BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Families in British India Society - ECPv6.15.18//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Families in British India Society
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.fibis.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Families in British India Society
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Europe/London
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:20210328T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:20211031T010000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:20220327T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:20221030T010000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:20230326T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:20231029T010000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:20240331T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:20241027T010000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:20250330T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:20251026T010000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:20260329T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:20261025T010000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251011T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251011T140000
DTSTAMP:20260504T090829
CREATED:20250901T100928Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250901T100928Z
UID:130894-1760176800-1760191200@www.fibis.org
SUMMARY:Autumn Open Meeting
DESCRIPTION:Programme for the Day\n1000 – 1100 hrs: FIBIS Bitesize.  A new section to the open meetings with short presentations offering ‘bitesize’ advice to genealogists.  This meeting we will look at: \n\nTop tips for making a research visit to a library or archive by Karen de Bruyne.\nResearching the Honourable East India Company’s maritime service’s records by Dr Richard Morgan.\nUnderstanding Indian Army ranks Part 1 by Mike Tickner.\n\n1100 – 1200 hrs:  The Development of Railways in India 1832-1951 \nAs in Britain\, the first railways in India were associated for industry rather than passenger transport.  Developing a passenger and freight networks occurred towards the end of the 1840s and was inspired by Lord Dalhousie\, the Governor-General and a former President of the (British) Board of Trade.  Dalhousie created a network which developed during the British Raj through to the establishing Indian Railways in 1951. \nHugh Wilding is a former FIBIS trustee and began researching his family roots 30 years ago.  With an abiding fascination in Britain’s own railway system and the knowledge that his great grandfather was a railway civil engineer in India and Burma\, it was inevitable that Hugh’s focus would alight on railways of the sub-continent.  \n1200 – 1300 hrs:   Lunch     \n1300 – 1400 hrs: ‘Little atoms of humanity’: Christian missions to blind and deaf children in nineteenth and early twentieth-century India and Ceylon.   \nIn 1915\, the missionary Gladys Bergg wrote to her supporters back home about the blind and deaf children under her care in Ceylon.  She wrote of the children at the blind and deaf mission\, ‘several of these have only just been admitted into the school and are the most charming little atoms of humanity!’  This talk explores the work of British missionaries amongst disabled South Asian children in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries\, thinking through the complex dynamics of race\, gender\, religion and disability in the way in which these children were treated and understood.  \nDr Esme Cleall is a senior lecturer in the history of the British Empire at the University of Sheffield. She has published two monographs\, one on missionaries and the other on disability history\, interests which this talk brings together.  \n*** Please register your intention to attend the meeting on the FIBIS website.  Names are required in advance by the Union Jack Club for security purposes. *** \nCheck to FIBIS website for updates \nALL WELCOME.  ADMISSION FREE
URL:https://www.fibis.org/event/autumn-open-meeting-3/
LOCATION:Union Jack Club\, Sandell Street\, London\, SE1 8UJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Open meetings
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250628T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250628T150000
DTSTAMP:20260504T090829
CREATED:20250328T163358Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250513T135821Z
UID:129824-1751104800-1751122800@www.fibis.org
SUMMARY:Open Meeting and Annual General Meeting
DESCRIPTION:Programme for the Day\n*** PLEASE NOTE THE NEW FORMAT *** \n1000 – 1100 hrs: FIBIS experts will be available to answer members’ questions. \n1100 – 1200 hrs: Indian Mutiny Pensioners living in Natal. \nIn 1906 the Military Department of the Government of India granted pensionary assistance to Indian Mutiny veterans living in British Colonies who had fallen into distressed circumstances. Drawing on research conducted at the Natal Archives in Pietermaritzburg\, Stewart Green tells the story of five such veterans who were living in Natal at the time and who made applications for this special Indian Mutiny pension. Stewart delves into the lives of these individuals and offers a glimpse into their micro-histories. \nStewart Green is a FIBIS trustee who was born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). His grandfather was born in India and moved to Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) in the 1920s where he established a tobacco farm that is still farmed by his descendants today. His maternal grandfather was born in a Boer war concentration camp in Wentworth\, Durban\, but that is a story for another day. \n1200 – 1230 hrs: FIBIS Annual General Meeting. \n1230 – 1330 hrs: Lunch \n1330 – 1430 hrs: ‘Like ships rigg’d into the World’: Families and Friends Adrift in the early English East India Company’ \nEarly British presence in the Indian Ocean world – and in South Asia\, in particular – has historically been cast as the concern of lone merchants\, diplomats\, and small units of East India Company ‘servants’. Families\, siblings\, and even close friendships have rarely figured into the wider social and cultural histories of this period. This impression is misleading. Mark will draw upon under-explored diaries and private correspondence from this period and explore the many ways which global trade strained family bonds\, forced new associations\, and how a sense of intimacy and emotional connection could be maintained across vast distances. \nMark Williams is Reader in Early Modern History at Cardiff University. He has published widely on the English and Dutch East India Companies\, and is currently writing a cultural history of the English EIC for publication in 2026. \n*** Please register your intention to attend the AGM and open meeting on the FIBIS website. Names are required in advance by the Union Jack Club for security reasons. *** \nALL WELCOME. ADMISSION FREE
URL:https://www.fibis.org/event/open-meeting-and-annual-general-meeting/
LOCATION:Union Jack Club\, Sandell Street\, London\, SE1 8UJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Open meetings
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.fibis.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-28-at-16.00.30.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241026T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241026T150000
DTSTAMP:20260504T090829
CREATED:20240911T110137Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240911T164227Z
UID:128195-1729936800-1729954800@www.fibis.org
SUMMARY:Autumn Open Meeting
DESCRIPTION:Programme for the Day\n*** PLEASE NOTE THE NEW FORMAT *** \n1000 – 1100 hrs: FIBIS experts will be available to answer members’ questions. \n1100 – 1200 hrs: Indigo Cultivation in India \nRichard Morgan will be speaking about indigo cultivation in India. From the late 18th century indigo was cultivated in India to produce the blue dye we are familiar with in jeans. Several hundred “concerns” (ie indigo companies) were established in many parts of India\, especially in Bihar. Relations between planters and the ryots\, Indian labourers\, were not always cordial and a “Blue Mutiny” broke out in the 1860s. Indigo planting declined from then onwards\, as artificial dyes competed\, but some concerns survived well into the 20th century.\nThe talk will also briefly mention planters of other crops in India such as coffee and cinchona (quinine). \nRichard is the author of the FIBIS Research Guide No 2 British Ships in Indian Waters and several FIBIS Fact Files which include two recently published (Nos 8 and 9): one on Tea planters and the other on Indigo and Jute. \n1200 – 1300 hrs: Lunch \n1300 – 1400 hrs: Burma Rifles: The Unknown Army \nSteve Rothwell introduces the story of one of the ‘unknown’ armies of World War II. Fighting alongside the British and Indian Armies against the Japanese\, the Burma Army was administered quite separately. These soldiers – Burmese\, Indian and Gurkha – contributed their unique knowledge of the land\, its peoples and its languages. Soldiers of the Burma Army were prominent during the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942; they fought on the Indian frontier; they were present at Kohima; they operated behind Japanese lines with the Chindits; they took part in the Chinese-American struggle for Myitkyina; they supported every Anglo-Indian formation during the reconquest of Burma. \nSteve Rothwell has researched the war in Burma for over two decades. His findings are published on his web site: The Burma Campaign at (indiaburmasoldiers.co.uk) \n1400 – 1500 hrs: FIBIS experts will be available to answer members’ questions. \n*** Please register your intention to attend the AGM and open meeting on the FIBIS website. Names are required in advance by the Union Jack Club for security reasons. *** \nCheck to FIBIS website for updates \nALL WELCOME. ADMISSION FREE
URL:https://www.fibis.org/event/agm-and-open-meeting-2/
LOCATION:Union Jack Club\, Sandell Street\, London\, SE1 8UJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Open meetings
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.fibis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Union_Jack_Club_entrance.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240622T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240622T163000
DTSTAMP:20260504T090829
CREATED:20240318T131303Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240621T195957Z
UID:126701-1719052200-1719073800@www.fibis.org
SUMMARY:AGM and Open Meeting
DESCRIPTION:Programme for the Day\n1030 – 1200 hrs: FIBIS experts will be available to answer questions. \n1200 – 1300 hrs: Lunch \n1315 – 1400 hrs: Annual general meeting. \n1400 – 1500 hrs: Those that stayed: British communities in India after 1947  \nDr. Eleanor Newbigin shares her findings from the recent Partition in India and Britain project. She interviewed British people\, and their family members\, about their experiences of Partition. The interviews revealed important differences in experiences between South Asian and European Britons\, particularly in terms of exposure to violence and forced migration. There were also differences within the experience of European Britons who left shortly after Partition and those who stayed-on. This presentation shares some of these stories and discusses their significance for both historical accounts of the 1947 partition and of British imperialism in South Asia. \nDr. Eleanor Newbigin is senior lecturer in the history of modern South Asia at SOAS\, University of London. She worked with Prof Navtej Purewal (also at SOAS) on the recent Border Crossings and Partition in India and Britain\, both funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. \n1500 – 1530 hrs: Tea break \n1530 – 1630 hrs: ‘Inspiring Scenes\, Suggestive Subjects – Happy Opportunities \nSeized on by Clever Artists’: Exhibitions of Amateur Art in British India Renate Dohmen shares her on-going research on fine art exhibitions in British India which blossomed from the late 1860s in presidency towns and hill stations across the subcontinent.\nOrganised by local fine art societies\, the exhibitions showcased the work of amateur artists of both sexes\, a small number of professionals\, including Indian artists\, amateur and professional photographers and local handicrafts. These exhibitions were important events in local and national social calendars. \nRenate Dohmen is Senior Lecturer in Art History at the Open University. \n** Please register your intention to attend the AGM and open meeting on the FIBIS website. Names are required in advance by the Union Jack Club for security reasons.** \nALL WELCOME. ADMISSION FREE
URL:https://www.fibis.org/event/agm-and-open-meeting-2024/
LOCATION:Union Jack Club\, Sandell Street\, London\, SE1 8UJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Open meetings
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.fibis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Union_Jack_Club_entrance.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231028T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231028T170000
DTSTAMP:20260504T090829
CREATED:20230801T131304Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230801T133129Z
UID:124736-1698489000-1698512400@www.fibis.org
SUMMARY:Autumn Open Meeting
DESCRIPTION:Timings\n1030 – 1230. FIBIS experts will be available to answer members’ questions. \n1230 – 1330. Lunch break \n1330. Homes in the Empire – re-presenting empire in the home? \nThis presentation examines whether homes in the British empire were representing the empire overseas and argues that homes were not purely neutral domestic spaces but rather places in which imperial values were absorbed and replicated. Using interviews with two groups – separated by geography but linked through imperial connections – southern Irish Protestants and the British community in India – this paper looks at the physical space of home\, relationships with servants\, gender\, and the connection to the external environment – to suggest that for both groups\, home had various\, and sometimes ambivalent meanings. For the British in India\, this meant being rooted physically in India\, but imaginatively located in Britain. \nDr Niamh Dillon is Project Director at National Life Stories at the British Library\, and leading a corporate oral history of one of the UK’s leading civil engineering firms. She previously worked in television\, most notably on the Academy Award winning\, Into the Arms of Strangers at Warner Bros. She is particularly interested in questions of migration\, empire and identity. Her recent book\, Homeward Bound: return migration from Ireland and India at the end of the British empire (NYU Press\, 2022) is a comparative study that uses first-hand testimony to investigate individual and collective narratives of belonging in the late British Empire. \n1430 – 1500. Tea break. \n1500 – 1600. Sources for tracing military ancestry in India \nA guide to exploring published\, unpublished and visual sources held in the British Library to discover the lives and careers of officers\, N.C.O.s and private soldiers who served in India before independence in 1947. \nDr Hedley Sutton is a professional librarian who has spent a forty-plus year career in the British Library\, having managed the team that provides the reference enquiry service within the Asian and African Studies Department since 1999. He has been a FIBIS Trustee since the middle of last year and is a regular and popular speaker at FIBIS conferences. \n** Admission is free ** \n** Please book tickets to attend the open meeting on the FIBIS website. Names are required in advance by the Union Jack Club for security reasons. ** \n** Please check the FIBIS website for latest updates before travelling. ** \n** Unable to travel to London? Join the afternoon session by Zoom. See the FIBIS website for details **
URL:https://www.fibis.org/event/autumn-open-meeting-2/
LOCATION:Union Jack Club\, Sandell Street\, London\, SE1 8UJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Open meetings
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.fibis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Union_Jack_Club_entrance.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20230624T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20230624T170000
DTSTAMP:20260504T090829
CREATED:20230410T161110Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230530T154457Z
UID:123143-1687602600-1687626000@www.fibis.org
SUMMARY:FIBIS AGM and Open Meeting 2023
DESCRIPTION:Zoom details are available in the members’ area of the website. \nPROGRAMME FOR THE DAY \n10.30 – 12.00 : FIBIS experts will be available to answer members’ questions \n12.00 – 1.00 : Lunch break \n1.15 – 2.00 : AGM \n2.00 – 3.00 : Locating Anglo-Indians in the Real and Imagined Raj\nUther Charlton- Stevens\, historian\, author and presenter\, will explore through the lens of history\, a wide range of aspects of the Raj\, including those of race\, colour and class hierarchy in colonial British society and its clubs etc. This will be of interest to all those digging around to widen their understanding of the context of their ancestors’ lives in India and beyond. Prepare for a few Prepare for a few surprises. \n3.00-3.30: Tea break \n3.30-4.30 The work of The British Association for Cemeteries in Southeast Asia (BACSA)\nDr. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones editor of the BACSA journal\, Chowkidar\, will explore the ongoing work of BACSA\, a sister organisation to FIBIS\, which was established in 1977 and is mainly concerned with preserving pre-1947 graves. BACSA records grave inscriptions and burial registers\, where they exist\, and offers financial help for grave and cemetery restoration through local representatives. One of its recent projects was the restoration of the Residency cemetery in Hyderabad. Regular maintenance payments are also made to a small number of cemeteries\, such as the magnificent South Park Street cemetery in Kolkata. \n**Please register your intention to attend the AGM/Open Meeting.\nNames are required in advance by the Union Jack Club\, for security reasons.\nPlease check FIBIS website for latest updates before you travel.\nALL WELCOME! ADMISSION FREE!\n*Donations for the second-hand book table welcomed.
URL:https://www.fibis.org/event/fibis-agm-and-open-meeting-2023/
LOCATION:Union Jack Club\, Sandell Street\, London\, SE1 8UJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Open meetings
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.fibis.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/UJC-3.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20221022T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20221022T170000
DTSTAMP:20260504T090829
CREATED:20220902T142307Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221009T144822Z
UID:115157-1666434600-1666458000@www.fibis.org
SUMMARY:Autumn Open Meeting
DESCRIPTION:PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY\n10.30 – 12.00 : FIBIS experts will be available to answer members’ questions \n12.00 – 1.00 : Lunch break \n1.15 – 2.15 : “Dear Daisy – the correspondence and memorabilia of Lady Isabella Couchman”\nBob Hindley‘s presentation is rooted in a fascination with the British Raj which began years ago\, after hearing the BBC Radio 4 series Plain Tales of the Raj. Later\, he purchased a long and fascinating letter from eBay\, which had been sent by Francis Couchman in Calcutta to his wife\, Isabella\, in England. Bob was hooked – and his quest to discover more about this family began in earnest. \n2.15- 3.00 : Tea break \n3.00 – 4.00 : “A Walk on the (slightly) Wild Side”\nGeraldine Charles\, one of FIBIS’ founder-members and now a hard-working\, long-serving trustee\, invites you to join her on a second walk on the slightly wild side of her research meanderings. It follows the very successful first “walk” which was enjoyed at last year’s FIBIS conference. Who knows what we may find on this one. Bring your own chota-pegs and tiffin! \n**Please register your intention to attend the Open Meeting via the FIBIS website. Names are required in advance by the Union Jack Club\, for security reasons. Numbers attending may also have to be limited\, so please book early. Any questions email margaret.murray@fibis.org.\nIn view of the current rail situation at the time of writing\, please check FIBIS website for latest updates before you travel and for directions to the Union Jack Club from Waterloo station.  \nALL WELCOME! ADMISSION FREE! \n*Donations for the second-hand book table welcomed.
URL:https://www.fibis.org/event/autumn-open-meeting/
LOCATION:Union Jack Club\, Sandell Street\, London\, SE1 8UJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Open meetings
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.fibis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Union_Jack_Club_entrance.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20220625T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20220625T163000
DTSTAMP:20260504T090829
CREATED:20220525T164335Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220615T184040Z
UID:111072-1656153000-1656174600@www.fibis.org
SUMMARY:AGM and Open Meeting
DESCRIPTION:Please note that due to the planned rail strike the AGM will be via Zoom only and not at the Union Jack Club. Joining details can be found in the members’ area by logging into the website. Any problems email valmay@fibis.org \nPROGRAMME FOR THE DAY\n11.15 – 2.00 : AGM \n2.00 – 3.00 : Victory in Burma: How the 14th Army waged war and why the British Indian Army won against the Japanese Army. \nMike Tickner\, our presenter today\, is a regular army officer with a keen interest in the Indian Army. He regularly speaks to military and civilian groups and clubs\, writes articles and has led battlefield studies. \n3.00-3.15 : Break \n3.15 : New website demonstration by Valmay Young
URL:https://www.fibis.org/event/agm-and-open-meeting/
LOCATION:Union Jack Club\, Sandell Street\, London\, SE1 8UJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Open meetings
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.fibis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/UJC.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR