The “race for Chitral” in granular detail
In the event, the 15,000 strong relief force assembled under Major-General Sir Robert Low in response, was pre-empted by a rag-tag force cobbled together by Col. James Kelly at Gilgit, which relieved the garrison almost a month before the main force arrived.
researcher Geoffrey J. Raspin (1943–2016) to the front pastedowns of all. The first with 12 lithographic maps, some with touches of hand-colour, all but one folding, the large general area map with inked routes in
38 ROBERTSON, William Robert, & others. An Official Account of the Chitral Expedition, 1895; [together with a bound volume of the officially-printed diary records of the various brigades, lines of communication and Gilgit Field Force, April to October 1895; and a volume of typed extracts from the diary of H. B. Abadie, 11th Hussars, 1893 to 1899]. Calcutta & Simla: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India & Government Central Press, for the Quarter Master General, 1898 [but 1899], 1895, & [c.1901] £22,500 [ 157217] 3 works, quarto. The first (335 × 205 mm) in original moderate greenish-blue cloth-backed printed boards; the second (335 × 210 mm) 20th-century mid-tan half morocco, red leather spine label and direct lettering on spine, gilt roll to spine and corner edges, dark greyish reddish brown boards, marbled endpapers; the third (225 × 200 mm) contemporary deep reddish brown hard-grain half morocco, lettered in gilt direct to spine, low bands, floral tools in compartments, double rules in blind to spine and corner edges, moderate olive brown buckram boards, top edge gilt, dark red Gold Vein marbled endpapers. Monogram bookplate of Frontier collector-
An extraordinary gathering of rare and unique original documents minutely chronicling the progress of the one of the Victorian era’s most notorious military causes célèbres; the race to rescue a small British garrison from the clutches of Umra Khan, “the Napoleon of the Pathans”, and make a timely riposte to Russian advances in the Great Game. By 1895 Russia had bitten deep into the Khanates of Central Asia, and “had begun to show an alarming interest in that lofty no-man’s-land where the Hindu Kush, Pamirs, Karakorams and Himalayas converged, and where three great empires – those of Britain, Russia and China . . . To British officers stationed on the frontier, and their masters in Calcutta, it looked as though the long feared Russian penetration of the passes had now begun” (Hopkirk, p. 449). The independent monarchy of Chitral was seen as a possible route for the Russians into British India, so when the death in 1892 of the long-time ruler Aman-ul-Mulk II, threw the state into chaos, it was felt necessary to intervene to ensure the stability of the region. The political agent from Gilgit, Surgeon Major George Robertson, occupied the local fort, but soon found himself bottled up there by the forces of the Pashtun chief of Jandul, Umra Khan, whose machinations were behind the unrest. “The vision of a handful of British officers, with their loyal native troops, holding out against overwhelming odds in a remote and picturesque fortress, brought to mind the recent tragedy in the Sudan. ‘It is Khartoum all over again,’ declared The Graphic ” (p. 492).
Central to the collection is the first and only edition of the official account, one of just 250 copies. A typically thorough campaign chronicle from historical to immediate origins through to mopping up operations and the withdrawal of the Relief Force, the narrative is supported by extensive documentary appendices. Scarce: Library Hub lists NAM, Oxford, London Library; World Cat adds Columbia, Harvard and the US Army War College; it is apparently not in the BL. The “war diaries” volume collects close to 140 printed documents comprising over 350 pages of highly detailed intelligence. An extraordinary survival, containing the most minute analysis imaginable of the progress of the campaign. A full listing of the individual items is available on request. No copies of these war diaries have been traced, but it is unlikely that they are not represented somewhere in the British Library India Office Records. The Abadie diary extracts cover his arrival in India and the Chitral Expedition itself, a return “with the reliefs” in 1898, and an account of shikar in Uttarakhand in 1899. Abadie was as a transport officer on the Relief Force and offers a candid and detailed account of his services on the lines of communication. On his return to the region he visits the new fort and the old which, “still shows the effect of the Siege. One tower has nearly gone and the wood-work when they tried to fire it is scorched. Bullet marks in every direction. It is an extraordinary thing that it held”. The typescript concludes with a delightful account of a shikar trip made into Uttarakhand accompanied by some of Abadie’s excellent photographs of local landscapes and “types”.
end-pocket, 2 plates, folding table, tables in text; the second with 5 lithographed maps and plans, 4 of them folding, and 4 similar views; Abadie’s diary containing 43 original photographs, various small formats, and a few ink sketches to the text including plans of Umra Khan’s fort, the old fort at Chitral and its replacement. The official history a little rubbed and soiled, some scuffs and surface dampening to boards, foxing to endpapers, contents with mild toning, occasional offsetting from colouring on maps, overall very good; the war diaries’ contents overall moderately toned, occasional foxing and staining, a few manuscript corrections, double punch holes visible at inner margin through latter part, remains very good; Abadie’s typescript a little rubbed, front joint cracked to cords but holding, rear joint just starting at the tail, pale toning to contents, but overall very good. ¶ Cockle, Military History of India , p. 41; Hopkirk, The Great Game , 1990, ch. 35.
SIXTY FINE ITEMS
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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