Two Autograph Letters Signed ('Richard Waller' and 'Richard or Dick (Waller)') from the son of British Prison Commissioner Richard Lyndham Waller, to his father's biographer A. S. Baxendale, with copy of biography, and eight family photographs.

Photographs: All black and white prints. The first (21 x 15 cm) a portrait of Waller (reproduced in Baxendale, p. 26, below). The second (23 x 17 cm) a family photograph of six Edwardian individuals, three younger ones (including a woman and with Waller at centre) standing, and three older men seated. The other six (all 14 x 8.5 cm and taken at the same time) showing Waller and family outdoors: one of him rowing, and one with a smiling woman (presumably his wife). Overall condition of the photographs is fair. They are lightly-aged, with a little creasing here and there. Letter One (signed 'Richard Waller'): 1 October 1991. 12mo, 2 pp. He is sending Herbert Gladstone's letters to his father, and 'cannot remember anything specific about Conan Doyle in relation to Portland or other prisons'. Discusses his father's attachment to Portland, and family history. Letter Two: 31 December 1997. 8vo, 2 pp. Discusses at length his views on death ('I shall meet in spirit my dear father & mother again'), with reference to Conan Doyle. Tells anecdote about his advice to the dying Marjorie Fry ('Howard League of Penal Reform'). Regarding Churchill he writes, 'I think my father (told me by my mother) admired Churchill but found him a great ego boaster to deal with'. The biography of Waller features on pp. 26 to 55 of 'Prison Service People', ed. Kenneth Neale, vol. 1, pp.26-55 (Newbold Revel: Prison Service College, 1993). The copy present here is in fair condition, in lightly-worn boards, and with a little marking-up to the margins. The book is scarce, the only copies on COPAC being at the six deposit libraries.