury, who was employed by the Record Department for her archival and palaeographical skills.  For the publication though, Foster was keen to check the original against the copy, and requested the volume be borrowed again.  It is perhaps ironic that the conserved state of the volume made the loan less of a concern.

Reports of the shipping and loss of the Surat Letter Book

The shipping and loss of the Surat Letter Book - IOR/L/R/6/333 (R1910/12)

Foster reported the loss to Bombay on 5 July 1912.  He had hoped that as he had requested special care should be taken of the Surat volume, P&O - the owners of the Oceana – might have placed it in the ship’s safe, which was subsequently salvaged along with the ship’s cargo of gold and silver ingots.  When the safe was opened however, the Surat volume was not to be found.  All Foster could do was to send a typed copy of the transcript to Bombay as recompense.  Meanwhile, Foster’s annotated copy of the Surat Inwards Letter Book 1646-1647 survives in the India Office Records as IOR/G/36/102A.

Surat Letter Book 1646-1647 first page of typescript Surat Letter Book 1646-1647 first page of typescript  IOR/G/36/102A

Lesley Shapland
Archivist & Provenance Researcher
India Office Records

Further reading:
Details regarding the conservation, copying and return of Surat Letter Book and other volumes from Bombay can be found in IOR/L/R/6/220 (R923/01), IOR/L/R/6/224 (R1566/01), IOR/L/R/6/231 (R1122/02), and IOR/L/R/6/265 (R440/05).

Details regarding Foster’s loan of the Surat Letter Book and its subsequent loss can be found in IOR/L/R/6/333 (R1910/12).

Ethel Bruce Sainsbury, daughter of Assistant Keeper of the Public Records William Noel Sainsbury, was employed by the India Office Record Department from 1899.  Her contribution to the work of the Department, including transcription, calendaring and publication can be traced through William Foster’s Departmental Annual Reports in the series IOR/L/R/6 & IOR/L/R/7.

 

05 February 2025

Master Frederick Blomberg and his place within the Georgian Royal Family

What sources do you turn to when you want to write a book about a little-known member of the Georgian Royal Family who barely figures in biographies and history books of that period?

A drawing of Frederick William Blomberg, when a child. Blomberg is shown bust length, facing right, in an oval.A drawing by Hugh Hamilton of Frederick William Blomberg when a child. The drawing is en suite with five others of George III and his four eldest sons, all of 1769. Royal Collections Trust/© His Majesty King Charles III 2024 RCIN 935356

Master Frederick Blomberg was the four-year-old orphan boy who was adopted into the royal household at Richmond Palace by King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1765 and brought up as a prince.  Just why would the royal couple absorb a child into their home and allow him to become a close friend and confidante to their eldest son, and heir, the then three-year-old Prince George, the future regent and King George IV?  My grandmother told me many years ago that she understood Frederick was the ‘accidental’ result of a romance between the young King George III before his marriage to Queen Charlotte, and that his equerry and best friend Frederick Blomberg, an officer in the British Army, married the girl to prevent a scandal and give the child a name and an inheritance.

Records from St Margaret’s Church Rochester contain the marriage of Lt Frederick Blomberg, HM 61st Regiment, to widow Melissa Frankland née Laing in April 1760.  Their son Frederick William was baptised at the same church in September 1761.

All was well for Frederick William Blomberg until his father died on active service in the West Indies.  Accounts of Captain Blomberg’s ghostly appearance after death add piquance to the story.  The apparition exhorted his commanding officer to seek out the son of his secret marriage and to inform King George III.

Word of Frederick’s plight duly reached the King and Queen, and they very generously took in the little boy, cared for and educated him.  Frederick studied divinity at St John’s College, Cambridge, and, once ordained in 1787, he was back within his royal family as chaplain at Windsor and also private secretary to Prince George.

I was so intrigued by this story that I decided to research it and write a novel.

Finding scant reference to Blomberg in biographies and history books, I turned to The National Archives, the Royal Archives and newspaper archives for information.  The Gentleman’s Magazine and parochial and church records were also helpful.  Scouring the publications of the day I found frequent references to Prince George and Master Frederick present at royal banquets, soirees or state events.  Best of all, I found very personal accounts of them performing violin or cello duets at royal residences or out riding together near the Brighton Pavilion.  It soon became apparent that Frederick Blomberg was frequently at the heart of court events and very often present at crucial occasions, not least during King George III’s bouts of madness.  It pleased me to find a reference to Blomberg in Fanny Burney’s diary whilst she was working as a dresser to Queen Charlotte at Windsor Castle.

Reviewing the Georgian court through a ‘Blomberg lens’ has revealed so many occasions when Frederick, the ‘adopted son’, played a crucial part in royal life.  I am thankful for the generous digitization of so many of the publications of the day for making so much fascinating detail available.

CC-BY
Rosalind Freeborn
Independent researcher
Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
Rosalind Freeborn, Prince George and Master Frederick: Royal Friends and Secret Brothers (Alliance Publishing Press, 2025)
Thomas Sedgewick Whalley, Journals and Correspondence of Thomas Sedgewick Whalley vol 2 (London, 1863)
John Mason Neale, The Unseen World; communications with it, real or imaginary, including apparitions, warnings, haunted places, prophecies, aerial visions, astrology, etc (London, 1847)
Admissions to the College of St. John, the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge Pt. IV July 1767- July 1802, edited with notes by R. F. Scott (Cambridge, 1931)
British Newspaper Archive

28 January 2025

Papers of Charles Roberts, Under-Secretary of State for India 1914-1915

A recent acquisition to the India Office Private Papers has now been catalogued and is available for researchers to view in the British Library’s Asian and African Studies reading room.  The collection consists of the papers of Charles Henry Roberts (1865-1959), Under-Secretary of State for India 1914-1915.

Sketch of Charles Roberts in the Westminster Gazette, July 1923 Sketch of Charles Roberts in the Westminster Gazette July 1923 Mss Eur F770/5/9 f.8


Charles Roberts was born on 22 August 1865, the son of the Rev Albert Roberts, Vicar of Tidebrook and Ellen Wace of Wadhurst.  He was educated at Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford.  He was also a fellow at Exeter College, Oxford and taught there from 1889 to 1895.  Roberts was involved in Liberal politics from an early age and tried unsuccessfully to be elected as a Liberal Party MP to the seats of Wednesbury in 1895 and Lincoln in 1900. 

House of Commons Voting Record for Roberts in 1906House of Commons Voting Record for Roberts 1906 Mss Eur F770/2/1 f.1


His third attempt was successful, and he became Liberal MP for Lincoln in the 1906 general election, a seat he held until 1918.  He held a number of posts in government in that time, including Under Secretary of State for India 1914-1915, Comptroller of the Household 1915-1916, Chairman of the National Health Insurance Joint Committee 1915-1916, and was a member of the Montagu Delegation to India 1917-1918.

Letter from Gandhi to Roberts about the Indian Volunteer CorpsLetter from Gandhi to Roberts about the Indian Volunteer Corps Mss Eur F770/1/23 f.32


The collection includes letters to Roberts while he was at the India Office, often relating to the routine work of the office, such as arranging meetings with visitors, requests for passes to the House of Commons and other Parliamentary business, but there are also fascinating letters from individuals requesting assistance.  Roberts was Under Secretary at the India Office at the outbreak of the First World War, and many of the letters he received dealt with military matters relating to the Indian Expeditionary Force and the hospitals for Indian soldiers.  There are also a few letters relating to Roberts’ other interests such as Liberal politics, Temperance matters, National Health Insurance and Indian constitutional reform.  Included are letters from prominent British politicians and leading Indian figures, such as Winston Churchill, H H Asquith, Edwin Samuel Montagu, Sir Charles Hardinge, Sir William Wedderburn, Gandhi, Bhupendra Nath Basu, Cornelia Sorabji, and Maharaja Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar.

Notes by Roberts for his India Budget Speech 1914Notes by Roberts for his India Budget Speech 1914 Mss Eur F770/3/1

As a prominent politician and member of the Government, Roberts was often required to make speeches, such as his 1914 speech in the House of Commons on the India Budget, and some of his rough preparatory notes survive.  The collection contains his notes for speeches and talks he gave on a variety of subjects, such as education, Indian finance, Indian and the War, constitutional reform in India, Tibet, and the Liberal Party and liberalism.  The collection also includes many official papers from his time in government, including copies of private telegrams between the Secretary of State for India and the Viceroy of India, and copies of telegrams from Sir Percy Cox, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Resident at Aden.  There are papers on subjects such as the Excise Administration in India, Indian wheat exports, the response in India to British Government policy towards Turkey, and the Government of India policy on local self-government.  There is also a report on a deputation of members of the Indian National Congress who visited the India Office in May 1914, which included Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Memo by Roberts on his meeting with the Indian National Congress Deputation  May 1914Memo by Roberts on his meeting with the Indian National Congress Deputation May 1914 Mss Eur F770/2/9 f.17


John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Papers of Charles Henry Roberts (1865-1959), Liberal Politician, Under Secretary of State for India 1914-1915, Mss Eur F770 – a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.

Roberts' papers relating to the Montagu Delegation to India 1917-1918 and the Financial Relations Committee 1919-1920 can be found at Mss Eur F170 – a list for this collection can be found on The National Archives' Discovery catalogue.