Iris Leghari: Life and Times in Pre-Partition India and Early Pakistan

Iris Leghari: Life and Times in Pre-Partition India and Early Pakistan by Begum Iris Leghari

‘Life seemed very strange to me at first, as there were no Europeans living there. The saving grace was the club life in the evenings and where we used to play tennis daily. There was good shooting around those parts, and this is when I started to take up shooting seriously, which I loved. We also rode a great deal.’ Page 40.

‘Epidemics of various diseases broke out in the camps and hundreds died from them. One could smell the stench of dead bodies seven miles away. People used to ring me up at the house, to ask me to get in touch with the authorities and ask for more time to bury their dead. Needless to say, I hardly saw my husband during these terrible days.’ Page 110.

Iris Titherley (18th October 1908 – 27th February 2000), was an English equestrian and horse trainer who married Sardar Ata Mohammad Khan Leghari, an Indian student at Oxford with a vast feudal background studying for the Indian Civil Service in 1932.

Her memoirs are a first-hand account of an English woman’s experience of living through the British Raj and Partition.

She notes how her life changed after Independence and shares fascinating stories of travels through Europe, the Middle East and Pakistan and her experiences as a member of a well-known Pakistani political family.

Part-memoir, part-travelogue her memoir recounts journeys on horseback through Northern India and the experiences of an Indian Civil Service officer’s wife in the years leading up to and after Partition.

She recorded and transcribed her memoirs in 1996 which I researched and published in 2025. Iris was my great-grandmother.

The book has over 100 pictures from the personal collection of Iris and Ata Leghari that depict their travels across the world and meetings with famous personalities.

The book is available at The Book Tree in Toowoomba and at Sang-e-Meel Books, Anees Book Corner and Iqbal Book Corner in Lahore.