Most British died during the Raj in India
In the 17th and 18th centuries it was not uncommon for half the Europeans scattered through India to die of fever, drink or heatstroke in a single year. In Bombay, in 1692, nearly 90% of the British population succumbed to disease in just three months; in the same city, 15 years later, a mere seven men were fit for duty…
Statistics show that six out of every seven British officers despatched to the Subcontinent between 1800 and 1825 never returned…The principal difficulty was surviving long enough to develop resistance to India’s main diseases.
…The Subcontinent could kill in many ways. Dysentery…typhoid…smallpox and plague were common…
Though the British youth came to India to work for the Company or the King with the ambition of getting really rich at the early age of 16-17, most of them made only enough money to support luxurious lifestyles for themselves with numerous servants in their households. It was only by the time they reached 40 did they make enough money to bring in a wife.
It was therefore very common for 40 or 50 year old men to marry 16-year-old girls from England!
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