Officers of the 34th Sikh Pioneers, India, 1905 (c)

Photograph, India, 1905 (c).

Four officers of the 34th Sikh Pioneers seated around a table.

The photograph is captioned: 'C.O. Young, Clark & Hunt'. The officers are believed to be Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Harry Benn Borraidaile (1860-1948) who commanded the 34th Sikh Pioneers from 1902 to 1909, Captain Thomas Charles Young, Captain George Stanley Clarke and Lieutenant Cecil Edwin Hunt.

Captain Cecil Edwin Hunt, recipient of the Military Cross, is recorded in the Hodson Index as having been wounded and missing on 19 December 1914, with his body being found at Givenchy in 1922. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his death as 19 December 1914 and his burial at the Pont-du-Hem Military Cemetery at La Gorgue.

The photograph is from an album compiled by Captain Alexander Masters, 34th Sikh Pioneers. Masters was born in West Bengal but was educated at Bedford and at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He received a commission with the Leicester Regiment in 1903 but returned to India as a captain with the 34th Sikh Pioneers. He served on the North West Frontier. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War One (1914-1918), the 34th formed part of the 3rd (Lahore) Division of the Indian Expeditionary Force, deployed to the Western Front. Masters was killed in action on 23 November 1914, at Festubert. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his grave at the Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy, in the Pas de Calais, France.

From a photograph album containing 371 photographs compiled by Captain Alexander Masters, 34th Sikh Pioneers, 1905-1911 (c).