WORLD

[?Poor old Oscar?: Edmund Yates [Edmund Hodgson Yates], Scottish journalist and author.] Autograph Letter Signed (?E Y.?) to his de facto editor at The World, with apparent reference to Oscar Wilde, and to Randolph Stewart (Earl of Galloway).

Author: 
Edmund Yates [Edmund Hodgson Yates] (1831-1894), Scottish journalist and author, friend of Charles Dickens [Alexander Meyrick Broadley (1847-1916); Oscar Wilde]
Publication details: 
?Sep 10 [1891]?. No place.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient (?Broadley Pasha?) was a renowned autograph collector and shady social figure, as well as the de facto editor of Yates?s ?World?, until the Cleveland Street scandal drove him into exile in 1890. Broadley was a prominent figure in freemasonry, and the present item appears to link two individuals who were members of Oxford?s Apollo University Lodge: Oscar Wilde (whose proclivities Broadley shared) and Randolph Stewart (later Earl of Galloway). 1p, 16mo. On first leaf of bifolium, with second leaf tipped-in onto a page from one of Broadley?s albums.

[Edmund Yates, journalist and author, friend of Dickens, proprietor of The World newspaper.] Auttograph Signature and conclusion of letter, with autograph not by his de facto editor A. M. Broadley.

Author: 
Edmund Yates [Edmund Hodgson Yates] (1831-1894), Scottish journalist and author, friend of Charles Dickens, proprietor of The World newspape
Publication details: 
Dated by Broadley to 1890.
£15.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient (?Broadley Pasha?) was a renowned autograph collector and shady social figure, as well as the de facto editor of Yates?s ?World?, until the Cleveland Street scandal drove him into exile in 1890 (the year of this item with its reference to 'going away'). A 9 x 5 cm piece of paper, cut from the end of a letter, and laid down on a 13 x 7.5 cm piece, which has been neatly annotated by Broadley: 'Signature of Edmund Yates 1890'. In good condition, lightly aged, with one postage fold. Reads, with good firm stylized signature: '[...] of going away?

[Edmund Yates, journalist and author, friend of Dickens, proprietor of The World newspaper.] Autograph Letter Signed, making arrangements to meet 'Mrs. Tofield'.

Author: 
Edmund Yates [Edmund Hodgson Yates] (1831-1894), Scottish journalist and author, friend of Charles Dickens, proprietor of The World newspaper
Publication details: 
'Tuesday' [1880s]. On letterhead of the Grand Hotel, Trafalgar Square [London].
£25.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, wtih two small nicks at edges of folds, a tiny piece of one corner worn away, and repair with tape on blank reverse. A hurried message. Reads: 'Dear Mrs. Tofield / I am here on my way to the Station. I don't suppose you are up; if so, [more kind?]. If not, will Friday before dinner suit you? I shan't be in London Monday aftn. / Your's sinly / Edmund Yates.'

[Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, English playwright.] Autograph Letter Signed, inviting the journalist A. M. Broadley to a ‘plain breakfast’.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934), late-Victorian and Edwardian playwright [A. M. Broadley [Alexander Meyrick Broadley] (1847-1916)]
Publication details: 
On embossed letterhead of 64 St John’s Wood Road [London], NW.
£35.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient (‘Broadley Pasha’), at the time de facto editor of Edmund Yates’s magazine ‘The World’, was a scandalous figure, who richly deserves his own entry in the same work. 2pp, 16mo. Bifolium. Text on the outer pages, the inner pages carrying the remains of newspaper cuttings which were previously laid down on them. Otherwise in fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of tape from mount adhering to the last page, which also has a newspaper cutting laid down at its foot, regarding the death of A. Sutherland Sutton. Folded once.

[Gilbert Thomas [Gilbert Oliver Thomas], pacifist poet and critc.] Autograph Letter Signed, thanking ‘Calvert’ [William Robinson Calvert] for his review of ‘Calm Weather’ and discussing the critical response to the book.

Author: 
Gilbert Thomas [Gilbert Oliver Thomas] (1891-1978), pacifist poet and critic, imprisoned as a conscientious objector during the Great War [William Robinson Calvert (1882-1949), journalist]
Publication details: 
8 April 1930; on letterhead of Flatford, Meadway, Gidea Park, Essex.
£180.00

2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Thirty-nine lines, closely written. Signed ‘Gilbert Thomas’. He begins by thanking him ‘most warmly for your letter and the most kind and generous review to hand this morning.

[Sir John Michael de Robeck, Admiral of Patrols in the Royal Navy.] Autograph Note Signed with aphorism.

Author: 
Sir John Michael de Robeck (1862-1928), Admiral of Patrols in the Royal Navy
Publication details: 
1919. No place.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 11 x 7 cm piece of grey paper, presumably cut from an album. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of glue from mount on reverse. Reads: ‘Try & trust will move mountains - / J. M. de Robeck / 1919’. See Image.

[Robert Graves [Robert von Ranke Graves], poet and author of ‘I Claudius’ and ‘Goodbye to All That’.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr Scarr’, declining to give any further talks, ‘not being an extemporizer’.

Author: 
Robert Graves [Robert von Ranke Graves], poet and author, noted for his war memoir ‘Goodbye to All That’ and his historical novel ‘I Claudius’
Publication details: 
25 July 1962; on letterhead of Canellun, Deya, Mallorca, Spain.
£380.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Mr Scarr: / I’m sorry but I have already engaged myself for three talks besides my offical three and, not being an extemporizer, can’t undertake any more. / Yours sincerely / Robert Graves’. See Image.

[USA President; Ireland: Conscription Crisis of 1918.] Two printed items by O’Neill, Lord Mayor of Dublin, as Chairman of the Mansion House Conference, protesting British actions, one to the American President, the other to the American Ambassador.

Author: 
Laurence O’Neill (1864-1943), Lord Mayor of Dublin, Chairman of the Mansion House Conference, 1918; Irish Independent, Dublin; J. R. N. MacPhail [James Robert Nicolson MacPhail] (1858-1933)
Publication details: 
Both items dated from the Mansion House, Dublin, the first (to the president) on 11 June 1918, and the second (to the US ambassador) on 18 June 1918. [Irish Independent, Dublin.]
£450.00

Although large numbers of Irishmen had willingly signed up to fight for the British cause in the First World War, by April 1918 a shortage of troops moved the British government to propose conscription in Ireland. This was violently opposed by republicans, and O’Neill convened an Irish Anti-Conscription Committee which met at the Mansion House in Dublin. Strikes and protests followed, and although a law was passed, conscription was never implemented in Ireland. These two items are now extremely scarce.

[Gordon Jacob [Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob], English composer.] Four Autograph Letters Signed about musical matters to the violinist Marion Margaret Scott, one, written during wartime, attacking Benjamin Britten and ‘young men who shelter abroad’.

Author: 
Gordon Jacob [Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob] (1895-1984), composer, for forty years professor at the Royal College of Music [Marion Margaret Scott (1877-1953), violinist with her own string quartet]
Publication details: 
Three of the four on letterhead of Mayfield, West Street, Ewell, Surrey: 1 April, 5 May and 13 August 1928. The other dated 14 August 1941; 75 West Street, Ewell Surrey.
£120.00

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

[Gordon Jacob [Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob], English composer.] Four Autograph Letters Signed about musical matters to the violinist Marion Margaret Scott, one, written during wartime, attacking Benjamin Britten and ‘young men who shelter abroad’.

Author: 
Gordon Jacob [Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob] (1895-1984), composer, for forty years professor at the Royal College of Music [Marion Margaret Scott (1877-1953), violinist with her own string quartet]
Publication details: 
Three of the four on letterhead of Mayfield, West Street, Ewell, Surrey: 1 April, 5 May and 13 August 1928. The other dated 14 August 1941; 75 West Street, Ewell Surrey.
£120.00

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

[Battle of Cape Spartivento, 1940, between the Royal Navy forces under Admiral James Somerville, and Italian ships.] Printed item: ‘Supplement to the London Gazette’, containing a 'Narrative of the action', with fold-out maps.

Author: 
[Battle of Cape Spartivento, 1940, between Royal Navy forces under Admiral James Somerville and Italian ships, during the Second World War Battle of the Mediterranean] The London Gazette
Publication details: 
4 May 1948. Printed and published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London.
£120.00

A scarce item. See Somerville's entry in the Oxford DNB, for the controversy, involving Churchill. 8pp, 8vo. With two plates of maps, the first a fold-out extending to the width of three pages. Stapled. In fair condition, on lightly worn and discoloured paper. In the customary double column. Begins, despite the date of the number, 'Wednesday, 5 May 1948 / Action between British and Italian Forces off Cape Spartivento on 27th November 1940. / The following Despatch was submitted to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the 18th December, 1940, by Vice-Admiral Sir James F.

[Tommy Handley, English comedian, star of BBC radio programme 'It's that man again' (ITMA).] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Pte Dean' , explaining that he cannot send him a ticket to his show.

Author: 
Tommy Handley [Thomas Reginald Handley] (1892-1949), English comedian, star of the BBC radio programme 'It's that man again' ('ITMA')
Handley
Publication details: 
'B.B.C. / London'. No date (Second World War).
£50.00
Handley

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In poor condition, aged, worn and creased, with damage to edges. Tape was previously present as a border along all the edges, and the corners are still strengthened with tape, causing discoloration that affects the end of Handley's signature. Reads: 'B.B.C. / London / Dear Pte Dean. / In reply to Yours. I would send you a ticket with Pleasure but I have no control over same. I'm afraid you will have to write direct to the B.B.C. / Best wishes. / Tommy Handley'. Scan available.

[Major General Sir Noel Galway Holmes, Irish soldier and senior British Army officer in Second World War.] 14 typed and manuscript documents from his papers, all but one relating to his distinguished career, including reports and recommendations.

Author: 
Major General Sir Noel Galway Holmes (1891-1982), KBE CB MC, Irish soldier and senior British Army officer, close colleague of Sir Winston Churchill during Second World War as Director of Movement
Publication details: 
Documents dating from between 1920 and 1953. [British Army; War Office, Whitehall.]
£800.00

Fourteen items from the papers of Sir Noel Galway Holmes, all but the last relating to his three decades of service in the British Army, with reports and recommendations by superior officers from 1920 to 1939.

[Anti-Aircraft Defence, World War II.] Instructional material from the Searchlight Wing, School of A. A. Defence, Shrivendon, Swindon [Royal Artillery]; with manuscript reports; from the papers of Sgt. J. L. B. Royall.

Author: 
Anti-Aircraft Defence, World War II [Searchlight Wing, School of A. A. Defence, Shrivenham, Swindon; Sgt. J. L. B. Royall; Royal Artillery, British Army]
Publication details: 
Five of the sixteen items dated between 17 March 1941 and .6 October 1943 (the rest contemporaneous). Searchlight Wing, School of Anti-Aircraft Defence, Shrivenham, Swindon. Also Longcot, Lyford, Lyndhurst and Romsey.
£350.00

The topic of this material is wartime training (in part during the Blitz) of sergeants for ‘Search Light Control’ or SLC (nicknamed ‘Elsie’). A larger archive of similar material from the papers of Sgt. J. L. B. Royall on the same theme is offered separately. Sixteen items, a few of which are discoloured and creased, but the collection being in good overall condition. The first three items are in manuscript (i.e. Royall’s autograph).

[Sir Winston Churchill: an unpublished assessment by a close colleague.] Two documents from the papers of Sir Noel Galway Holmes: an autograph account and assessment of his wartime relationship with Churchill; and a typescript describing his own work

Author: 
[Sir Winston Churchill: assessment by close colleague] Major General Sir Noel Galway Holmes (1891-1982), KBE CB MC, Irish soldier and senior World War Two British Army officer, D.Q.M.G. ( Movements)
Sir Winston Churchil
Publication details: 
Undated, but 1950s or 1960s.
£450.00
Sir Winston Churchil

Two very interesting unpublished documents, the first giving an assessment of Churchill by a colleague who worked closely with him throughout the Second World War, and the second describing the important part that individual himself played in the logistical management of the war, from before Dunkirk to after D-Day. This material is from Sir Noel Galway Holmes’s private papers, another batch of which, comprising confidential reports on him, recommendations by superior officers, and particulars of his service, is offered separately.

[Dreadnought designer: Sir Philip Watts, naval architect.] Offprint with presentation inscription by author: ‘Ships of the British Navy on August 4, 1914, and some matters of interest in connection with their production.’ With four fold-out plates.

Author: 
Sir Philip Watts (1846-1926), British naval architect who designed the revolutionary battleship HMS Dreadnought, and several Elswick cruisers [Institution of Naval Architects, London]
Publication details: 
Read at the Spring Meeting of the Sixtieth Session of the Institution of Naval Architects, April 9, 1919’. London. [Printed by Unwin Brothers, Limited, Woking and London.]
£320.00

This offprint is scarce. The only copy on WorldCat at the Caird Library of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. See Watt's entry in the Oxford DNB, which underlines his pre-eminence: 'At the battle of Jutland (31 May 1916) twenty-nine of the thirty-four British battleships and battle cruisers engaged were of Watts's design.' The item is an offprint from the Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, vol. 61 (1919). 65 + [1]pp, 4to. Side-stapled, with no covers.

[Sir Reginald Tupper, Royal Navy admiral.] Two Autograph Letters Signed from him to Gerald Henderson, with two Autograph Letters Signed from his second wife Lady Caroline Tupper ('Carrie'), also to Henderson.

Author: 
Sir Reginald Tupper [Sir Reginald Godfrey Otway Tupper] (1859-1945), Royal Navy admiral, active in the First World War, and his second wife Lady Caroline Tupper (1863-1948)
Publication details: 
Tupper’s letters: 3 and 10 February 1937, both on letterhead of 22 Draycott Place, S.W.3. [London]. Lady Tupper’s letters: 17 December 1943, on letterhead of The King’s House, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey; and 13 July 1944; on Draycott Place letterhead.
£90.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states: ‘After the death of his first wife he married second, on 24 June 1933, Caroline Maud Abadie (1863–1948), the widow of General Sir Henry Richard Abadie; she was the daughter of Colonel Fanshawe Gostling, of the Royal Berkshire regiment.’ In addition to the two letters apiece from Sir Reginald and Lady Tupper, the material includes, as Item Five, a leaf carrying a 26-line postscript from Lady Tupper to a lost letter. All but Item Five below are on uniform 12mo leaves of grey paper.

[Lord Ullswater [James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater], Speaker of the House of Commons.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Clerk of the Commons, regarding telegrams he has ready to send after the Prime Minister’s ‘intimation’

Author: 
Lord Ullswater [James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater (1855-1949)], Conservative politician, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1905-1921 [Sir Courtenay Ilbert (1841-1924), Clerk of the Commons]
Publication details: 
18 August [no year, but during his tenure as Speaker]. On letterhead of Campsea Ashe High House, Wickham Market.
£45.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 16mo. Eighteen lines. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. Folded once. Addressed to ‘Dear Ilbert’ and signed ‘James W Lowther’. He has ‘prepared a series of telegram [sic] to all the news agencies and to the Clerk of the Works at Westminster’, and will dispatch them as soon as he receives ‘any intimation from the P.M’. He has another telegram ready for the London Gazette. ‘I think we can reasonably expect that, with 48 hrs notice, all M Ps and the staff would have sufficient notice’.

[Admiral Sir Richard Fortescue Phillimore, Royal Navy officer, Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.] Autograph Signature (‘Richard F. Phillimore’) on a fly leaf removed from a book.

Author: 
Admiral Sir Richard Fortescue Phillimore (1864-1940), Royal Navy officer who served with distinction in the First World War, Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth
Publication details: 
1920. No place.
£25.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. Large bold signature - ‘Richard F. Phillimore / 1920.’, a third of the way down the page on what is clearly the fly leaf of a book. The rest of the leaf is blank. The side of the leaf with the signature is somewhat discoloured, the reverse not so much. In good condition otherwise.

[Lord Ullswater [James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater], Speaker of the House of Commons during the First World War.] Autograph Card Signed to ‘Walter', regarding a misdirected item of correspondence, with reference to Lady Ilbert.

Author: 
Lord Ullswater [James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater (1855-1949), British Conservative politician, Speaker of the House of Commons between 1905 and 1921
Publication details: 
26 May 1915. On letterhead of the Speaker’s House, S.W. [Westminster]. Embossed with government crest of the Speaker of the House of Commons.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The identity of the recipient is unclear. Written on one side of a small (12 x 9.5 cm) plain card. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with one vertical crease. Reads: ‘Dear Walter / Enclosed is, as you may see, addressed to Speaker Court. I opened it & think it may be for Miss Erskine. If not, will you send it on to Lady Ilbert. Nothing is known of it here. / Yours sincerely / James W Lowther’. Lady Ilbert was wife of the Clerk of the Commons, Sir Courtenay Ilbert, from whose papers the item derives.

[Sir Edward Grey [Viscount Grey of Fallodon, First World War Foreign Secretary.] Autograph Note Signed to Lady Ilbert, wife of the Clerk of the Commons.

£35.00

See the entries on Grey and Lady Ilbert's husband (who was Clerk of the Commons) in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. In an elegant hand. Reads: '15. 2. 15 / Dear Lady Ilbert / Many thanks: I shall be very glad to dine on Wednesday / Yours sincerely / E Grey.'

[Battle of Britain, 1940; printed.] Offprint from The Times of ‘An airman to his mother / The fight with evil / “My earthly mission is fulfilled”’.

Author: 
Battle of Britain, 1940 [Royal Air Force; Second World War; The Times]
Publication details: 
Printing House Square, London: ‘Reprinted from The Times, June 18, 1940’.
£80.00

A nice piece of WW2 RAF ephemera, written on the eve of the Battle of Britain. Scarce: the only copies on JISC at the National Library of Scotland and Bishopsgate Institute in London. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The ‘Text of the Letter’ is printed across the centrefold, with an introduction on the first page, reading: ‘Among the personal belongings of a young R.A.F. pilot in a Bomber Squadron who was recently reported “Missing, believed killed,” was a letter to his mother - to be sent to her if he were killed.

[Battle of Jutland, 1916.] Eye-witness article titled ‘H.M.S. “Ardent” and the Jutland Action. / By A. M.’, i.e. Arthur Marsden, ship’s commander and one of two survivors of her sinking, in ‘The Britannia Magazine’ (Royal Naval College, Dartmouth).

Author: 
Battle of Jutland (1916): Arthur Marsden (1883-1960), Royal Navy officer commanding HMS Ardent; Royal Naval College, Dartmouth: The Britannia Magazine [Royal Navy]
Publication details: 
Christmas 1916. Underhill & Co., Printers & Publishers, Plymouth.
£280.00

This is an extremely scarce item, not held by the Imperial War Museum, and significant for the five-page eye-witness account it contains (pp.29-33): ‘‘H.M.S. “Ardent” and the Jutland Action. / By A. M.’, i.e. Lieutenant-Commander Arthur Marsden, who was in command of the Ardent and one of only two survivors of its sinking. It is remarkable that he was allowed to disseminate such a candid account (for the perusal of naval cadets!) within months of the engagement. On cover: ‘The Britannia Magazine / Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. / Christmas, 1916.’ and printers’ slug.

[Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.] Printed periodicals: Four numbers of ‘The Britannia Magazine’, all from the 1940s, filled with articles, photographs, illustrations and advertisements.

Author: 
[Royal Naval College, Dartmouth] The Britannia Magazine [Royal Navy; Bernard Partridge]
Publication details: 
Numbers for Easter 1940 (Vol. LIV No. 76), Easter 1946 (Vol. LIX No. 86), Easter 1947 (Vol. LX No. 89) and Christmas 1948 (Vol. LXI No. 94). All four printed by Bendle Brothers of Torquay.
£280.00

Scarce. None of these four numbers is held by the Imperial War Museum. Motto: ‘Pro Rege et Patria.’ 4to and uniform, with covers of various shades of blue paper. Varying in length from 42pp (Easter 1946) to 64pp (Easter 1940). One number with grubby markings, but the four items in good overall condition, lightly worn and aged. The first perfect bound, the other three with slightly rusty staples. On the cover of each is an illustration by Bernard Partridge of Britannia scanning the sea from the White Cliffs of Dover. One copy with newspaper cutting loosely inserted.

[First Canadian First W.W. flying ace: Redford Mulock] [Air Commodore Redford Henry Mulock], aviator.] Autograph Letter Signed, supplying a 'signature' to ‘Gibson’, while referring to their time together at Westgate 'in the early months of 1915'.

Author: 
First Canadian flying ace of the First World War, and the first in the Royal Naval Air Service: Redford Mulock [Air Commodore Redford Henry Mulock (1886-1961), CBE, DSO & Bar], aviator [Gibson]
Publication details: 
‘July 22. 29 [1929] / Winnipeg / Canada’.
£120.00

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, but with the blank reverses of the two leaves both carrying traces of glue from previous mounting, and slight damage and loss at the foot of both. Good firm signature. Reads: ‘Dear Gibson - / I have just received your note asking for my signature. I think you were at Westgate in the early months of 1915 when I was. I wonder how you are getting on these days. I do hope that the scouts are all right and going strong & that you yourself are in the best of health & spirits / Yours very Sincerely. / Red. H. Mulock.’ See Image.

[The man who ‘saved France and the freedom of the world’ by backing Marshal Foch: Lord Milner [Alfred Milner, Viscount Milner].] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Joyce’ explaining why he must decline an invitation.

Author: 
Lord Milner [Alfred Milner, Viscount Milner] (1854-1925), German-born British politician, South African colonial administrator, who ‘saved France and the freedom of the world' by backing Marshal Foch
Publication details: 
29 June 1910; 47 Duke Street, S.W. [London].
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. He apologises for an engagement that will keep him ‘out of Town’ on the date proposed. Reads: ‘My dear Joyce / I should so much have enjoyed coming to your party, & it was very kind of you & Olive to think of it / Yours affec[tion]ately / Milner’.

[Sean O'Casey] Autograph Letter Signed 'Sean O'Casey' to Miss Sheila Lynd, daughter of Robert Lynd, essayist, his letter of condolence

Author: 
Sean O'Casey, playwright
O'Casey
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] Tingrith, Station Road, Totnes, Devon, 9 Dec. 1949.
£500.00
O'Casey

Two pages, oblong 12mo, pencil markings, grubby in parts, text clear and complete.Down with a touch of Influenza, busy with letters & work, I'd no time to answer you. I hadn't time to think of any article. I've written Peace messages to Moscow, New Yor, Paris, Plymouth & Melbourne; so, you see, I've not been standing idle in the market place. | I was very, very sorry to hear of your father's (Bob) death. All in all, he was a grand generous lad. Too fond of Ulster, maybe, but none the worse of that same. | My sympathy to you, dear lass.

[Lord Halifax, as Lord Irwin [Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax], Conservative politician, Viceroy of India.] Typed Letter Signed, thanking ‘Mr. Wilson’ for the offer of the help of the Indian Church Aid Association.

Author: 
Lord Halifax, as Lord Irwin [Edward Frederick Lindley Wood (1881-1959), 1st Earl of Halifax, Conservative politician, Viceroy of India, appeaser of Nazi Germany
Publication details: 
1 November 1933; on letterhead of 88 Eaton Square, S.W.1 [London].
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. On aged paper, creased at the edges. Signed ‘Irwin’. He thanks him for his letter and states that it is good of him ‘to offer the help of the Indian Church Aid Association for the receipt of the money. I should think we might be very glad indeed to take advantage of your suggestion.’ He is sending Wilson’s letter ‘to Sir John Thompson, who is really the active partner in the business!’ Halifax was Viceroy of India between 1926 and 1931.

[General J. M. Wainwright [Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV], US Army general, Commander of Allied forces in the Philippines.] Typed Note Signed, complying with a request for an autograph.

Author: 
General J. M. Wainwright [Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (1883-1953), US Army general, Commander of Allied forces in the Philippines who surrendered Corregidor to the Japanese in 1942
Wainwright
Publication details: 
30 September 1945, on letterhead of the War Department, Washington.
£45.00
Wainwright

The note was written in a momentous month for Wainwright. On 5 September 1945, on his release after three years in captivity following his surrender at Corregidor, Wainwright was promoted to four-star General. On 10 September he was presented with the Medal of Honor by President Truman at the White House. On 13 September a ticker-tape parade in New York City was held in his honor. And on 28 September he was named commander of the Second Service Command and the Eastern Defense Command at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York.

[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.

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