Farewell Ceremony at Gateway of India, Bombay, 1925 Postcard
A striking 1925 postcard captures a grand military ceremony at the Gateway of India in British-era Bombay (Mumbai). Rows of troops assembled beside the grand monument. The scene appears to show a formal farewell for a senior British official, possibly connected with the departure of a Viceroy. Although the exact identity of the person being honoured is not known. At the time, the Gateway had been completed only a year back. Officially opened in 1924 by Viceroy Lord Reading, the monument had been conceived to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George V and Queen Mary.
In the 1920s, the Apollo Bunder waterfront was still closely associated with the arrival and departure of passengers and important dignitaries arriving by steamships. Long-distance air travel was nowhere near the routine at the time, although it would become so later. It was not until 1943 that a Viceroy arrived in India by air, when Lord Wavell travelled by flying boat to take up the post. The Gateway stood at a fascinating crossroads between two eras, the age of steamships and the approaching age of aviation. Today, the same monument is one of Mumbai’s most recognisable landmarks, making this rare postcard a wonderful glimpse of the Gateway of India during its early years.
Did you know – before Bombay became the densely built metropolis we know today, large areas of the islands were covered by coconut groves, especially around places such as Mazagaon and Mahim.
