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HAMILTON (Lt.-Col. Hon. R.G.A.)
The War Diary of the Master of Belhaven 1914-1918.
1st Ed.., viii+472pp., portrait frontis., 29 maps. John Murray.
1924
#62116
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![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/62116.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
Classic diaries of Lt.-Col. The Hon. Ralph Gerard Alexander Hamilton, a former regular officer of the 3rd Hussars who was commanding the Essex Horse Artillery on the outbreak of war. Finding that this territorial regiment was not likely to see imminent active service, he managed to become appointed as an interpreter with the 7th Division, accompanying the division to Flanders where it was immediately embroiled in the first battle of Ypres. He was badly bruised when a shell blew him from his horse & invalided at the end of October; gazetted to the 2nd Life Guards in December and returned to France in January 1915, but after several months returned to the Reserve Regiment at Windsor. Whilst at home he took command of "C" Battery 106th Bde. Royal Field Artillery, 24th Div., & landed with the unit in France in September. This new & inexperienced div. was committed too soon to battle (at Loos) and performed poorly: the confusion of the period is eloquently conveyed. From 1915 onwards Belhaven served continuously on the Western Front (apart from periods of leave), latterly as commander of 106th Brigade R.F.A. He was Killed in Action near Amiens on 31st March 1918. Contains a very valuable daily record of artillery work on the Western Front, largely relating to the Ypres Salient (where Hamilton spent lengthy periods in 1916 and 1917). Orig. red cloth, gilt, minor wear, VG & very scarce original edition with armorial bookplate of Sir Arthur Wakefield Chapman. See illustration on our website.
£245
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