James Bond First Editions

Army Diary 1899-1926.

MEINERTZHAGEN, Colonel Richard (1878-1967).

London: Oliver and Boyd, 1960. [Intelligence] FIRST EDITION. Royal octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.viii; 301; [3], blank. With 39 black and white plates and 25 maps printed in colour. Publisher's red cloth in pictorial jacket. Minor spotting to top edge, jacket a little edge worn, with none of the heavy fading found on the spine. A clean, near fine copy, from the comprehensive Ian Fleming Bibliographical Archive assembled by Jon Gilbert, with his bookplate. Colonel Richard Henry Meinertzhagen, CBE, DSO (1878-1967). Soldier, intelligence officer and ornithologist. Here he describes his activities as chief of British Military Intelligence for the East African campaign at Nairobi, Kenya. He also saw action in France, Palestine and Sinai. His diarised records contain harsh assessments of senior officers, of the role played by the Royal Navy and of the quality of the Indian units dispatched to German East Africa. He also describes the skirmish at Tanga as "possibly the most disgraceful defeat a British Army has ever suffered". He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in February 1916 and his writing was greatly admired by the thriller writer Ian Fleming. Item #64942

Gilbert, p.631-2.

Price: £150.00