British Soldier Leaves Bombay For England, 1908 Postcard

A rare 1908 postcard of a British soldier leaving his love of his life and Bombay (Mumbai) for England. The postcard is a print of a painting of a soldier and his lover before leaving for England by ship. The lady perhaps an Anglo-Indian seems a little lost and downcast on his leaving, according to the ballad shown below the postcard, she was uncertain of his love. The ballad reads as follws-

“On a sunny summer’s day, there was sailing from Bombay,
A big and stately troopship that was going through the spray,
To mighty England many miles away,
A soldier gazed with pride on his sweetheart by his side,
Said he, “Good-bye, my treasure, I shall soon be on the tide,
And when I come back you shall be my bride.”
But as she was uncertain of his love, with many sighs,
She murmured as the love-light came into her coal-black eyes.”

Bombay was the main harbour for passenger ships since airplanes did not come into the scene at least till the 1930s in India. The city had its fair share of great writers and poets. The most famous among them was Rudyard Kipling, and the others were Salman Rushdie, Nissim Ezekiel, and so on.

Did you know- Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay or Mumbai in 1865. He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1907, his most famous work was “The Jungle Book,” first published in 1894.

From the collection-Raja Ravi Varma’s “Birth of Shakuntala” Oleograph c1894., Queen Victoria Statue Grand Display To Isolation- 1966 Photo., Steam Tram of Calcutta – Rare Postcard 1900., Century In Malabar Peirce Leslie & Co – Old Book