Imperial Service Troops, 1908 (c).

Watercolour, signed lower left by Major Alfred Crowdy Lovett (1862-1919), 1908 (c).
The original for the illustration on p204 of Major G F MacMunn’s 'Armies of India', published in 1911.

15 figures, several with signatures of sitters below.

The Imperial Service Troops scheme was created in 1888 from amongst the armies of the independent Indian States in British India. Soldiers from the participating Princely states were trained under British supervision and were then used both on the North West Frontier and in places as far apart as China, during the Boxer Rebellion, and Somaliland. By 1900 the force numbered around 19,000 men.