The item is a ‘carriage clock’, a small, spring-driven clock, designed for travelling. The genre was developed in the early nineteenth century France which manufactured thousands for export. Initially an expensive individually made item, their popularity increased and they were mass-produced and a simplified style was introduced for ‘English tastes.’
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| Claud Bald’s carriage clock. |
The clock is six inches (15 cms) high with the handle up. Its simplified style and ungilded brass indicate a mass-produced ‘bread and butter’ item. Several British manufacturers made these clocks and many were exported to India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The peak year of production was 1889 for the Paris Exhibition and this one was made shortly before 1883.
The clock probably came in a leather carrying case, now lost, with an opening to show the clock face.
The clock, however, is special because of its unique inscription; ‘Presented by Lieut. A. B. L. Webb N.B.V.R. H. Coy. won by Claud Bald 1883’.
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| Claud Bald’s carriage clock inscription. |
What happened to the clock after Claud died?
Until 2014, the clock was owned by ‘Pam’ in England who inherited it in the 1990s from her father who collected clocks as a hobby. Her father had found it in a second-hand shop in Worthing, cleaned it and found a winder to match the clock mechanism. Intrigued by the inscription and being a member of the Friends of Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing, Pam looked at the cemetery records and found ‘Claud Bald’ retired tea planter was interred in 1925.
However, ‘N.B.V.R.’ remained a mystery.
Pam posted notices on family history sites, which is how I eventually made contact. She and her sister offered the clock as a gift feeling that its place was with Claud’s family. I was able to confirm the meaning of the initials.
NBVR means…
‘NBVR’ refers to the Northern Bengal Volunteer Rifles who are believed to have been formed in 1873.
They became the Northern Bengal Mounted Rifles (NBMR) in 1889. Early records of the NBVR have not survived so details are not clear. Their first annual report was produced in 1882, apparently as part of a recruitment drive. Most original members were former soldiers and as they retired, remaining members realised that they needed to recruit men who did not have a military background.
Growing up in Glasgow, Claud Bald had no military background and may well have responded to a recruitment drive.
History of the unit
The Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Services, Wednesday 19 September 1883, p. 238, says;
The second annual report of the Northern Bengal Volunteer Rifle Corps shows the total strength of that body to be 296 Volunteers and forty-five cadets—an increase of ninety-five on the previous year. At the annual inspection the inspecting officer expressed his great satisfaction with regard to the efficiency of the companies.The numbering of later NBMR annual reports suggests that they took the first annual report of their militia to be the year of the first report of the NMVR.
By about 1914 most tea planters were expected to join and the majority did so.
What is clearer, is that the Corps was raised at the instigation of Mr A M Macdonald, Superintendent of the Darjeeling Tea Company and William Lloyd and A B L Webb (who presented the clock to Claud) of Lloyds Bank and E J Webb, Tea Planter.
Only five annual reports of the NBMR exist in three libraries (two in the UK and one in Japan).
Claud, the clock and the corps
The NBMR pattern was to hold annual ‘war games’ (as my mother called them) at which prizes were awarded for proficiency in skills such as shooting. Claud was probably awarded the clock in one such competition. He had been in India for about 5 years before 1883.
The designation ‘H. Coy’, short for H Company is at present unresolved. By 1914, H Company appears in the NBMR Annual Report as a Cadet Corps and would have been based at one of the district’s Schools. If it was a Cadet Corps in 1883, Claud would have been an officer.
The clock was for a long time the only evidence that Claud Bald joined the militia. He is not mentioned in the London Gazette as being awarded the ‘Volunteer Officers' Decoration’, so we can surmise that he remained a private. Though there is no record of the length of his service he may well have remained a member while his health allowed; he had a reputation for being healthy and ‘faithful’. In 1915 Claud and several other older planters were made honorary members of the NBMR. This seems to be a category of retired members who were not officers.
The following extract of a poem ‘Darjeeling’s Resplendent Transendency’, in Captain J A Keble, Darjeeling Ditties and Other Poems: A Souvenir, Darjeeling (1908), p. 8 reads;
‘Mr Claud Bald of Tukvar.
Healthy, trusty, popular,
Noted Planter, faithful sealed,
Worker in the Master’s field!’
Some photographic evidence...
The picture marked ‘Tukvar Tea Estate 1914’ (below) is another treasure. The assumption that the troops were NBMR was confirmed by comparing the picture with a group photo of the 1914 Annual Report where people can be identified in both pictures.
The ‘visitors’ presence seems to imply that Claud had maintained a long connection with the Corps, though the occasion is not known.
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| Tukvar Tea Estate 1914. Claud Bald (with beard) with family and NBMR friends. |
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| Officers in the NBMR at Jalpaiguri, from the 33rd Annual Report 1913-1914. |
The clock moves from India to England and then to Australia
Claud brought the clock with him to England in 1919 after he retired. It was significant to him. However, it seems to have been disposed of by the family, perhaps because it held no strong sentimental value to others.
But the clock has now shared its story, travelled halfway around the world again, after Pam kindly presented it to me in Worthing, and is treasured once more.
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| The NMBR crest and motto. |
'Fideliter', means 'faithfully' or, by implication, 'with reliance on God'. It also turns out to be an apt word to associate with Claud Bald, who was dedicated to his profession and a regular supporter of Baptist missionaries and the Union Church in Darjeeling.
Where are the annual reports?
The NBVR and all but five of the NBMR annual reports seem to have been lost. Do you know the whereabouts of any Please let me know!
