A grandmother's legacy: South Parade and my Ancestors

Jenny Mallin


Region:
Anywhere
Notice Period:
Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
Type:
Probus, U3A, Rotary, WI, Family History, Horticultural Groups, Women in Business,
Fee:
Paid: £95 plus mileage at 40p per mile
Category:
History
Updated:
8th July 2023

A photographic cabinet card handed to me years ago by my mother with the firm instruction to take care of it as it was the oldest image we have of our great grandparents in India. The photograph, taken in 1865, was produced at the “Orr & Barton photographic studio” it was along South Parade right in the heart of Bangalore’s cantonment area. Bangalore had the largest British military base in India at that time. It’s cantonment history was reflected in all of its surrounding arterial roads: Cavalry Road, Brigade Road, Artillery Road and became a favourite watering hole and a place for those seeking excitement. The Old Bull and Bush bar was the haunt of famous boxer Gunboat Jack. We learn how South Parade became the hub for my family, their place of residence, the Bowring Institute Club where they played tennis and where they attended school and colleges. We follow the story of my Great Uncle Eugene who was born in 1898, a product of the British Raj, schooled at the well known Bishop Cotton establishment and then on to Madras College, who went on to become an ICS "heaven born" civil service man whose profession took him to over 250 districts right across British India and Burma throughout the 30s and 40s when Rangoon was at an all time high of opulence, stylish and refined. Through an emotional and touching account we discover how Eugene now in his late 90s is living in a time capsule of the 1940s along South Parade at the Eventide Retirement Home, surrounded by momentos from another time, and a faint whiff of sandalwood in his room, we gain an idea of his life in British India from an afternoon spent with him in January 1990.

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About Jenny Mallin

Winner of "Best in World Cookbook" by the Gourmand World Cookbook Society for 2017, Jenny is a regular speaker to a broad variety of groups looking for an interesting and unique talk on her British Raj family. She has given over 500 talks across the world, on cruise ships as well as prestigious locations such as the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata built to commemorate Queen Victoria as Empress of India to hundreds of WI, U3a and Family History groups.

Jenny’s career has been the culmination of several instinctive paths in her life which have led her to enjoying being an author and now a public speaker. With almost thirty trips to India over the past thirty years, she has explored and uncovered the history of her ancestors and their interesting path.

The re-uniting for Jenny of a family heirloom of a book which her great x 4 grandmother started in 1844, Madras which she remembers seeing in her mother’s pantry, is a time capsule in itself. This cherished book holds not only the handwritten manuscripts of recipes which were passed down from mother to daughter for the next five generations, but also hints at the technological changes ushered in by the industrial revolution which had a positive effect of intertwining the economies of India and Great Britain.

With her passions for cooking, India, research and writing, Jenny’s award-winning cookbook “A Grandmother’s Legacy” has been a labour of love – a memoir that mingles the history of her family when they lived in India, with her grandmothers’ recipes that were prudently passed down through the generations.

Recently interviewed by Jenni Murray on BBC’s Woman’s Hour, Jenny has also been featured in “The Lady” magazine, “Who do you think you are?” magazine as well as “Waitrose Magazine” and “Sainsbury’s Magazine”. Jenny has been able to impart knowledge of her family’s cuisine through her teaching at notable cookery schools, including the renowned WI headquarters, Denman College in Oxford.

Jenny’s past career has also influenced her with her continuing interest in both research and travel from her early days in television production at the BBC where she picked up skills in how to present but also carved out a career there in researching. The following decade of the 1980s found her working in high tech as a Corporate Travel Buyer for twenty years and with her engaging personality and knowledge was able to easily connect with her market and secure global airline contracts to the benefit of her company.


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