Accession Number

2012.007.001.014

Description

Black and white photograph of 16 people. Twelve are East Indian. Four are sitting cross-legged in the front are holding rifles. In the centre row sits a European woman between two European men.

Narrative

In October 1901, the seated woman, Sarah Byrd Dunsmuir (Byrdie) married Guy Mortimer Audain (at left). After the birth of their son, James, in 1903, Byrdie joined her husband in India, where he was in the Indian Army in Hyderabad. While Guy Audain enjoyed the life of a British officer in the Indian Army, Byrdie was not suited to the climate. She accompanied Guy on hunting trips but struggled to adapt to heat and life in camps. The couple returned to settle in Victoria in May, 1906.

History of Use

This photograph was taken in about 1904 and placed in an album created by the James and Laura Dunsmuir family at Burleith, their home on Victoria's Gorge Waterway. In 1906 it was probably taken by the family to Victoria's Government House where they lived while James served as British Columbia's eighth Lieutenant Governor. From there it was taken to the family's new house, Hatley Park, in 1910.

Sometime after Laura Miller Dunsmuir's death in 1937, the album became the property of Dola Frances Dunsmuir (also known as Mrs. Dola Cavendish) and was kept at her house Dolaura in Colwood, B.C. After hear death, the album was owned by her sister Kathleen's daughter, Judith Humphreys (also known as Mrs. Judith Joy). Her daughter donated the album to Craigdarroch Castle in 2012.

Date

circa 1904

Dimensions

7.5 x 9.1 cm

Support

Paper, Photographic paper

Country of Origin

India