Kalat Fort circa 1934 (click to enlarge)
31ST MAY
Being the anniversary of the 1935 Earthquake in Quetta, I thought I’d have a rummage around in Harvey’s Grandad’s archive where I found a number of aerial photographs. Regular followers may remember that Cyril Ellen was in the RAF and, during this period, he was the Squadron Leader of No 5 (A.C.) Sqdn based in Quetta.
Whilst many of the photographs are loose, some are labelled on the back. The remainder appear in a report entitled Annual Flight Through Mekran – 1934. The photographs were taken in November of that year and little would they have known about the devastation which was to follow six months later.
This particular photograph appears to be labelled Kalat Fort, although I stand to be corrected if I’ve misread the writing. The earthquake in Balochistan, British India (now part of Pakistan), caused destruction in almost all the towns close to Quetta including the city itself and tremors were felt as far as Agra, now in India. The largest aftershock occurred on 2 June 1935. This however did not cause any damage in Quetta but the towns of Mastung, Maguchar and Kalat were seriously affected by this aftershock.
