Six documents including Signed Articles of Agreement for Johnson ('of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew') to perform Government 'service as Gardener in India'; with two testimonials and letters from Mary, Countess of Minto, and Cecil Allanson.

Author: 
John Thomas Johnson, Assistant Curator of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, India [Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Mary, Countess of Minto]
Publication details: 
1904-1935.
£250.00
SKU: 6195

The collection in good condition, with all but one of the six items carrying ring-binder punch holes. Item One, Articles of Agreement: Foolscap bifolium, 3 pp. Dated 16 September 1904. Printed seventeen-point agreement in the form of a manuscript facsimile. Signed by Johnson, Sir John Edge and Sir Stewart Colvin Bayley, and witnessed by 'W. Watson | R[oyal]. G[ardens] Kew' and 'Frank R. Marten | India Office'. Items Two and Three both with mourning border on letterhead of Minto House, Hawick. Item Two, Mary Countess of Minto ('M Minto') to Johnson. 4to: 1 p. 14 September 1914. She is enclosing 'a testimonial as to the work you did for us in India. I hope very sincerely that you will obtain some good position in Australia, or in some Native State'. She is glad he is 'so much stronger in health', and thinks he is 'quite right not to risk remaining in England throughout the winter, which we all feel very tiring after living for some years in India'. Item Three, Countess of Minto's testimonial, 14 September 1914. 'Mr. J. T. Johnson did a good deal of work at the Government House Gardens, Calcutta andn Barrackpore while Lord and Lady Minto were in India.' Praises his 'throrough knowledge of his work', 'skill and efficiency'. Item Four, Cecil Allanson to Johnson, 'Govt. of India Camp | Coronation Durbar 27/12/11'. Folio, 1 p. Writing 'to say goodbye and to thank you for the very excellent work you put in at Delhi and Calcutta on behalf of the Government of India and Bengal Camps'. He is recommending him 'very strongly indeed for the Durbar medal which you should get without doubt'. Offers to send him 'some small memento of the durbar'. Item Five, Allanson's testimonial. Folio, 1 p. 'He had very limited funds, andn a large area of very difficult ground. He did the whole of this work to my complete satisfaction and in my belief no one in India could have done it better.' Allanson 'formed the very highest opinion of Mr. Johnson's capacity not only as a horticulturalist but as a business man.' Item Six. 4to, 1 p. Invitation to a dinner on 22 December 1935 for Johnson and his wife, headed 'The Viceroy's House, Calcutta', from the Viceroy & The Countess of Willingdon.