Unemployed Anglo-Indians

Madras Weekly Mail, Thursday 07 June 1894

When I arrived at Charing Cross Station a few months ago, after being in India for twenty years, I met my old friend Granround of the Polies. I was somewhat disappointed at his asking me, “What have you come here for?” Firstly, I said, to recreate my enfeebled energies in the delights of London, secondly, to enjoy the social consideration to which my past official position in India entitles me, and thirdly to take up employment in England. “How much of the needful have you?” asked my friend. “One hundred golden sovereigns,” I replied. “Then,” he said, “I give you a month in London; after that you will be looking for cheap apartments in Bath or Littlehampton; your amusement will be sixpenny whist or snookers at the Club; your entertainments will be limited to a cheap tea once a month when your wife will be “At Home”; and your useful occupations nil!” I felt I could afford to smile at the prognostics of Granround; his services had been anything but eminent, and he had been turned off at the age of fifty-five, a soured and disappointed man.