Sixty-five black-and-white pencil portraits by Antony Brett-James, 5th Indian Division Royal Signals, of Indian soldiers who served under him and his fellow English officers, including the fifteen reproduced in his book 'Report My Signals' (1948).

A feature of Brett-James's well-received war memoir 'Report My Signals' (1948) was the fifteen reproductions of his pencil drawings of Indian men who served under him, the originals of which are present here, together with a further fifty. These indicate Brett-James's skill at conveying character in well-executed pencil sketches. The sixty-five black-and-white pencil drawings in this collection are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper with occasional creasing. They consist of: ONE. The original fifteen portrait heads of men of the Fifth Indian Division reproduced as illustrations in RMS. Six in 4to and nine in 12mo. All fifteen are signed by Brett-James with his monogram initials. All fifteen sitters are named, with nine of the portraits fully dated (1944 and 1945), and five dated with day and month. All fifteen made between 1944 and 1945, all named and all but three dated (i.e. '22-6-45 Allah Yar Khan'). TWO. Twenty-seven pencil portrait heads of Indian soldiers in the Division (nineteen 8vo and eight 12mo), with nineteen of the twenty-six sitters identified, e.g. Naik. V. Jayeseelan OT, L/Hav. Janardhan Nair DR, Havildar Ibrahim, Sigm. Mohn Jan, Sigm. Vasud Evan ('My Madrassi orderly'), Hav. Radhakrishna, Noor Mohd, Naik Chokkalingam I.D.S.M., M.A. Sebastian, Muniappa. Fifteen of the twenty-seven are signed by Brett-James. Five are fully-dated (between 1943 and 1945), and a further three have month and year. THREE. Twenty-three pencil portrait heads of Europeans (eleven 8vo and twelve 12mo), with the names of twenty of the sitters given, including Lt Jack Knowles, Corporal Woffenden ('one of our "G" clerks'), Captain Len Hill, Bob Noble, Cyril Goodman, Major H. J. Webb, Steve Morrison, Tom Gray, 'Dutch' Holland, 'Egbert'. Nine are signed by Brett-James with his initials, and six are fully dated (between 1942 and 1945). FOUR. A further sixteen miscellaneous drawings (including three of members of his family); and three photographs showing Brett-James and another English army officer ('Capt. Pegg'), both in shorts, in temperate climes with a woman and children.