RANGERS

[ Connaught Rangers and King's Royal Rifles. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Captain E. A. Grubbe of the Connaught Rangers from Lieut J. G. Surman, praising the regiment and enclosing two photographs, a carte de visite and a view of cavalry training.

Author: 
John Gilbert Surman, 9th King's Royal Rifle Corps [ Captain Edmund Alexander Grubbe (1857-c.1923), Connaught Rangers; G. V. Yates, Sheffield photographer ]
Publication details: 
Letter on letterhead of the King's Royal Rifles, addressed by Surman from The Camp, Kilworth, County Cork [ Ireland ], 14 June 1896. Undated carte de visite by G. V. Yates of Sheffield.
£120.00

Surman had a brief and undistinguished military career. Having trained with the Connaught Rangers, on 30 October 1895 he received a commission in the 9th Royal Rifle Corps, which he resigned a year later, on 20 October 1896. ONE: Autograph Letter Signed from 'J. Gilbert Surman' to Grubbe, in fragment of envelope addressed by him to 'Captain E. A. Grubbe | The Depôt of the Connaught Rangers | Galway'. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He writes having 'now left the Connaught Rangers to join my own Regiment at the above place.

[ Blooming Press, Mooltan, India. ] Tabular itinerary of 'March of the Connaught Rangers. | From Mooltan to Chaubuttia near Raniket | 66 Marches. 716 Miles.', and 'From Moradabad to Shahjahanpur. | 9 Marches 104 1/8 Miles.' Signed 'J. D. P. | T. M.'

Author: 
The 88th Regiment, the Connaught Rangers ('the Devil's Own') [ Blooming Press, Mooltan, India. ]
Publication details: 
'Blooming Press Mooltan'. [1882.] March lasting from 3 January to 18 March 1883.
£250.00

Printed on one side of piece of 50 x 32 cm wove paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with strip of blue paper from stub adhering to blank reverse. A total of 75 entries in two tables (66 in the first and 9 in the second), both arranged in eight columns, as follows: 'Probable Date of arrival. 1883.' (the only entry in this column is 'January' beside the first march), 'No. of March', 'Stations', 'Distance | Miles', 'No. of Route', 'Rivers', 'Villages', 'Remarks'. Beneath the table: 'Abbreviations, - D. B. dak-bungalow; P. O. Post-Office, R. S. railway-station; T. S.

[ British Army field exercises of First World War German invasion. ] 'Field Message Book' of Captain E. A. Grubbe, used in training reservists at Newhaven Fort, with maps. With ALS from Grubbe to his brother, telling of captured 'Prussian guards'.

Author: 
Edmund Alexander Grubbe (b.1857), Captain in the 88th Connaught Rangers [ 8th (Reserve) Battalion, City of London Rifles; Post Office Rifles ]
Publication details: 
FIELD MESSAGE BOOK: 'Army Book 153', Waterlow & Sons Ltd, London. With stamp of '8th. (Reserve) Batt., City of London Rifles'. Newhaven Fort, East Sussex: December 1914 to June 1915. LETTER: from London and Paris Hotel, Newhaven; 2 December 1914.
£450.00

FIELD MESSAGE BOOK: Landscape 8vo notebook with 43pp of manuscript, in a number of different hands (one of them apparently Grubbe's), including seven full-page maps, with two further pages of carbon copies, preceded by 3pp. of printed text titled 'Field Message Book / (For the use of Dismounted Regimental Officers and Non-commissioned Officers of Cavalry and Mounted Infantry.)' In pencil and ink on graph paper pages. In detachable brown cloth cover, with explanatory label ('Cover for Army Book 153').

Three Autograph Letter Signed (all 'Eric') from Sir Eric de la Rue, 3rd Baronet, one to his father and two to his sister Diana, written during the Second World War as a Captain in the Notts Yeomanry, Middle East Forces (Egypt and Benghazi).

Author: 
Sir Eric de la Rue [Sir Eric Vincent de la Rue] (1906-1989), 3rd Baronet, son of Sir Evelyn Andros de la Rue (1879-1950) [Notts Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry; British Army, Middle East Forces]
Publication details: 
Letter to his father: 17 March [1944]; 'H.Q. 215 Town Mayor M.E.F.' Letters to his sister: 4 May [1944] and 4 October [1944]. Both addressed from the MEF.
£220.00

All three are air mail letter cards. Each with 'Field Post Office' postmark and censor's stamp. The three in fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Letter One: To his father, 17 March [1944]. Addressed to 'My dear Father', with the envelope addressed to 'Sir E. de la Rue Bart. | The Sol | Cookham | Berkshire | England.' 1p, 4to, and 1p., 12mo. A light-hearted letter, in which he jokes about his father's inability to read the word 'Aviv' ('I suppose a series of "i"s and "v"s is rather difficult even if printed') and find the place on the map ('it is much larger than Bournemouth').

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