In 1909, after missing his train due to an ultimately disastrous trip to the lavatory at Ahmedpur station, an embarrassed, angry young man named Okhil Chandra Sen sent an unintentionally amusing letter of complaint to the Sahibganj divisional railway office in West Bengal. The letter proved to be an important one as, according to the Railway Museum in New Delhi, the subsequent investigation into the affair by the British Raj resulted in the introduction of toilets to all trains in the country; something that had been absent since the formation of Indian Railways in 1857.

The original letter is held in the museum’s archives. Below is the version they have on display.

Transcript follows. Image kindly supplied by Richard Fellowes.