Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 94

WELLINGTON (ARTHUR WELLESLEY, first Duke of)
Autograph letter signed ("Wellington"), to Field Marshal Frederick, Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, recommending his Military Secretary Lord FitzRoy Somerset be appointed ADC to the Prince Regent, Freneda and Paris, 2 December 1812 and 19 August 1815

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,875 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

WELLINGTON (ARTHUR WELLESLEY, first Duke of)

Autograph letter signed ("Wellington"), to Field Marshal Frederick, Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, recommending his Military Secretary Lord FitzRoy Somerset be appointed ADC to the Prince Regent, ("...Lord FitzRoy Somerset has long served me with the greatest zeal & ability and at last has received a Wound which has disabled him for the moment..."); together with the Duke of York's retained copy of his reply ("...Prince was pleased to express His Satisfaction and readiness to meet Your Graces wishes after any manner, and to mark the high regard that He has for You, and demanded that Lord Fitzroy Somersets appointment should be made out immediately..."); plus an autograph letter signed by Wellington to the Hon Berkeley Paget, concerning his brother Sir Edward Paget, Wellington's Second-in-Command, who had been captured by the French ("...He is gone towards France, & you must try to get him exchanged. As he does not acknowledge the receipt of it I conclude he has not got the first Money we sent him on the day after he was taken. He will be badly off therefore with his 24 Doubloons unless You take some measures to supply him in France..."), 4 pages, plus integral blanks, guard, 4to, Freneda and Paris, 2 December 1812 and 19 August 1815

Footnotes

Wellington's letter to the Duke of York was written in favour of his secretary (and nephew by marriage) the future Lord Raglan who had lost his arm at Waterloo (famously protesting after the amputation: 'Hey, bring my arm back. There's a ring my wife gave me on the finger'). For his services at Waterloo Somerset was gazetted, as per this letter, ADC to the Regent on 28 August, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The earlier letter dates from the time of Wellington's retreat after the failed siege of Burgos, when considerable disorder broke out among the troops who, thanks to a blunder of the commissary, had had to go without rations: his Second-in-Command had written out to restore order but had been captured by some daring French skirmishers. He was to be held prisoner until 1814. This letter is published in The Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington from 1799 to 1818, vol. ix, edited by John Gurwood (1838).

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.