Papers of the Clay and Baylis Family
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 correspondence, files, diaries, printed papers and maps of Robert Francis Sarjeant Baylis (1903-1996), Indian Civil Service (District and Sessions Judge, United Provinces) 1927-1949 and his wife Edith Audrey Baylis (née Clay) (1910-1998) relating to their family life in India.
Robert Baylis was born on 11 June 1903, and educated at Christ's Hospital and Lincoln College, Oxford. He joined the Indian Civil Service on 20 October 1927, and arrived in India that December. Initially appointed as an Assistant Magistrate and Collector in the United Provinces, he subsequently worked as District and Session Judge around various stations in the UP, including Bara Banki, Meerut, Allahabad and Cawnpore. He finished his career in the ICS at the time of Independence as the District and Session Judge for Kumaon. Robert’s papers only contain a few files relating to his work as a Judge, with most of his official papers in the collection relating to his preparations for retiring and leaving India in 1947. There are also letters to his wife Audrey, letters he received from friends and family, and an unpublished memoir of his life as a Judge in India.
In 1934, Robert was engaged to Edith Audrey Clay, and they were married in Lucknow on 15 January 1935. Audrey, as she preferred to be known, was the daughter of Sir Joseph Clay, who had been a senior member of the United Provinces government, and advisor to the Secretary of State for India. She was a dedicated diary writer, and the collection contains her diaries recording daily events in her life from 1920 to 1950. There is also a large collection of her correspondence including letters to her husband Robert and from family and friends in India and England. Audrey enjoyed writing, and the collection includes examples of short stories she wrote and chapters from an unfinished memoir ‘The Years Between’. Her book about her early life in India is in the British Library’s printed collections.
The collection also contains papers relating to other family members. Robert and Audrey had four children, and there are papers relating to their early childhood in India. Audrey had two sisters, Daphne and Betty, and the collection includes examples of their letters and diaries. There are also letters from Audrey’s parents Sir Joseph Clay and Lady Clay, as well as from Robert’s parents and siblings.
The collection contains many very interesting papers relating to the Second World War. When war broke out, Robert and Audrey were on leave in England, and Robert was immediately recalled to India. It was several months later before Audrey could travel back with the children and their Indian nanny, and Robert’s letters to her are full of worry over the threat of German submarine attacks. The letters from family in England between 1940 and 1945 are fascinating for giving descriptions of life during wartime. In India, the fear of Japanese invasion was very real.
Audrey was a serving member of the St John Ambulance Brigade Overseas, and the collection contains material relating to the Air Raid Precautions which every family was expected to take, including on what to do before, during and after an air raid; emergency first aid and treating snake bites; obscuring headlights; and building air raid shelters.
John O’Brien
India Office Records
Further Reading:
Papers of the Clay and Baylis family, Mss Eur F765 – a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room. The book And Then Garhwal by Audrey Baylis (London: BACSA, 1981) is available in the British Library printed collections.