From soldier’s souvenir to soldier’s arm
This very early Lee-Enfield India Pattern Mk 1 .303-caliber bolt action cavalry carbine was issued to Indian Volunteer Force mounted units of the era.
NAM. 1973-09-20-1
This particular specimen was produced at the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield and issued to the Assam Valley Light Horse Regiment. With its headquarters at Dibrugarh in the state of Assam, the AVLH was formed in 1891, largely from local Europeans amalgamated from four previously raised troop-sized dragoon units (the Sibsager Mounted Rifles, Darrang Mounted Rifles, Lakhimpur Mounted Rifles, and Newgong Mounted Rifles.) Some members of the unit served in the Boer Wars as part of Lumsden’s Horse.
The rifle was presented to Lt.Col. James Stenhouse Elliot, VD, in 1905 on the occasion of his retirement from the Indian forces (he is listed on the Indian Army’s reserve list with an 1879 rank date).
The good Lt.Col. Stenhouse Elliot likely took the rifle back to England with him, where it was pressed into service during WWII with the Britsh Home Guard and, in the initial stages of the formation of “Dad’s Army” it was likely one of the most modern weapons in the armory.
The first muster from the fictional Dad’s Army, which was based on the very real story of the British Home Guard
It is now in the collection of the National Army Museum.
As for the AVLH, they were part of the British Indian Army’s cavalry reserve and never deployed as a unit, although members did volunteer for service in both World Wars and against the Abors in 1911-12. They were disbanded after India’s independence in 1947.
This is my great grandfather James Stenhouse Elliot. We are British and Scots so when he came home in 1928 on his retirement as a tea planter in assam he brought his gun home with him to Edinburgh. I suspect that this would have been presented on his retirement in 1928. The Assam Valley Light Horse was a volunteer regiment made up entirely who British gentleman living in India. They elected their officers every year at their annual camp. He was wounded serving with Lumsdens Light Horse in the Boar war. I don’t know when his gun left the family and I am sad that it did.
This is my great grandfather James Stenhouse Elliot’s gun. He was born in 1870. He was an engineer who became a tea planter in Assam. He retired in 1928. We are British and Scottish. He came home to Edinburgh on retirement and died in 1951. The Assam Valley Light Horse was composed of British gentlemen living in India. They elected their officers every year at their annual camp. He served in Lumsden’s light horse during the Boar war and was wounded. I am so very sad to see this object out of family keeping. He had mild dementia in old age and I wonder if he sadly gave it someone who then sold it to the museum.
Stenhouse was his mother’s surname (she came from a farming family in East Lothian) it was his middle name not a surname. His surname was Elliot.
This is my great grandfather James Stenhouse Elliot’s gun. Stenhouse is a middle name. He was born 1870 died 1951. He retired in 1928.
We are Scottish and British.
James Stenhouse Elliot 1870 to 1951. Born mid Lothian died Edinburgh
Died 1953 in Edinburgh midlothian. His wife died in 1951 and I misremembered. His ashes are interred at the Grange cemetery, Edinburgh.
He died in 1953. Not in 1951.
He died in 1953 not 1951. I confused the date of his wife’s death.
He died in 1953 not in 1951.