Trace and Tell your Family's Empire Stories
Introduction
Diana Rigg, 1960s icon of TV, film and stage, is best known for playing Emma Peel in the Avengers and Tracy Di Vicenzo, the only woman whom James Bond married.
What is less well known about her is that she grew up in India, the daughter of a railway engineer in the final days of the British Raj. In Episode One of Empire's Children she retraces her family's journey to India to discover more about their life.
Her father was employed by Maharaja Ganga Singh on the Rajasthan railway and was to work there for more than 20 years. But the Indian independence movement was already gathering pace. British rule, which had been maintained in India for over 300 years, would soon be swept away, forcing Louis and his family to return to a changed Britain.
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Hugh and Diana
In 1934, just over a year after Beryl arrived in Bikaner, Diana's brother Hugh was born. Diana would be born four years later in 1938. The children grew up in India, Hugh staying until he was 11 years old and Diana until she was 7. Although Diana describes these early memories as a little hazy, she does remember the scents, sights and sounds of India, as well as the wandering sacred cows.
Hugh, being four years older, remembers far more and described to Diana how they were brought up drinking milk from the goats in the garden. He is now the keeper of the family history and has an archive of photograph albums and letters. They never asked their father about his life in India and realise now with regret that many stories have been lost.
