Mss Eur F126/1-11

The first seven files in the series comprise of personal and official correspondence to and from Sir Lewis Pelly covering the period 1854-1883 and including discussion of his work in India, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan as well as general political matters and information of personal interest relating to friends, family and colleagues. The correspondents within these files includes General John Jacob; Sir William Henry Rhodes Green; Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere; Sir William Lockyer Merewether; Sir Charles Umpherston Aitchison and Sir Owen Tudor Burne. There are also two files of general correspondence with individuals in Britain and India, and these include correspondence with Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Baron Lytton and Thomas George Baring, 2nd Baron Northbrook both of whom served as Viceroy of India; Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury who served as Secretary of State for India amongst other prominent officials in the India Office and Indian Civil Service.

Files eight and nine relate to Pelly's career with the India Office and include his application to join the Bombay Staff Corps in 1857 and correspondence relating to the sale of his furniture on departing his position as Agent to the Governor-General in Rajputana [Rajasthan] to take up a special assignment in Baroda.

File ten contains papers relating to an attack made by the George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll on Pelly in the House of Lords in relation to Pelly's involvement in the Afghanistan Mission of 1877.

File eleven contains papers relating to the play The Miracle Play of of Hasan and Hussein which was written by Pelly and was published in 1879.

The correspondence and papers in the series primarily cover the period 1854-1883, however file one also includes correspondence relating to the donation of the papers to the India Office in 1923.