Sandeman Memorial Hall, after the earthquake in Quetta, 1935

Photograph, India, Baluchistan, 1935.

Sandeman Memorial Hall was built in honour of administrator, Sir Robert Sandeman (1835-1892). It was used as a meeting place for Baluchistan's tribal leaders.

On 31 May 1935 an earthquake hit Quetta and the surrounding countryside in Baluchistan. It had a magnitude of 7.7 and somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 people died. Several British and Indian Army units took part in the efforts to rescue people from collapsed buildings, retrieve and bury corpses, assist refugees and prevent looting. The Sandeman Memorial Hall was badly damaged in the earthquake.

Quetta was a military headquarters of the British in Baluchistan and, from 1907, was the site of an Army Staff College.

From an album of Gunner John William Cox, Royal Artillery, India, 1934-1936.