Autograph Letter Signed ('E. F. H. McSwiney') from Col. Edward Frederick Henry McSwiney of the Intelligence Division, War Office, condoling with Sir Graham Bower on his brother Denis's death, discussing 'revolver accidents' on the North-West Frontier

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. Very good, on aged paper. In a letter clearly written to dispel any suspicion of suicide, McSwiney begins: 'My dear Bower | I write to offer you mhy sincerest sympathy on the death of your brother Denis, which occurred through the accidental discharge of his revolver that he had taken up to unload prior to packing it up - he was to have started from Peshawar that very day to rejoin his regiment en route to England on a year's well earned furlo', which he had been looking forward to with so much delight. [last eleven words underlined] He like many other men on the N.W. Frontier, myself included, evidently slept with a loaded revolver under his pillow & therefore before packing it up, he would naturally take it out to unload it; in doing this, probably in a careless way, the revolver must have gone off accidentally & killed him on the spot.' McSwiney's long entry in Who Was Who states that he was 'Staff-Captain Intelligence Division, War Office, Jan. 1898 to April 1899'. He gives three examples of 'revolver accidents', including 'poor young Lockhart of the Gordon Highlanders, who was shot through the heart by Grover's servant, who was sitting inside his master's tent & had taken Grover's revolver up to clean it'. The letter continues with reminiscences of Bower's brother, 'such a keen chap as a soldier [...] You have doubtless heard of his conspicuous gallantry at the storming of the Dargai heights. | It is indeed hard lines to have lived through the hail of bullets on that day & to get killed accidentally while in the act of unloading his revolver for the last time prior to starting for old England -'.