ONE

[Sir Sidney Gerald Burrard (1860-1943), Surveyor General of India.] Large printed coloured map of ?Tibet and Adjacent Countries?, during the First World War.

Author: 
?Tibet and Adjacent Countries?: Sir Sidney Gerald Burrard (1860-1943), Surveyor General of India; Survey of India
Publication details: 
?Compiled under the direction of Colonel Sir S. G. Burrard, K.C.S.I., R.E., F.R.S., Surveyor General of India, 1917?, ?Helizincographed at the Survey of India Offices, Dehra Dun.?
£560.00

The original item. On one side of a piece of a piece of paper roughly 70 x 100 cm, folded into a 10.5 x 15.5 cm packet of fifty panels. An attractive item, but in need of some attention: on brittle and discoloured paper, with several closed tears. The map was the work of Col. H. B. Hudson. A significant map, still cited in the Sino-Indian border dispute. For the background see 'Two Important Maps from the Survey of India', Geographical Journa, October 1915. First published in 1914, but the only copy of this 1917 version located in the National Library of Australia.

[Wilhelm, the last Crown Prince of the German Empire.] Two black and white prints of photographs: one a portrait of him, the other a view of Hechingen Castle; each with Typed Note Signed by him on the reverse.

Author: 
Wilhelm, the last Crown Prince of the German Empire [Crown Prince of Prussia; Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst] (1882-1951), son of Kaiser Wilhelm II, great-grandson of Queen Victoria
Wilhelm
Publication details: 
The portrait dated from 'Hechingen, Zezember [sic] 1949'. The other photograph without date or
£250.00
Wilhelm

Both in black and white, and in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Half-length portrait. 10 x 14 cm. A Seated Wilhelm, grey-haired and tight-lipped, with hands joined in front of him, wearing suit and tie and light-grey tweed jacket. On reverse, a typed note addressed to 'Mr. James Dandy / England.', and dated from 'Hechingen, Zezember 1949': 'Herzlichen Dank für Ihr liebes Paket, es hat mich sehr gefreut. / Beste Wünsche u. Grüse'. TWO: View of Hechingen Castle. 8.5 x 13 cm. Typed message on reverse, also signed by him: ‘Herzlichen Dank für das freundliche Gedenken zu Weihnachten.

[Wilhelm, last Crown Prince of the German Empire.] Three black and white photographic prints: two portraits, one of them signed by him, both taken in his final year, and view of Hechingen Castle, with Typed Note Signed from another party on reverse.

Author: 
Wilhelm, last Crown Prince of the German Empire [Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst, Crown Prince of Prussia] (1882-1951), son of Kaiser Wilhelm II, great-grandson of Queen Victoria
Wilhelm
Publication details: 
One from 1950 and two from 1951, one of the latter from Hechingen.
£280.00
Wilhelm

All three in black and white. The first and third item lightly aged and creased; the first stained on reverse; the second item lightly aged. ONE: Half-length portrait. 8 x 12.5 cm. Stamped on reverse ‘4 JAN 1950’. A Seated Wilhelm, grey-haired and tight-lipped, with hands joined in front of him, wearing suit and tie and light-grey tweed jacket. TWO: Half-length portrait, apparently from the same shoot as One, with autograph signature. 8 x 11 cm. Written on reverse: ‘HECKINGEN. / SEP. 7. 1951’. Same outfit as One, but with cigarette in right hand.

[Lord Buxton, Governor-General of South Africa [Sydney Charles Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton), Liberal politician].] Autograph Letter Signed, thanking Bernard Piffard for copies of the ‘West Herts Radical’, which he hopes will prove effective.

Author: 
Lord Buxton, Governor-General of South Africa during the Great War [Sydney Charles Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton (1853-1934), Liberal politician] [Bernard Piffard (1833-1916), microscopist and entomologist]
Publication details: 
1 April 1890; on embossed letterhead of 14 Eaton Place, S.W. [London]
£65.00

Buxton was a popular Governor-General who formed an effective partnership with Botha. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ‘B Piffard Esq’ and signed ‘Sydney Buxton’. He is obliged for the ‘copies of the “West Herts Radical”’, and is glad to hear that Piffard is ‘able to circulate such a large number in your Division’. He hopes it will have ‘a satisfactory effect on the next Election’.

[Author of the first million-seller: Hall Caine, the most popular novelist of his day.] Autograph List of Corrections ‘With Sir Hall Caine’s Compts’, to [Daily Telegraph propaganda?] articles entitled ‘Downfall of a Nation’ (revolutionary Russia).

Author: 
Hall Caine [Sir Hall Caine; Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine] (1853-1931), the most popular novelist of his day, author of ‘The Eternal City’, the first million-seller, with strong Isle of Man connections
Hall Caine
Publication details: 
No date or place. (Circa 1917)
£320.00
Hall Caine

See the description of Caine’s political views in his entry in the Oxford DNB. He began as a communist, but became a Christian Socialist, and a supporter of the Liberal Party on the mainland of Britain (he was a member of the Isle of Man House of Keys from 1901 to 1908) and a follower of the Church of England. The present item would appear to relate to the ‘impassioned propaganda’ that Caine published in the Daily Telegraph from September 1914 (ODNB). It is 1p, 4to.

[Bruce Bairnsfather [Captain Charles Bruce Bairnsfather], cartoonist who created the First World War Fragments from France characters Old Bill, Bert and Alf.] Autograph Signature, with that of the baritone Kennerley Rumford (Clara Butt's husband).

Author: 
Bruce Bairnsfather [Captain Charles Bruce Bairnsfather] (1887-1959), cartoonist who created the First World War Fragments from France characters Old Bill, Bert and Alf, published in 'The Bystander'
Bruce Bairnsfather
Publication details: 
Without date or place [circa 1920].
£45.00
Bruce Bairnsfather

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A bold, untidy and yet stylish signature, in exactly the state one would hope to find Bairnfather moniker. It gives the impression of having been sent post-haste from the trenches, scrawled in pencil on a piece of vertically-ruled paper torn out of a notebook, ruckled and grubby, and laid down on an unruckled and clean 15.5 x 9.5 cm leaf with rounded edges, torn from an autograph album. The signature ‘Bruce / Bairnsfather’ is across the head of the landscape page, with a jagged line (intended for the flourish?) by Bairnsfather across the foot.

[Oriel College, Oxford.] Four printed items of ephemera from the papers of college fellow Sir William David Ross: three reports for the academic years ending 1918, 1921 and 1922, and a prospectus for the sexcentenary volume of Richards and Shadwell.

Author: 
Oriel College, University of Oxford [Sir W. D. Ross [Sir William David Ross] (1877-1971), Vice-Chancellor and philosopher]
Publication details: 
The three reports: [Oriel College, Oxford] 1918 [with stamp of 'The Treasury'], 1921 and 1922. The prospectus by Basil Blackwell, Oxford, [1921].
£280.00

Four scarce pieces of ephemera: no other copies of them traced on either JISC or WorldCat. See Ross’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The three reports give lists of college persons, with general and particular news. Items Two to Four in good condition, lightly aged and creased; Item One as described below. ONE: ‘ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD / 1917-1918’. Signed in type by ‘L. L. P.’ [i.e. Langford Lovell Price, retiring treasurer] and dated 31 July 1918. 7pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums of thin war-economy paper, glued together.

[Armando Diaz, 1st Duke della Vittoria, Marshal of Italy, First World War Italian general who triumphed in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto.] Autograph Signature: 'Generale A. Diaz'.

Author: 
Armando Diaz (1861-1928), 1st Duke della Vittoria, First World War Italian general, victor over the Austrians in Battle of Vittorio Veneto (1918); putative author of the Bolletino della Vittoria
ARMANDO DIAZ
Publication details: 
No place or date. (Before his ennoblement in 1921.)`
£75.00
ARMANDO DIAZ

A nice item, suitable for framing, relating to one of the best generals of the First World War. (He commanded one and a half million troops in the 1918 Battle of Vittorio Veneto, defeating the Austrians - a third of a million of whom surrendered - and closing the Italian Front.) Clearly given in response to a request for an autograph. The good bold signature ‘Generale A. Diaz’ sits slightly over the centre of an otherwise-plain 15 x 10 cm piece of wove paper, laid down on paper backing. In good condition, lightly aged, with two unobtrusive vertical fold lines. See Image.

[World War One: ‘The Guns of August’, 1914.] Silver gelatin negative photostatic print of typed British Government ‘Aide Mémoire’ on the German Army and Belgian neutrality, including copy of note by German Foreign Minister Gottlieb von Jagow.

Author: 
[World War One: 'The Guns of August', 1914] Sir Edward Goschen (1847-1924), British Ambassador in Berlin [Gottlieb von Jagow (1863-1935), German Foreign Minister]
Aide Mémoire
Publication details: 
A photographic copy (made in the 1920s or contemporary?) of: ONE: Goschen's 'Aide Mémoire' dated 'BERLIN, August 4, 1914.' TWO: Von Jagow's manuscript note, 'Berlin, den 5. 8 1914.' [5 August 1914]
£450.00
Aide Mémoire

Silver gelatin negative photostatic print of two documents: 3pp, 4to (i.e. each of the three pages on 19.5 x 24 cm. leaf). The first page of Goschen’s two-page ‘Aide Mémoire’ on a separate leaf, and the second page and von Jagow’s note on different leaves of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. N.B. The entire item is a photostatic copy. Reproduced at the head and down the left margin of the first page of Goschen’s text are manuscript notes in German (including at top left: A15930 pr. 4. August 1914 pm. / Von Sir E.

[Sir Edward Grey [Viscount Grey of Fallodon], Foreign Secretary during First World War.] Autograph Letter Signed to the ?Provost? [of Oriel College, Oxford, Sir David Ross], regarding what is probably not ?a matter for the head of a College'.

Author: 
Sir Edward Grey [Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon] (1862-1933), Liberal Party politician, Foreign Secretary for much of the First World War [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross] (1877-1971)]
Publication details: 
30 November 1922; on letterhead of Fallodon, Christon Bank, Northumberland.
£45.00

See the entries for Grey and Ross in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Reads: ?My dear Provost / Probably you will not think that the enclosed requires any answer or that it is a matter for the head of a College but as it concerns a member of Oriel I send it on to you / Yours very truly / Grey of Fallodon.?

[Edward Grenfell [Edward Charles Grenfell, 1st Baron St Just], banker and politician.] Autograph Letter Signed, praising ‘Mr Ross’ for the extra work he has undertaken during ‘this unhappy year’, in an attempt to ‘aid your country’s interest'.

Author: 
Edward Grenfell [Edward Charles Grenfell, 1st Baron St Just] (1870-1941), banker and politician [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross] (1877-1971), Scottish philosopher]
Publication details: 
31 December 1915; on letterhead of 22 Old Broad Street, London, E.C.
£50.00

See the entries for Grenfell and Ross in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium of light-grey paper. In fair condition, aged and spotted. Folded once for postage. The identity of the recipient is unclear, but the item derives from the papers of Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross], Scottish philosopher and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (see the Oxford DNB).

[Gladys Cooper, star of stage and screen.] Gelatin silver print of Foulsham & Banfield photograph of Gladys Cooper in the play ‘My Lady’s Dress’, with a second photograph of her embracing Dennis Eadie in the same production.

Author: 
Gladys Cooper [Dame Gladys Constance Cooper] (1888-1971), English actress, over seven decades a star of stage and screen; Dennis Eadie (1869-1928), actor; Foulsham & Banfield, London photographers
Cooper
Publication details: 
Label on reverse dates the solo photograph to 27 February 1914, with the stamp of Foulsham & Banfield, 49 Old Bond Street, W. [London]. The photograph of Cooper & Eadie without date or place, but from the same production.
£100.00
Cooper

Edward Knobloch’s play ‘My Lady’s Dress’ (‘in which’, as one newspaper wrote at the time, ‘the heroine’s dream takes her to the foreign [and London] scenes surrounding the manufacture of a costly gown’) premiered at the Royalty Theatre in London in 1914 and was revived several times through the 1920s.

[Eddie Calvert, 'The Man With The Golden Trumpet', who scored two number ones in the 1950s.] Autograph Signatue for autograph collector.

Author: 
Eddie Calvert [Albert Edward Calvert] (1922-1978), 'The Man With The Golden Trumpet', 1950s English trumpeter with two number ones in the UK Singles Chart
Calvert
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£50.00
Calvert

See the article ‘Glory days of the man with the golden trumpet’ in the Lancashire Post, 17 March 2017. On one side of 12 x 8.5 cm leaf of cream paper with rounded outer edges, torn from an autograph album. In good condition, with blank reverse. Large sprawling signature covering the whole page. Reads ‘Sincerely / Eddie Calvert’. See Image.

[Margaret Lloyd George, wife of Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George.] Typed Letter with cyclostyled signature, asking Rev. A. H. Sayers of Monmouth to arrange for a collection in his church for the British and Foreign Sailors? Society.

Author: 
Margaret Lloyd George [nee Owen] (1866-1941), Welsh wife of the Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George [Rev. A. H. Sayers of Monmouth; British and Foreign Sailors? Society]
Publication details: 
7 December 1916. On letterhead of 11 Downing Street, London, S.W.
£50.00

See her entry, and those of her husband and their two daughters, in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Although Sayers? name and address are given as recipient at the beginning, the letter is clearly a circular, and the signature is cylcostyled.

[Five First World War Royal Navy Admirals.] Autograph Signatures of Bethell, Egerton, Hedworth Meux [Lambton], Berkeley Milne, Doveton Sturdee, cut from various documents.

Author: 
Five First World War Royal Navy Admirals: Bethell, Egerton, Hedworth Meux [Lambton], Berkeley Milne, Doveton Sturdee
Publication details: 
One dated 1912, the others undated.
£100.00

On slips of paper ranging in size from 6.5 x 2 cm to 9 x 4.5 cm. Laid down, three/two , on one side each of two 16 x 12 cm leaves, one white and the other grey, removed from an autograph album. In good condition, lightly aged. They are as follows (autograph text in square brackets). ONE: Sir Alexander Edward Bethell (1855-1932). ?[A E Bethell] / VICE-ADMIRAL COMMANDING / CHANNEL FLEET.? TWO: Sir George Le Clerc Egerton (1852-1940). ?spared. / [G le C Egerton] / ADMIRAL.? THREE: Sir Hedworth Meux [n? Lambton] (1856-1929).

[Walter H. Page, American ambassador to the United Kingdom during the First World War.] Typed Note Signed to C. Reginald Grundy [editor of 'The Connoisseur'], regretting his inability to attend a meeting at the Mansion House.

Author: 
Walter H. Page [Walter Hines Page] (1855-1918), journalist and publisher, American abassador to United Kingdom during First World War [Cecil Reginald Grundy (1870-1944), editor of 'The Connoisseur']
Publication details: 
22 May 1917; London, on embossed letterhead of the Embassy of the United States of America.
£80.00

1p, 4to. Rather aged, with some wear and discoloration at head and foot, and minor traces of mount on reverse. Four folds. Signed ‘Walter H. Page’ and addressed to ‘C. Reginald Grundy, Esq., / 1, Duke Street, / S. W. 1.’ The note reads: ‘Dear Sir: / I wish it had been possible for me to attend the meeting at the Mansion House to-day to further the establishment of local war museums, but I regret to say that it was impossible. / Yours very truly, / Walter H. Page’.

[Henry Williamson, English author best-remembered for his 'Tarka the Otter'.] 77 pages of typescript from ‘A Fox Under My Cloak’, the fifth novel in the sequence ‘A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight’, with extensive autograph emendations and deletions.

Author: 
Henry Williamson (1895-1977), English novelist best-remembered for his 'Tarka the Otter'
Williamson
Publication details: 
Undated. In envelopes with postmarks of 10 March 1955 (Georgeham) and 15 March 1955 (Barnstaple). The second with his autograph address: 'H. Williamson / Georgeham, N. Devon.'
£950.00
Williamson

Asee image of[339]See Williamson’s entry by his daughter-in-law Anne Williamson in the Oxford DNB, together with her 1995 biography of him. The present tranche of material gives a marvellous insight into the working processes of a fine - perhaps even a great - English writer, in addition to showing the gestation of one of the finest novels of the First World War.

[Lord Bryce (James Bryce), Liberal politician, jurist and Ambassador to United States; Ist WW.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr. Marshall’, stating that it is not yet time for ‘negotiating the peace’ [with Germany].

Author: 
Lord Bryce [James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce] (1838-1922), Ulster-born Liberal politician, jurist, British Ambassador to United States
Publication details: 
22 November 1916.
£65.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. The letter was torn in two vertically, and has been taped back together, with the tape going over the downstroke of the ‘y’ in Bryce’s signature. It also has a spike hole. Otherwise in fair condition. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Marshall’ and signed ‘Bryce’. Marshall’s telegram has followed him into the country, ‘& it is now too late to express the opinion you ask for’, although that would in any case ‘be really superflous because I said upon Tuesday the 14th. Novr.

[Wilfred Owen, war poet.] Printed ‘Order of Service for the dedication of a memorial to Wilfred Owen 1893-1918’. [with readers including Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Hill, D. J. Enright, Jon Stallworthy, Jill Balcon]

Author: 
[Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), war poet; Rev. Norman Print, Vicar of Dunsden; Catherine Winkworth; John Stallworthy; D. J. Enright; Robert Gittings; Geoffrey Hill; Ted Hughes; Reynolds Stone; Jill Balcon]
Publication details: 
‘All Saints Church Dunsden at 2.30 p.m. on 12 November 1978 Remembrance Sunday’.
£220.00

A nice association with a man widely regarded as the greatest English poet of the First World War, and a scarce item of which not many copies can have been printed, and no other copy has been traced. 4pp, 8vo. Bifolium on laid paper. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight creasing at head. Explanatory note on final page begins: ‘The memorial to Wilfred Owen is cut on Portland stone by Michael Harvey from lettering drawn by Reynolds Stone, CBE, RDI. / The graves of Tom and Susan Owen, the poet’s father and mother, and of his sister Mary are in the south-east corner of the churchyard.

[‘I knew the lady well’: General Sir Nevil Macready on Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland, her field hospital and marital misadventures.] Autograph Letter Signed to William Toynbee, editor of the diaries of his father, actor William Charles Macready.

Author: 
Sir Nevil Macready [Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready] (1862-1946), World War general, son of William Charles Macready [William Toynbee (1849-1942); Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland (1867-1955)]
Publication details: 
28 August [no year]. On embossed letterhead of Les Sapins, Boulevard Thiers, Fontainebleau S & M’.
£180.00

Macready’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that he destroyed his diary and personal papers after the publication of his memoirs in 1924. If the present gossipy specimen is anything to go by, the loss of this material is most regrettable. (The ODNB entry for his father notes that he dealt with William Charles Macready's ‘copious and uninhibited diaries’ in similar fashion in 1914 - two years after the appearance of Toynbee’s edition.) See also the entry for Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland (1867-1955). 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage.

[World War One.] Handbill with ornate coloured decorative border, headed ‘ROLL OF HONOUR’, intended for ‘A Record of Friends and Relatives who answered the call of King and Country in the Great War: 1914-1915.’

Author: 
[World War One] Geo. Newnes Limited, London; Hudson & Kearns Limited, lithographic printers
Publication details: 
Circa 1915 or 1916. ‘Published by Geo. Newnes Ltd., Southampton St. Strand [London]’. Printer: ‘Hudson & Kearns, Ltd., London, Litho, London, S.E.’
£100.00

A nice piece of First World War ephemera, from the period of transition from volunteering to conscription. Newnes was a leading British publisher of the period, and the present item may have been inserted in one of its periodicals, which included ‘The Strand Magazine’, ‘Women’s Own’ and ‘John O’London’s Weekly’. It is printed on a leaf of good quality cream 4to wove paper, and was intended for completion. In fair condition, lightly aged, with light wear and creasing to extremities.

[Rowland Edmund Prothero [Lord Ernle], author, politician and first-class cricketer.] Two Autograph Letters Signed, as President of the Board of Agriculture, reporting on the wartime situation to the Speaker of the House of Commons [James Lowther].

Author: 
Rowland Edmund Prothero [latterly Lord Ernle] (1851-1937), author, agriculturalist, Conservative politician and first-class cricketer [James Lowther (1855-1940), Speaker of the House of Commons]
Publication details: 
1 July and 5 September 1918. Both on letterhead of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 4 Whitehall Place, S.W.1 [London].
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, but with the first bearing two tape stains. Both folded for postage. Each signed ‘R. E. Prothero’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Speaker’. ONE (1 July 1918): He explains that ‘Agricultural labourers are specially excluded from the category of men to whom the War Office appeal to the V.T.C is addressed’, but that it was ‘only to be expected, as I had pointed out, that the appeal would still be made to them and that they would go in the middle of the harvest season. / The scheme is opposed by the Min.

[Lady Maud Wilbraham, President of the Silver Thimble Fund.] Autograph Card Signed to ‘Mrs Allan’ [Mrs Evelyn Julia Allan] of the Red Cross, thanking her for a contribution, and deploring the state of the times.

Author: 
Lady Maud Wilbraham [Lady Alice Maud Bootle-Wilbraham] (1861-1922), President of the Silver Thimble Fund [Mrs Evelyn Julia Allen of the Chelsea Red Cross; Mrs Hope Elizabeth Hope Clarke of Wimbledon]
Publication details: 
1 June 1918. With printed details of ‘The “Silver Thimble” Fund’, its Wimbledon address deleted and replaced by Wilbraham’s: 26 Lower Sloane Street, SW1 [London].
£35.00

An evocative artefact of one of the most successful British charities of the Great War. The Silver Thimble Fund was founded by Hope Elizabeth Hope Clarke of Wimbledon in 1915, and run from her house. Damaged trinkets made of precious metals, including 60,000 silver thimbles, were collected and melted down, paying for fifteen ambulances for the front and other medical transportation and equipment. The recipient is Mrs. Evelyn Julia Allan, listed in 1918 in the London Gazette as Honorary Secretary, Chelsea Division, British Red Cross.

[‘Pray destroy this letter.’ Hall Caine, English novelist, regarding his war work for the B.ritish Government.] Long ‘Strictly Private’ Autograph Letter Signed to Douglas Sladen, also assessing the position of the man of letters in his England.

Author: 
Hall Caine [Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine] (1853-1931), hugely-popular Victorian and Edwardian Isle of Man author [Douglas Sladen [Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen] (1856-1947), author and academic]
Publication details: 
10 April 1917; on letterhead of Heath Brow, Hampstead Heath.
£220.00

An excellent letter, in which Caine evaluates his wartime activities, criticises those of others, and gives his opinion of the the standing of the man of letters in the England of his time. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. A long letter: forty-two lines in Caine’s distinctive close hand, with the first two pages on the rectos of the leaves, and the third page written lengthwise on the verso of the first leaf. Signed ‘Hall Caine’ and addressed to ‘My dear Sladen’.

[The Campaign in Mesopotamia, British Army, First World War.] Duplicated Typescript, apparently contemporary, of satirical poem by British soldier [by ‘A Tommy’] titled ‘Alphabet of Mesopotamia’.

Author: 
[‘A Tommy’; Mesopotamia Campaign, British Army, First World War; Iraq; Indian Army; Ottoman Turks]
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but apparently written in Mesopotamia in late 1916.
£220.00

This poem is said to be an earlier work by ‘A Tommy’, the pseudonymous author of the collection ‘If I Goes West’, published in London by Harrap in 1918. WorldCat has no entries to support a second claim: that the present poem was published in 1917, with the subtitle ‘Verses written by a “Tommy” who has fought, suffered and triumphed in Mesopotamia, and is still on active service there’.

['Bert Thomas', British political cartoonist.] Copy of his book 'Close-ups Through a childs eyes / by Bert Thomas', with label bearing autograph inscription.

Author: 
‘Bert Thomas’ [Herbert Samuel Thomas MBE (1883-1966)], British political cartoonist who contributed to Punch magazine and created British propaganda posters during the two world wars
'Bert Thomas'
Publication details: 
No date (circa 1943). 'A Tuck Book / Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd / Copyright Printed in England'.
£120.00
'Bert Thomas'

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A scarce item: no copy in the British Library and the only copies on COPAC at Cambridge and the V & A. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight creasing to outer edge of front cover, on which a label has been laid down, carrying an inscription (repaired at one corner with archival tape) by Thomas: ‘From one child to another - Love and I cant thank you enough for everything - I’ll look forward to Janiuary - Muh love I’ll writer later’. A stapled pamphlet in brown card wraps. 16pp, landscape 8vo.

[The growing First World War pensions crisis discussed by a member of the government.] Autograph Letter Signed from William Hayes Fisher [the future Lord Downham] to Willoughby Hyett Dickinson, discussing the problem ‘full of difficulty’.

Author: 
William Hayes Fisher [Lord Downham] (1853-1920), Conservative politician, President of Local Government Board and Minister of Information in Lloyd George's War Cabinet [Sir Willoughby Hyett Dickinson]
Publication details: 
25 October 1915. 13 Buckingham Palace Gardens, S.W. [London.]
£90.00

See Fisher’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Earlier in 1915 he had joined the Asquith government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, and he would retain this post until June of 1917, when Lloyd George would promote him to the cabinet as President of the Local Government Board. The recipient Willoughby Hyett Dickinson (1859-1943), later an influential proponent of the League of Nations, began his career as a Liberal MP. He was knighted in 1918, and elevated to the peerage as Baron Dickinson of Painswick in 1930, the same year in which he joined the Labour Party.

[Lord Hankey [Maurice Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey], Secretary of Lloyd George’s War Cabinet.] Typed Letter Signed (‘Hankey’) to T. Lloyd Humberstone, regarding a book he is working on, and pressure to ‘cut out all reference to my diary’.

Author: 
Lord Hankey [Maurice Pascal Alers Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey] (1877-1963), British civil servant, Secretary of Lloyd George’s War Cabinet [T. Lloyd Humberstone]
Publication details: 
11 June 1954. On letterhead of Highstead, Limpsfield, Surrey.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Thomas Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957) was a prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. The work referred to in this letter is probably Hankey's 'The Supreme Command', the two volumes of which would be published in 1961. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. He is returning his letter and ‘its interesting enclosure’. Not having had any experience of the Central Office of Information, he is left with the impression ‘that they are not very well informed on questions of Military Organisation’.

[‘A deliberate attempt was made to overthrow the Government’: Lloyd George’s Chief Whip lays into a Liberal on the eve of the ‘Coupon Election’ following the end of the Great War.] Long Typed Letter Signed from Frederick Guest to W. H. Dickinson.

Author: 
Frederick Edward Guest [Freddie Guest] (1875-1937), politician, sportsman and promoter of aviation, Chief Whip in Lloyd George's Coalition Liberal Party [Sir Willoughby Hyett Dickinson (1859-1943)]
Publication details: 
26 November 1918. On embossed letterhead of 12 Downing Street, S.W.1. [London.]
£150.00

An extraordinary letter, rubbing the nose of a pro-Asquith Liberal in the muck on the eve of his leader Lloyd George’s landslide Coalition victory in the 1918 ‘Coupon Election’. Guest, who was Winston Churchill’s cousin, is described in his entry in the Oxford DNB as a ‘highly controversial’ figure who ‘knew where all the bodies were buried’, a useful attribute for someone who served as the Coalition Chief Whip from 1917 to 1921. The recipient Willoughby Hyett Dickinson (1859-1943), later an influential proponent of the League of Nations, began his career a Liberal MP.

[Sir Ian Hamilton, British commander in the Gallipoli Campaign.] Autograph Letter Signed to George Townsend Warner, following consultation with Lord Roberts over a musketry matter and Harrow School.

Author: 
Sir Ian Hamilton [Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton] (1853-1947), soldier, commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in the First World War Gallipoli Campaign [George Townsend Warner]
Publication details: 
2 March 1901; on letterhead of 3 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair. [London.]
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is the Harrow housemaster George Townsend Warner (1865-1916), father of the novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner, referred to as ‘Townsend Warner / Historian’ in a pencil note to this letter. Signed ‘Ian Hamilton’. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with a few pin holes from attachment of a no-longer-present enclosure. Folded twice. Possibly concerning shooting practice for the Harrow army cadets.

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