Dave Kelly / St John the Baptist, Frome Fact or fiction When I first started writing this book I knew almost nothing about Nelsie Rossiter’s father, my 2nd great grandfather. My Grandmother had always said that he was called William Rossiter and was a tea planter from Silchar. There was also an unfortunate myth that he was mad. My notes say that he wanted to build a railroad going up a vertical hill and that he built a tea garden which was long and thin. He said he did this so that he would be able to ride along it, without getting off his horse, and see everything.   After checking the India Office [1] records for the family, under an entry for Chas and Nelsie, I found a name for her fathe...

                                                            Photo by Mike Castro Demaria on Unsplash The Bensons The Blakes The Rossiters                      Others Dr John Anderson Graham Mr Purdie Mr David Paterson Mr Harry Emblem

                                                                     signature of William Benson, extracted from one of his letters We now come to a sad bit of my family story.   We have very little information about William Benson’s time in India and about him in general. The documents we were given in Kalimpong cover the years 1919-1964, but William is only in those of 1919 and 1920. We do have his signature, but can only assume what he might have looked like from pictures of this children. Both boys were born at the Luckynugger Tea Estate, Cachar, Assam. William Guy was born   in 1910, William Guy and John “Gordon” (my grandfather) in 1912. We know their mother was called Meena, of the Ghasi tribe, members of which would have come from Orissa to work on the tea gardens...

                                                                        Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash This is a transcription of some poems by my grandmother, which I found together among some documents. 🍃 Dow Hill. 1937   (music - “Riding down from Bangor”)   Riding down from Dow Hill On the D.H.R. After nine month’s learning Let’s shout Hip-Hip-Hurrah! Students cry together We think we’ve had our fill But we’ll gladly three cheers For Dow Hill College still. 🍃 For amidst the [mugging?] Much fun we can recall Going to the pictures And our grand old Chinese Ball! Won’t forget the trip to Senchal And the hockey match we played And our marvellous tennis tournament And that Coronation Parade. 🍃 Think of the Poojah Picnic We had o...