Mutiny Memoirs

MACKENZIE, Alfred Robert Davidson. Mutiny Memoirs. Being Personal Reminiscences of the Great Sepoy Revolt of 1857. Allahabad: Pioneer Press, 1891 First edition of this uncommon and vivid eyewitness account of the Indian Rebellion. In her bibliography, The Revolt in India 1857-58, Janice Ladendorf notes that the author "indulged in no looting and often regretted the necessary severity against the natives". When the storm broke, Mackenzie was serving as a subaltern with the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry at Meerut. Sir Altred Robert Davidson Mackenzie KCS1 (1835-1921) entered the Bengal Army in I854, rising to the rank of colonel by 1882; he also served during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and was ADC to the Marquess of Lansdowne, the book's dedicatee. Mutiny Memoirs recounts his experiences with the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry when it mutinied at Meerut.

As commander of the 8th Irregular Cavalry at Bareilly when it rebelled, at Delhi, the storming of Jhajjar (hajjar), and Lucknow, and memorialises several of his fallen fellow officers, including captains Frederick Wale of the I" Sikh Irregular Cavalry, and Charles Sanford of Mackenzie's own unit, killed while reconnoitring alone in a village on the banks of the Gomti River in March 1858. Mackenzie's reminiscences were first printed in the Anglo-Indian periodical The Pioneer, where Rudyard Kipling was assistant editor in the 1880s. The Pioneer Press published a second edition of Mutiny Memoirs in 1892. Octavo (rgI x 122 mm). Contemporary burgundy halt roan, binding refurbished with original label laid down, Shell pattern marbled sides trimmed with quadruple gilt fillets. Contemporary ownership inscription to half-title of one Ethel W. Bulkeley (dated 1892). Binding relined, endpapers renewed, paste toning to half-title and last least, minor splash stains to p.r3, else clean. A very good copy. " Bruce.

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