Descripción
1st Edition 1940. The Life of Charles Waterton. He was an English naturalist, plantation overseer and explorer best known for his pioneering work regarding conservation. Long letter from the author to Frank Maggs tipped into the endpaper. Philip Gosse 1879-1959 was the son of Sir Edmund William Gosse was an English poet, author and critic who helped to promote Ibsen the playwright in England, and he encouraged the careers of W. B. Yeats and James Joyce. His sister was the artist Laura Sylvia. Philip went to Bart's and 'eventually qualified'. He was a country GP at Beaulieu in the New Forest until war was declared. He was 35 years old and Territorial Army officer when he was mobilised in in August 1914. He viewed his fellow officers especially those of the RAMC, objectively with compassion, admiration or contempt. He had an extraordinary wartime career.As a medical officer in a field ambulance, he had periods of spare time between his daily duties which were shared with other officers, and intense activity when battles were going on. Regimental Medical Officers were fully employed looking after hundreds of men in and out of the trenches. He was able to dissect small mammals and birds in his spare time and send the specimens to the National History Museum in London. He found a new species of small rodent and it was named after him. There was a plague of rats infesting the trenches and feasting on food debris and the corpses of men and horses. Because of his reputation as an expert on small mammals, he was made 'Rat Control Officer' of the First Army.Then he was posted to India where he pursued his hobby of collecting mammals and birds with enthusiasm and had a new species of bat named after him. His description of garrison life in India, which seemed untouched by the war, is critical; unfortunately, some Regular Army Officers treated Territorial and wartime officers with disdain. Philip volunteered to stay in India for a while to allow others to be demobilised first as by then he had no practice left to go back to, but he was the only one posted back to England, via Macedonia and Italy with his twenty crates of specimens.The wildlife was his distraction therapy that kept him sane.He was one of the original three founder members of The Fountain Club, at the age of fifty, started his life all over again, married, gave up medicine and went to live in Sussex, wrote books about pirates, birds and compiled several biographies. He wrote this book about his experiences in the First World War more than a decade after it had ended. Book is very good++ and bright. Contents good. Page edges very foxed. Pages less so. The wrapper is very good++ and quite bright. Light edge rubbing. More images can be taken upon request. Ref 16862. N° de ref. del artículo 023982
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