Women of The Raj

Brian Freeland tells some of the stories from the lives of the ‘Memsahibs’ – the wives of the British Colonial administrators who came to India to take over the control of the country from the disgraced East India Company’s mercenaries.

From the early 19th century on the grand homes of the Empire’s civil servants and soldiers were run under the singular authority of their wives and their coterie of friends. Their impact on ordinary Indian lives was significant, and often unwelcome.

As one Indian writer noted much later, he doubted anyone realised what a ‘menace’ they were to become: “If the Memsahibs had stayed in Britain there might not of have been a Mutiny”.

Tickets £5.00, with a discount for Bexhill Museum members.