BIKANER. A contemporary painting of the Commandant of the Ganga Risala or Bikaner Camel Corps, circa 1920

A watercolour portrait of Colonel Rao Bahadur Thakur Shri Deep Singhi of Gharsisar painted on a sheet of artist’s paper 13 x 11  x 15 ins with some old damp staining along the top edge but not affecting the portrait itself. The bust length portrait signed lower right F. Etheridge shows the Commandant of the Ganga Risala [Bikaner Camel Corps] in service dress uniform with turban and wearing decorations, which help to date the image to being no earlier than 1919 and probably the early 1920s. He wears the Order of British India around the neck and his other medals are the Royal Victorian Medal, China 1900 Medal [for the Boxer Uprising and the first active service seen by the Corps], the 1914 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal with an oak leaf denoting a mention in despatches. A photographic portrait of him with Maharaja Ganga Singh appears elsewhere in the Bikaner category on the website. Although that portrait was some twenty years earlier he also wears the OBI in it and his distinctive moustache is equally in evidence.   jun5/1

We are not certain of the artist but there was a Florence Etheridge [née Payne] 1857-1935 active at the time. The red background to the left of the sitter is rather crudely applied and may well be a later attempt to partially hide the damp staining. The portrait came to us with a collection of Indian material from a descendant of a Lieutenant Colonel who was commanding a Gurkha regiment during World War One. The Colonel may have been someone he particularly admired or who was a personal friend.