FIBIS Blog
June 28 2025 @ 10:00 – 15:00
Free
Programme for the Day
*** PLEASE NOTE THE NEW FORMAT ***
1000 – 1100 hrs: FIBIS experts will be available to answer members’ questions.
1100 – 1200 hrs: Indian Mutiny Pensioners living in Natal.
In 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.
Stewart 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.
1200 – 1230 hrs: FIBIS Annual General Meeting.
1230 – 1330 hrs: Lunch
1330 – 1430 hrs: ‘Like ships rigg’d into the World’: Families and Friends Adrift in the early English East India Company’
Early 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.
Mark 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.
*** 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. ***
Book via the website at https://www.fibis.org/event/open-meeting-and-annual-general-meeting/
ALL WELCOME
Details
Date: June 28 2025
Time: 10:00 – 15:00
Venue
Union Jack Club, Sandell Street, London, SE1 8UJ United Kingdom
Sandell Street is just a short walk from Waterloo Station. The link below is to see a map of the location.
Tickets
Go to the ‘About’ then ‘Events’ menu item on the FIBIS webpage to book tickets (which are free)!
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