Farquharson Robert Stuart (2 results)

True first edition, privately printed 1883. pp107. In original dark red cloth covered card, titles to front. Showing overall wear, rubbing, corner lift, some foxing, inner gathering starting, but NO ink marks or writing. Overall a pleasing example of a scarce Crimean War account. 15095. There was trade edition published six years later in 1889.

First edition of this memoir of Balaklava and the Charge of the Light Brigade, by a soldier who served in the second line of cavalry under Paget. We have located copies in seven institutions only. Born in Leith, Farquharson (1832-1892) enlisted as a private in the 4th Light Dragoons in 1846, arriving in the Crimea on 18 September 1854 at the rank of trumpeter. He fought at the Alma on 20 September, was court-martialled for insubordination on 10 October (25 lashes and reduced to private), and just two weeks later found himself under Paget's command - the latter looking "as cool as could be" (p. 39). During the charge, after his third horse of the battle was shot from under him ("a cannon shot put a sudden stop to my gallop" - p. 43), Farquharson was captured by Cossacks and imprisoned for almost a year. Buying himself out in 1860 and returning to Scotland, he became bandmaster to the Lothian and Berwickshire Yeomanry (a post he held for 30 years until his death in 1892) and Queen's Trumpeter for Scotland. He contributed a series of sketches about his Crimean experiences to the Dundee Courier and, at the urging of friends, collected them for this standalone volume. He writes graphically of the Crimea and the charge: "At last, and despite the murderous fusilade, we were at the guns, and a slashing hand-to-hand fight followed with the men who served them. Up to this moment our colonel's sword had remained in its scabbard, which [Samuel] Parkes observing, said to him, 'Come, my Lord, it is time you were drawing your sword - we are on top of the guns'. So dense were the clouds of smoke hanging over the ground" (pp. 40-41). The second half of his account concerns his imprisonment with other survivors. He narrates "his march into captivity at Voronezh, via Simferopol, Ekaterinoslav, Kharkov, his experiences of being billeted on local families, his relations with fellow prisoners, and the beating he received on reaching prison" (Cross). This edition preceded by six years a commercial edition (Crimean Campaigning and Russian Imprisonment). Both were likely efforts to raise funds to help "this gallant old soldier to get some comforts in his declining years" (Dundee Evening Telegraph, 18 December 1891). Copies can be found at the British Library and National Library of Scotland and at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Calgary, Glasgow, and Missouri. Cross H33. Octavo. Ornate head- and tailpieces. Original purple diagonal-grain cloth, title to front cover in gilt. "J.W.W." in pencil on inner front cover. Cloth lifting at lower tip of front cover, gilt tarnished, old repairs, including strengthening of some gatherings at gutter with paper and consolidation with adhesive, general wear creasing: very good.