NAM.2001-02-21-16

Photograph of the Ballard family, who were buried for four hours by an earthquake, but survived, Palampar, 1900-1905 (c). The man in the image is likely to be William Henry Ballard, who stands in between two ladies (one of whom is probably his wife Eliza) and two children. The young boy sitting on the ground may be his son Dennis, later a Captain in the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) who was killed in the First World War. The Kangra area in India is very earthquake prone, and it is unclear whether the earthquake mentioned in the caption is the large earthquake of 1905 or an earlier one, although it is known that the Ballard family survived the 1905 earthquake. The Kangra region in Himachal Pradesh was hit by a major earthquake on 4 April 1905. A detachment of the 23rd Sikh Pioneers was sent to Kangra to help with relief after the earthquake which is reported to have killed around 20,000 people. From an album of 88 photographs compiled by Capt (later Lt Col) William Arthur Henry Bird OBE, 23rd Sikh Pioneers, India.

Kangra Earthquake, 1905 (Military Aid to the Civil Authorities 1900-1999)