W. G. Strover was commissioned into the 5th Light Infantry and promoted to lieutenant on 20 November 1908. His regiment served in Singapore in 1914–15. As a captain he attended Staff College from December 1916 to February 1917. He transferred to the newly raised 50th Kumaon Rifles in 1918 and served with them in the fighting against the Turks in Palestine. He was mentioned in Field Marshal Haig’s dispatch (London Gazette, 28 July 1919). In the summer of 1922 he commanded the King’s Indian Orderlies during their visit to England, when this photograph was taken. He kept a daily diary of the visit. Major W. G. Strover died at Secunderabad on 22 July 1930.
The photo is a detail from the group of King’s Indian Orderly Officers taken in 1922. As a major in the Kumaon Rifles, his uniform would normally resemble that of other Rifle regiments, Gurkhas and Garhwalis, but here he wears a scarlet tunic, probably the dress uniform of his former regiment, the 5th Light Infantry, scarlet with yellow facings. In this century‑old photograph the yellow collar and cuffs appear much darker than they would have been in reality.
