Indian interest – A George VI sterling silver snuff box, London 1938 by Sebastian Garrard

Of rectangular form with a hinged lid raised by a shaped thumbpiece. The lid with engraved initial B below a Baron’s coronet. Gilt interior engraved with a presentation inscription reading “John with many grateful thanks from Doreen Brabourne, Bengal Nov 1937- March 1939". Fully and part-marked. Stamped underneath ‘Garrard & Co Ltd, Abermarle St London.W.

Length – 8.1 cm / 3.2 inches

Weight – 109 grams / 3.5 ozt

Doreen Geraldine Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne, CI DStJ (née Lady Doreen Geraldine Browne; 1896 -1979) daughter of George Ulick Browne, 6th Marquess of Sligo and 4th Earl of Clanricarde (1856-1935). She married Michael Herbert Rudolf Knatchbull, 5th Baron Brabourne, GCSI, GCIE, MC (1895 - 1939). In 1937 he also became a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India and served as Governor of Bengal until 1939, the year he died.

The ‘John’ most possibly refers to Victor Alexander John Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887 –1952), Viceroy and Governor-General of India (18 April 1936 – 1 October 1943). As in June 1938, 5th Baron Brabourne was appointed as Acting Viceroy of India. He served as the Viceroy for four months till 22 October 1938.

The 5th Baron Brabourne’s predecessor as Governor was John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, (1882 – 1958), he arrived back in London on 11 December 1937.

The 5th Baron Brabourne’s successor as Governor was Sir John Arthur Herbert GCIE (1895 –1943) who became Governor 1 July 1939.

On 27 August 1979, the Dowager Lady Brabourne was seriously injured in an explosion which killed Lord Mountbatten (the father of the wife of her younger son), their teenage grandson Nicholas, and local boy Paul Maxwell, on Donegal Bay, County Sligo. A bomb had been planted in Lord Mountbatten's fishing boat by a member of the Provisional IRA. Lady Brabourne died in hospital from her injuries the next day.

Her name is commemorated by the eponymous Lady Brabourne College, which was established in 1939 as the first women's college for Muslim women in Calcutta, India. She took the initiative in establishing this institution following complaints from Muslim girls that they were discriminated against by the Hindu establishment at the elite Bethune College, which was incidentally the first women's college in India.