[Parnell's 'bodyguard and aide-de-camp': Henry Harrison MP MC, member of the Irish Parliamentary Party.] Autograph Letter Signed, written within months of the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, on behalf of his widow Katharine ('Kitty O'Shea').

Parnell had died around ten weeks before, on 6 October 1891. See Harrison's entry in the Oxford DNB: 'After the party broke in two in December 1890, Harrison campaigned with his chief in Ireland, constituting himself a bodyguard and aide-de-camp. After Parnell's death in October 1891 Harrison, young though he was, hastened to Brighton to put his services at the disposal of Parnell's widow. It was then that he heard from her a very different account of the circumstances surrounding her divorce from that given in court. This indicated that O'Shea's evidence had been completely untrustworthy, that he had apparently connived for a long period at Parnell's relations with his wife, from whom he himself had virtually separated, and that his motives had been a mixture of political ambition and financial greed. Harrison felt unable to publish this story until those most likely to be affected were dead.' The present item is from a collection of Irish nationalist autographs assembled by Miss Burgess of Norwich. 1p, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Reads: 'Dear Madam, / Mrs. Parnell requests me to thank you for your kind letter of the 5th. inst. & to say that she will be glad to give you the autograph if you will forward your book to her for the purpose / I am / Yours faithfully / Henry Harrison'.