The reason for this card was that people from India form the highest proportion of migrants coming to the United Kingdom - a quarter of a million in 2023 alone. Most of these, over half, had a job already set up, and just under half had a confirmed space at a University or College. However almost ten thousand had neither, and there were also many illegal crossings for which the reason will probably never be known.
A little research has shown that the first Indians started coming to Britain in the seventeenth century, when Europeans reached their shores. Records state that Peter Pope was the first Indian to be baptized in London, on the 22nd of December 1616, two years after the little fourteen year old Bengali child had been brought across by a chaplain in the East India Company., mainly because he showed such skill at learning English and also Latin. The baptism seems to have been a lavish ceremony, which even the Lord Mayor of London attended, and, even more strangely, his new name, Petrus Papa, was actually chosen by the King, James I. As for what happened after that, we know that he became an interpreter and translator, and published at least one book, and then he decided to return to his homeland, in order to try and convince his people that Christianity was the way forward. Unfortunately it seems that this was unsuccessful, and when his mentor went out to India to try to find him he could not.
This set is first listed in our original Ogdens reference book (RB.15, published in 1949) as :
104. 25. INDIAN WOMEN (adopted title). Size 63 x 36 m/m. Fronts per Fig. 50, printed by letterpress; portrait in black and white, framework in green. Backs in red, with illustration of "Polo" packet. There are two printings :-
A. Framework on fronts in apple green. Backs on white board
B. Framework on fronts in emerald green. Backs on cream board.
Issued in the East, between 1910-1915
Now it does not say so here, but the cards are actually numbered, on the top of the reverse. This means that we can tell you the card chosen as the illustration for Fig.50 was card number 24. And there is a pictorial checklist of all the cards at the Trading Card Database/OgdenIndianWomen
Now this original Ogdens reference book lists the cards in alphabetical order, and includes their overseas issues too. The same is not true of our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, which stove the sets off into groups, and ours is therefore in Ogden`s section 5 - "Export issues without I.T.C. Clause". It also tells us that the cards were "issued through B.A.T. - in Burma, India, Ceylon and Malaya", so I might find more information in our reference book RB.21. Section 5 is also split into smaller parts, and our set comes under 5.C, along with all the other issues branded for "Polo" Cigarettes. There is also, unusually, a lot more information about the cards here - which suggests that a collector came forward and added those missing bits. The listing reads :
INDIAN WOMEN (A). Sm. 63 x 36. Picture in black and white, framework in green. Back in red, Nd. (25). See RB15/104 ... O/2-207
A. Framework on front in apple green. Back with "Polo" packet, 45 m/m high.
B. Framework on front in emerald green. Back with "Polo" packet slightly larger, about 45 1/2 m/m high.
When we get to our updated World Tobacco Issues Index though, there is a big change, which led to me thinking they were not recorded, but they are, as :
BURMESE WOMEN (A). Sm. 63 x 36. Picture in black and white, framework in green. Back in red, Nd. (25). Previously recorded as "Indian Women". See RB115/104 ... O/100-740
A. Framework on front in apple green. Back with "Polo" packet, 45 m/m high.
B. Framework on front in emerald green. Back with "Polo" packet slightly larger, about 45 1/2 m/m high.
This led to more investigation, and to the fact that most of the Burmese migrate to Thailand, with which they share a border. Thailand is also promoted as being a very modern place, with lots of easy money to be made at bars and clubs, etc. To some extent this is true, and as the country continually modernises there is much work to be had on construction sites, but it is not easy. and working in the bars and clubs can sometimes turn out to be very different than imagined. Most of the migrants are young men, who either do not want to get involved in the armed forces, or whose way of life falls foul of their religion.
Not many Burmese come to the United Kingdom.