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AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY SOLDIER AND WRITER ON MILITARY MATTERS MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN BARTON STERLING.
189635639London: 14 February 1896. 1896. Fine. - Letter filling one side of a 7 inch high by 4-3/8 wide sheet of light gray letterhead with the address printed in raised lettering at the top. Signed "John Sterling". Folded twice for mailing. Near fine. <p>Sterling writes to Mrs. Richard Ford thanking her for sending him a military book about the Jameson Raid. "It is of great interest & is in every way far superior to the English version of the same events published at a much later date. In military matters the Germans know apparently very well what to say & what not to say: perhaps in political matters they are not always as wise. The Transvaal is most serious in all its bearings & Rhodes Jameson & Co have spoilt for all time a splendid hand of trumps."<p>Major-General John Barton Sterling 1840-1926 entered the army in 1861 serving in Egypt and the Sudan. He was wounded at Tel-el-Kebir in 1882 and subsequently commanded the Coldstream Guards until his retirement in 1901. He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Atheneum Club. At the Atheneum he befriended Kipling who wrote of him that he "dealt faithfully with me when I made technical errors in any tale of mine that interested him." "Something of Myself" page 143. [London]: 14 February, 1896. unknown
