Village on the North West Frontier, 1930 (c)

Photograph compiled by Major General Cecil Wotton Toovey (1891-1954), 5th Battalion, 1st Punjab Regiment, formerly the 82nd Punjabis, 1937-1939 (c).

A village dominated by watch towers on the North West Frontier of India. Many of the villages in Waziristan were fortified and protected by a watchtower (or burj) as raiding and tribal feuding were endemic in the region.

Cecil Wotton Toovey was born on 17 April 1891 and educated at Malvern College, Worcestershire. He joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) in May 1913. He was seconded to serve with the 82nd Punjabis in 1917. Having served in Mesopotamia, Toovey saw action on the North West Frontier of India during the 3rd Afghan War (1919). He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions on 21 December 1919.

Captain Toovey served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at General Headquarters (GHQ), India, from 1927 to 1929. Toovey was Brigade Major for the 2nd Rawalpindi Infantry Brigade, between 1929 and 1931. In 1932 Toovey was back on active duty on the North West Frontier, receiving a bar for his Military Cross. He returned to England in 1933 where he served at the War Office in London, rising through the ranks to lieutenant colonel in 1937.

From a photograph album entitled, 'India 1917-1937 - Iraq, Waziristan, NW Frontier, Tank trials, Aden, building Bara Bridge, Indus Ferry', relating to India and Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Iran), 1915-1939, compiled by Major General Cecil Wotton Toovey, Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) and the 82nd Punjabis (later the 5th Battalion, 1st Punjab Regiment).

Credit line: 'Son of Major-General Toovey'