NAM.2024-05-6-1-87

Photograph of the construction of the first bridge over the Bara river, Waziristan (Pakistan), near Bara Camp, 1930. Taken from one high river bank looking over to the other, a few men can be seen as a portion of the prefabricated bridge is starts to extend over the river. Image by Bt Maj Cecil Wotton Toovey MC, 9th Battalion Middlesex Regiment attached to the 5/1st Punjab Regiment. Toovey was Brigade Major for the 2nd Rawalpindi Infantry Brigade, Northern Command between 1929 and 1931. The 'Inglis' Mk 1 pattern bridge - a prefabricated portable bridge - was named after its inventor, Lt later Professor Sir, Charles Inglis, (1875-1952) was constructed across the Bara River by No 4 Field Company King George's Own Bengal Sappers and Miners. The specifications required that it be capable of carrying infantry in fours or 10 ton steam rollers, one at a time. Work began on 29 October 1930 and the bridge was open for traffic on 23 November. It was dismantled in 1933 as it had been superseded by a permanent concrete design. From a photograph album of 139 images and one press cutting of India, Iraq, Waziristan, 1915-1939 (c), by Maj Gen C W Toovey MC, Middlesex Regiment and the 82nd Punjabis (later the 5/1st Punjab Regiment).

India, North West Frontier (1920-1937)