Calcutta history: Harry Hobbs, British piano tuner, and forgotten chronicler of the city

When the elderly Sir Frederick Roberts was Commander-in-Chief of the British-Indian Army in 1885, Kolkata was the imperial capital of India. The city was the headquarters of the British government during the winter months. During summer, the government operated out of Shimla, where the weather was cooler and more palatable to the English.

On this wintry Sunday morning, St Peter’s Church inside Fort William was the cynosure of the congregation, and the weekly Church Parade was the highlight of the season. Those who were not in uniform donned top hats and frock coats. Held every Sunday, the parade was a social event not to be missed!

A score of horse-drawn carriages and a couple of cavalry mount horses were waiting on the periphery of the church lawn. They were to take their masters and mistresses to their respective homes, or to Spence’s or Wilson’s hotels, for a languid Sunday meal. They would have to wait a while, for after the service, everyone who was anyone assembled outside the church for a chat and to exchange social niceties. Ordinary folk stood around and gazed in awe.

Among those present was Tommy Hayes. He had been brought in from London by the Great Eastern Hotel to run their “shirt” department in the “Hall of All Nations”. Hayes was a handsome man and a first-class tailor. He was very aware of his good looks and confident of his tailoring abilities. Sundays in Fort William, with the red coats, military band and brilliant uniforms, caught his fancy. He was utterly craving to be a part of that slice of Kolkata society. Hayes, whose sartorial sense was impeccable, was perfect for the part. So, donning a top hat and tailcoat, he stepped forward and mingled with the crowd as though he was born to that eminence.

Pushing himself to the front, Hayes raised his hat to the Commander-in-Chief, who at once shook his hand. The elderly Sir Frederick regretted being unable to recall the name of the smart and courteous young man and was very embarrassed. He looked expectantly at him for a cue.

“Made your shirts!” whispered Hayes, leaning towards the forgetful and heard-of-hearing old Commander, in a proper London accent.

“My dear,” said a visibly relieved Sir Frederick to Lady Roberts, “let me introduce – Major Schurtz”.

Fort William is now the headquarters of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army. The church inside its premises, St Peter’s Church (earlier called the Garrison Church) is long gone. It is now a library for the troops of the Eastern Command. The “Hall of All Nations” of the Great Eastern Hotel, then popularly referred to as Wilson’s Hotel, has vanished. Spence’s Hotel has been demolished as well. India is independent. Kolkata is no longer the capital of the country. All that remains is the anecdote narrated by Harry Hobbs.

Wilson’s Hotel, nicknamed after its founder, hotelier David Wilson, is still attempting to regain its old glory after numerous changes in ownership. Spence’s Hotel, supposedly the first hotel established in the East, is barely remembered today. The structure was demolished some time ago. And almost no one remembers Harry Hobbs.

His name is recognised only by the rare scholar researching Kolkata's history, for he is the author of a dozen or so chronicles that carry the most authentic accounts of the rapidly changing social saga of British-Kolkata in particular, and imperial India, in general. Even today, his now out-of-print books are treasure troves of information and can be considered background material for generations of scholars, researchers, and writers.

The narrative of Kolkata would be poorer without the rich and delightful details that form the weft of Hobbs’s tales.

Harry Hobbs (1864-1956), born in Islington, Middlesex, England, to Henry Hobbs and Emily Holmes, was musically inclined from childhood. During his teens, he joined a piano factory in London, as a technical apprentice, and became a piano tuner. He left his apprenticeship in London and arrived in imperial Kolkata in 1883, at age 19, to start life anew.

Describing his journey to Kolkata, Hobbs wrote in his book It Was Like This! (1918), “For as long as I can remember, I had romantic ideas about India and always wanted to come here. I have often said that if there is any truth in the theory of a former existence, I was an Indian when on earth before, as I remember quite well, the day I landed in Calcutta walking into my windowless room in number 5 Crooked Lane, throwing my Port Said topee on the bed, and in a feeling of profound contentment saying – ‘This is all right!’ and I have some pleasure in adding that I have never once grumbled about the country since.”

Hobbs had sailed from the Royal Albert Docks of East London on a British-India steamer in 1883 and described that morning as the happiest morning in his life. For a century and a half, countless English lads sailed to India to see what this new land had to offer. But our “reincarnated Indian” felt a deeper connection.

Hobbs was a remarkably sanguine young man and he cheerfully travelled enormous distances by country boats and palkis or palanquins. He set off on these adventures in what the English considered an exotic land, merely to tune the pianos that the Europeans had insisted on bringing to India when they arrived in the subcontinent.

Between 1884 and 1887, Hobbs was posted in Myanmar, where he worked for Samuel Harraden's Harold & Company. In Kolkata, Harold & Company had its office and showroom at 3 Dalhousie Square (now BBD Bagh), known among Bengalis as “Office Para”, the heart of the city’s commercial and administrative district, for over two centuries. Apart from dealing in musical instruments, Harold & Company later also began trading in the then newly invented phonograph and music cylinders of various brands, such as Edison, Columbia and Pathé.

Within a decade of his arrival in India, by 1893, even before he turned 30, Hobbs’s services were so sought-after that he started his own business. He called it “H Hobbs & Co Ltd”, which he ran from 4 Esplanade Row East, now Sidhu Kanu Dahar, in Kolkata. It was the same building in which Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of Bengal, had lived early in his career. Hobbs lived on the upper storey of the same premises, and he lived there all his life.

In successive Thacker’s Indian Directories, Hobbs’s residence is listed as 4 Esplanade Row East in the list of European residents. The building is currently occupied by the offices of the Joint Director-General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. The building was originally owned by Kumar Manmatha Nath Mitter and his family. They had leased it out to Walter Locke & Co., the “Gun-makers.” Walter Locke & Co. had their Indian head office and Kolkata showroom on the ground floor of this building till 1921. The building used to be referred to as the “Locke building” at that point in time. Hobbs had his showroom and office on the first floor of the building, and he used to reside in one of the three residential flats on the top-floor. The other two residential flats were occupied by the Directors of Walter Locke. In 1921, Walter Locke vacated the building when their lease expired, and the owners gave the building on lease to BN Elias, the well-known Baghdadi Jew business magnate. Hobbs too shifted his showroom and office out of the premises, though he continued staying there. The Esplanade East Sub-post Office used to be situated at one of the ground floor corner rooms of this building as detailed in the Kolkata high Court case number 1468 of 1921 between Kumar Manmatha Nath Mitter versus Walter Locke & company and Thacker’s Indian Directory of 1918.

Hobbs used to advertise his business as “Pianoforte Importers, Repairers and Tuners”. He was also a gifted piano player with an extensive music library. He moved his shop to 9 Esplanade Row East (a couple of buildings away from the famous KC Das sweetmeat shop, which was started around 1936), then to 21 Old Courthouse Street, and finally to 9 Old Courthouse Street, close to the Great Eastern Hotel. He also had a workshop-cum-godown on Marquis Street (now Mustaque Ahmed Street) near New Market in Central Kolkata. However, he did not move his residence and continued to live at 4 Esplanade Row East in the Dharmatalla area of the city, till his death in 1956.

Excerpted with permission from Harry Hobbs of Kolkata and Other Forgotten Lives, Devasis Chattopadhyay, Paper Missile/Niyogi Books.