FOUR YEARS’ SERVICE IN INDIA (PUNJAB CAMPAIGN 1848-49)

A rare personal acount of an ordinary British private soldier’s service in India - covering campaigns against the Afghans and the Sikhs.

Written after the author had retired from the army into the ranks of the Leicestershire Police, this is a rare worm’s eye view of British military service in India in the mid-19th century. John Ryder was an illiterate working man when he took the queen’s shilling ( he learned to read and write in the army) but, as the editor of his memoirs patronisingly writes ‘though ungrammatical, the bright ore gleamed through the rough earth in which [the manuscript] was encrusted’. The book is indeed a vividly rough and ready acount of the author’s Indian military service, including honest accounts of atrocities ( some by British troops); military actions including the siege of Mooltan; as well as the more ordinary trials and tribulations in the heat and dust of India. An eye-opening account of great value to all those who want a taste of the sweaty reality at the sharp end of life in the armed service of the East India Company.

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Details


Product Code:	8461
Author:	By a Private Soldier (Corporal Ryder, 32nd Foot)
ISBN:	9781845742058
Format:	2005 N&M Press reprint (of original 1853 pub). SB. viii + 209pp with 2 maps. Published Price £14.50
Shipping Time:	Usually despatched Next Day
Retail Price:	~~£14.50~~
Our Price:	£10.00 save 31%