Here we have "Charles John, Viscount Canning, Governor General of India, 1856-62". He was a conservative politician, who became Viceroy of India, and he came from important political stock, his father being George Canning, Foreign Secretary, twice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and also Prime Minister of Great Britain, but not for long, only from the twelfth of April to the eighth of August 1827, when he died, of pneumonia.
His third son, our man, was the first Earl Canning, because that title was created for him whilst he was the Viceroy of India. Sadly both Viscount Canning and Earl Canning are now defunct titles, for our man had no children to inherit them, although he did have a wife, from 1835, the artist Charlotte Canning, nee Stuart, who died, of Malaria, in 1861.
Our man, and his wife, sailed to India at the end of 1855 and took up his posting in February 1856. India was already showing signs of discontent, and in 1857 these came to the fore, with events which are now known as the rebellion, or mutiny, of 1857. He seems to have been sympathetic, in many ways, to the plight of the native Indians, which was both popular in India and unpopular back at home. There were fears that he would resign, but these seem to have been assuaged by his becoming Viceroy of India; though some historians believe this was purely so the Indians retained a man they did not mind, rather than sending someone else who could easily have made war begin again.
After the death of his wife, he was very shocked, and decided to remove to England, which he reached in April 1862. The following month saw him become a Knight of the Garter, but he died, in London, on the seventeenth of June.
I have to say that did not realise what an attractive set this was, I imagined it, from the title, and the date, to be black and white portraits, rather than these lovely coloured cards. And as an additional bonus, the Governors-General are all on horseback. To be honest, the description which appears in our original reference book to "The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I, II, and III (revised) and Part IV" (RB.16 – published in 1950) also makes it appear rather bland, listing it as :
- 229. 25. GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA (adopted title). Size 63 x 36 m/m. Unnumbered. Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs in red, with illustration of open "Scissors" packet, no other letterpress. "Scissors" issue, 1911.
Each card bears the subject`s name below picture, followed by "Governor-General of India..". In the listing below, surnames or titles only are given, with the years of Governor-Generalship.
1. Hastings, 1774-75
2. Cornwallis, 1786-93
3. Teignmouth, 1793-98
4. Wellesley, 1798-1805
5. Elliott, 1807-13
6. Hastings, 1813-23
7. Amherst, 1823-28
8. Bentinck, 1834-35
9. Auckland, 1836-42
10. Ellenborough, 1842-44
11. Hardinge, 1844-48
12. Dalhousie, 1848-56
13. Canning, 1856-62
14. Elgin. 1862-3
15. Lawrence, 1864-69
16. Mayo, 1869-72
17. Northbrook, 1872-76
18. Lytton, 1876-80
19. Ripon, 1880-84
20. Dufferin, 1884-88
21. Lansdowne, 1888-94
22. Elgin, 1894-99
23. Curzon, 1899-1905
24. Minto, 1905-16
25. Hardinge, 1910
This is greatly reduced in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, where it simply reads :
- GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA (A). Size 63 x 36 m/m. Unnd. (50). See W/229 ... W62-358
And this text is reprinted exactly in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, save for a new card code, of W675-501