The Royal Asiatic Society leased 74 Grosvenor Street from 1920 to 1947. These papers include those for the negotiation of taking up the lease, for possibility lease of different premises, for wartime damage insurance contributions, for the expediency of leaving the premises. There is also a photograph of 74 Grosvenor Street of unknown date.
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1823- London, EnglandIt appears that in 1939 the Royal Asiatic Society were looking at different options for their premises. There are two items of correspondence:
- Letter from Col. D.M.F. Hoysted, RAS Secretary, to Sir Edward Maclagan to inform that the freeholder's Solicitors have approved of the Society leasing Farm House. He encloses a financial statement and will seek Mr Perowne's advice (RAS Treasurer). Dated 14 July 1939.
- Letter from Edward Maclagan to Col. Hoysted to discuss the figures and to suggest that it doesn't go before the Committee before he has heard from Mr Perowne. Dated 15 July 1939.
A letter from Colonel Henry Helsham-Jones to Sir Edward Douglas Maclagan to give information regarding the Patparganj Pillar. This was erected in 1916 to commemorate the 1803 Battle of Delhi. Helsham-Jones relates that he had heard from Col. Creswell, a former Royal Engineer, who was assistant engineer when Helsham-Jones had been constructing the Lower Ganges Canal. Creswell had asked his daughter, a Mrs Talbot, when at Delhi, about the Pillar. Mrs Talbot had seen the pillar and asked General Norman who informed her that he "had moved the pillar to what was considered the right spot". Helsham-Jones therefore supposes that the pillar has been moved and set up on the mound mentioned at the conclusion of Maclagan's monograph.
With the letter is a note to say that the letter had been found in a copy of the Journal of the Panjab Historical Society, Vol. I, 1911-12 and that this Journal had been given to the Society by Maclagan.
The pillar can currently be found within the grounds of the Noida Golf Course.
Jones Henry Helsham 1836-1920