Long Read: The man who is a restorer of history Prasun Sonwalkar/London Filed on April 30, 2021 After his maternal grandfather’s death, Shore received various family treasures, among which were Garrett’s drawing instruments. Most of those who served in India and other colonies of the British Empire have passed on, but their descendants possess a large number of items linked to their tenures in the colonies. Employees of the East India Company who returned with vast riches were called ‘nabobs’; some of them purchased political power, others arrived with ‘native’ servants and settled in prime locations in London, or constructed residences and spaces that reminded them of the lives they led in the colonies. There is no database of such artefacts in the possession of descendants of former soldiers, administrators and employees, but at least one of them is keen to return the “precious items” to where they belong and has already handed over some in India.