Governor of Bengal needs a polo playing officer as ADC: autograph signed letter from the Commandant of the Bodyguard.

The letter, signed by the Commandant of the Governor’s Body Guard, Major W R P Henry, is dated Alipore, Calcutta, 3rd November 1926 and is seeking to fill the post of ADC to the Governor [Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, GCIE, son of the 1st Earl, Viceroy in the 1870s]. It is written on two sides of a sheet of writing paper [7 x 9ins with two two folds] embossed with the Body Guard’s badge in red and asks the recipient, Abbott, if he knows “anyone who would care to take on the job of A.D.C. to the Governor here this cold weather“. The appointment of an A D C seems to require few precise qualifications but Major Henry does stress “we are very keen to get somebody who can play a bit of polo & A.D.C.s nowadays are helped by the Body Guard with ponies &c.“. A fascinating letter giving some insight into the rather casual, or at least personal, way in which appointments were made even as late as 1926. The Governor of Bengal’s Body Guard only came into being in 1912 after the capital with the Viceroy and Governor General moved to Delhi and the Calcutta post was enhanced from Lieutenant Governor to Governor.  aug13/2