ALLAN, William.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

My Early Soldiering Days, including the Crimean Campaign. First edition, presentation copy from Allan and his wife (and editor), Jane Husey Allan, inscribed on the half-title, "Mrs Grant, fr[om] W.A. & J.H.A., 1898". We have traced this rare memoir to just three institutional libraries: National Library of Scotland, and the universities of Calgary and Guelph; there is no copy in the British Library.As a young ensign in the 41st Foot (The Welch Regiment), Allan (1832-1918) served throughout the Crimean War and was present at the Alma, Inkerman, and the brutal assaults on the Great Redan at Sebastopol, where "our finale … was a panic, which seized the front row of our men, and bundled us all into a ditch … it became a case of sauve qui peut". His engrossing narrative, comprising letters home, was almost certainly printed for circulation among a close circle of family and friends. "Between early December 1855 and February 1856 Allan was back in England, but returned to the Crimea in early March 1856 to describe events following the Treaty of Paris … In an Epilogue [Jane Husey] describes a two-week trip with her husband to the Crimea in May 1893 and their visiting many of the battle sites" (Cross).

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