edward mason wrench 34th regiment (3 Ergebnisse)

6pp., 12mo. Cyclostyled in purple ink on two loose leaves of 8vo paper (one printed on one side only, and the other on both sides). A facsimile of small handwriting, with five illustrations, including one captioned 'Steamer on the Hudson River' (the others a view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the river, a silhouette of a racing 'sulky' carriage, a steamer, and an ancient statue 'From Cyprus'). In fair condition, lightly-aged, with light rust marks from a paperclip. The second sheet, of four pages, ends abruptly, with a pencil note: 'concluding pages wanted'. The text begins: 'New York. | My dear Children | My last letter was written on board the "Catalonia" dated I think Sepr. 27. 1881. and described the voyage from England and now Oct 22nd. I am on my voyage home and you may have thought from my long silence that I had forgotten my promise to send you letters describing all I saw. You will I'm sure forgive me when I tell you that since I landed at New York 23 days ago, I have travelled about 5,000 by Railway, visited twenty four important places and been in Railway Cars every day but three out of the twenty three.' As the description proceeds he states: 'I was in New York 28 years ago and found it is of course much larger & much improved from what was in 1853. But I found no difficulty finding my way about and though I was there this time only 36 hours, I saw a great deal of it. Going nearly all round it and from one side of it (namely the Battery) to the other (155th Street) over eight miles in what is called the elevated Rail Road which I will describe on my next sheet.' The second sheet describes a visit to Wall Street, a ride in a 'sulky', 'the new Museum in the Park', Central Park and its 'Egyptian Obelisk very like but not so large as our Cleopatra's Needle', the 'enormous Hotels' (he stays at the Brunswick), changing money, 'a Ticket Shop in Broadway', 'the great River Steamers' on the Hudson. The text ends: 'Then there were curious looking tugs towing ships ten times as big as themselves like the pepper pot pulling the castors and canal boats coming down in crowds, with women hanging out clothes to dry, and children & dogs playing on their decks as if they were gardens. Which indeed they resembled, being often loaded with piles of great yellow pumpkins and water melons as large as millstones - I walked to the point of the City nearest the sea where is situated an old round Fort in which in 1853 the then famous Band Master "Julien," was giving [.]'. For more on Wrench, who served in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, see his obituary in the British Medical Journal, 27 April 1912. Wrench is not named on the present item, but it comes from a collection of similar cyclostyled letters acquired from a member of the family. The present item does not appear to be present in the Wrench Papers at Nottingham University Library.

Wrench was the son of a clergyman, and well connected, being presented to the Prince of Wales and staying at Chatsworth in his old age. His obituary in the British Medical Journal (27 April 1812), describes how he went out to the Crimea in 1854. 'He had been gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 34th Regiment in November, and joined it on its arrival in the Crimea. He served during the terrible winter of that year, and was present at the capture of the quarries, the successful assault on the Redan of June 18th, and the final capture of Sebastopol on September 8th, 1855. He was mentioned in despatches, and received the Crimean medal and clasp for Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.' Wrench's own account of his experiences in the Crimea (Item One below) entirely unpublished is a personal one, vividly-written and full of detail. It does not appear to be present in the collection of his family papers at Nottingham University Library. ONE: Manuscript consisting of 'Events in 1855' (4pp) and '1856 (12pp), making a total of 16pp., 8vo, on twelve leaves, attached with a stud. In good condition, on aged and dogeared paper. The first page of the 1855 manuscript is headed '12 [sic] Pages in this Year', but comprises four numbered pages. The beginning of account sets the scene and gives an indication of the level of detail: 'The 1st Janry found me doing duty with the 28th Foot or Slashers in the 3rd. Divt of the army before Sebastopol having landed at Balaclava from the Ship "Queen of the South" on the 20th. Nov. 1854. On the 6th July I was ordered to do duty with the 50th. Foot but as I did not wish to move (the weather being very bad and my tent being as comfortable, or rather as little uncomfortable as it could be made) except to join my own Regt. the 34th. to which I had been gazetted on the 1st. of December 1854. I applied to be sent to it and was ordered to join which I did on 9th of Janry.' The account is made up from diary entries, and is none the less vivid and interesting for that: 'On the following morning a wounded Russian named Alexo was brought into our Hospital and we amputated his leg he did really well and was eventually exchanged at Odessa. Poor Jordan's death threw a great damp on the Regiment as he was the first Officer we had had killed. On the 9th. of April being Easter Monday the 2nd. Bombardment took place. It was a fearfully wet windy day so that no one was able to go out to see what damage was done. On the 10th. I was on trenches and the noise was terrific, but nothing to what I have since heard. I had a very narrow escape from a round shot which hopped over the parapet close to where I was.' In June, 'after 68 hours bombardment an assault was made on the Quarries by ourselves [.] I did not go down till about 8 with Robinson Scott & Peel and 100 men. We were marching about the Trenches half the night and were finally sent to the middle ravine just below Mamelon. The scene there was most horrible the ground being strewn with dead & wounded. English French & Russians. One poor Russian boy was dragged up by two Zouaves but fainted just opposite to where we were lying. I got a light and found he was shot through the belly and that nothing could be done for him. I gave him some water and he lie [sic] by me some time but died before morning. I got an amulet off his neck & his cap pouch which I sent home'. The 1856 account begins in dramatic style: 'The first entry in this Diary relates to the explosion which took place within the British Lines during the Siege of Sebastopol. | Feb 3rd. I was not many hundred yards from this explosion when it took place & will here relate now (Janry 1900) my recollection of it. It took place in Novr. or Decr. 1855. I had just come in from a ride & had given my horse to my Batman when I noticed a vast cloud of smoke shoot up from the Right Siege train an open air arsenal about 500 yds from my house - a tremendous noise of explosion followed & knowing that there would be a rain of missiles from above to fall immediately I jumped under my doorway - hoping the strong lintel would protect me [.] a shower of fragments fell around me rattling on my iron roof - and wounding many men in the Regiment - 70 men were killed by the explosion some over half a mile off. The artillery horses were passing in front of my door to water & stampeded hurting several men in their rush. Both my horse and my dog bolted. I got the horse back in a few hours - but my dog taken [sic] a few weeks before out of Sebastopol returned to her old home and was found there weeks afterwards (I brought her to England) My house that I had just finished building myself did not sustain much damage. [.]' The account continues, packed with incident. At one point he writes: 'I had written the above in 1859 and continue it forty one years after November 4 1900. The events & fights of May 1856 being written so legibly in my brain that I can read much of what we did & said. Alas all the actors except myself are passed away. My notice has been called to the excursion by reading an Illustrated article in a magazine named "Travel" in which Dr. Hy. Lansell has been describing a tour taken last year over the same ground - so little altered from what I saw in 1856 that his description would do for mine'. The diary concludes in fine style. On 2 May 1856 he goes to Yalta, where he finds 'the daughters of the English Clerk of the Works of Prince W's Palace were keeping the Hotel, a very rough primitive structure low stone built rooms with a long rough wooden verandah overlooking the lovely Bay - We enjoyed an excellent dinner of Turbot & Oyster Sauce, & a bottle of excellent local wine like Hock - as we returned we went over the Emperor's Villa Orianda [.] One day when I remember seeing for the first time a Persian (horizontal) Water Wheel in a very pretty village embosomed in Walnut Trees where also I bought an embroidered linen neck scarf which I still possess - On another occasion I accompanied Best & C.

Wrench was the son of a clergyman, and well educated and well connected (being presented to the Prince of Wales and staying at Chatsworth in his old age). His obituary in the British Medical Journal (27 April 1912), describes how, after service in the Crimea, 'he was transferred to the 4th Lancers, went to Madras with that regiment in the following month, and served with it during the whole of the Indian Mutiny. For his services in India he received the Indian medal and clasp for Central India. He returned to England in 1860, and married in 1861 his cousin, the daughter of Mr. William Kirke, of Markham Hall, Nottinghamshire'. The four items in the present collection are all in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The three duplicates - all closely and neatly written in a vivid and informative style - are among ones produced by Wrench for circulation within his family, there being copies in the collection of Wrench papers in Nottingham University Library. They comprise two letters and a narrative account. The typescript, by an unnamed individual, is not present at Nottingham. None of the four items is in the Imperial War Museum catalogue. ONE: Duplicate of Autograph Letter by Wrench ('Edwd M Wrench M.V.O - F.R.C.S. late asst Sugeon 12 R Lancers'). Dated at beginning 23 December 1907, and at end 'Christmas 1907 - Park Lodge Baslow Derbyshire'. The letter describes the 'Jubilee commemoration' at the Royal Albert Hall, and is headed 'My last Parade'. It begins: 'It was indeed well done (The dinner to the surviving Veterans who fought in the Indian Mutiny campaign in 1857, given by the proprietors of the London Daily Telegraph) a procession of heart stirring episodes from the Inspection by F.M. Lord Roberts on the steps of the Albert Memorial (where I found private Meredith of the 24th who was with me in the trenches at the assault on the Redan Sebastopol June 18 1855) to the surging chorus by the thousands in the Albert Hall of Auld Lang Syne, near the end of what Lord Curzon in his thrilling speech said was a "ceremony" rather than a festival, a speech that made the tears tremble on my eyelids. They overflowed at the solemn sounding of the "last post" recalling to my memory in the words of the poet, O Hara, a charge of the 12th Lancers I rode with at the battle of Banda [.]'. He names others present, including 'Col Robertson [.] he was still the bravest of the brave, for though 86, he was in velvet Levee dress, silk stockings & pumps, without a great coat. (He told me he was a teetotaller) his picturesque appearance attracted Lord Roberts eye, and drew a heavy fire on us, not of rifles, but of snap shot cameras, the result of which has been my portrait in such good company, scattered by the hundreds of thousands in The Daily Mirror of Decr 24 [.] I have looked down the barrel of a loaded musket, near enough to see a Sepoys yellow eyes taking aim at the butt end and ridden with cannon balls hopping over my head like balls in a cricket ground, I cannot compare my perils during the Sepoy Mutiny to many others of the Kirke family'. 2pp., 8vo. TWO: Duplicate of Autograph Letter by Wrench ('Ed M Wrench'). Dated at beginning 'Park Lodge Baslow Aug 1909' and at end 13 September 1909. 3pp., 8vo. The letter begins: 'Having recently discovered that General W A Franks [Major-General William Astell Franks (1838-1929)] now living at Northland Road Southampton, was present when Uncle Henry Kirke died when fleeing from the Mutineers of his Regt. 12 BNI in 1857, I took the liberty of writing to him, he very kindly responded to my enquiries & I feel sure the information he has afforded will be interesting, adding much to our scanty knowledge of that terrible time.' There follow extended transcriptions from Franks's letters: '[.] I saw him the day he died [.] he was on his horse but rolling about on it [.] he looked at me with a vacant stare & was deadly pale. I could see he was dying. Shortly after he fell off his horse, he was the only one of o.