'8th Bombay Infantry on Duty in the Streets', Bombay, 1897

Photograph attributed to Captain C Moss, 1897.

The Bubonic Plague struck Bombay (now Mumbai) in the summer of 1896 and took a terrible toll of life. By March 1897 nearly 20,000 people had died. In the years that followed, the plague spread to many other parts of India. By the early 1920s, when it began to abate, it had claimed the lives of around 12 million Indians.

From an album of 135 photographs entitled 'Plague Visitation Bombay 1896-97'. The majority of the photographs were taken by Captain C Moss, The Gloucestershire Regiment, and the album was compiled by Mr F B Stewart for the Bombay Plague Committee, chaired by Brig Gen William Forbes Gatacre.