Personal Narrative of Three Years Service in China -
Lt.-Colonel Arthur A Court Fisher Royal Engineers
1863 - Richard Bentley, London - First Edition
Lt.-Colonel Fisher’s three years of service, are in Canton, the Pei-Ho River, and Taku Fort battles, throughout the Second Opium War.
Illustrated with three wood-engraved plates, engraved plan, six in-text engravings and three folding maps at rear. Scarce in the original cloth and bright gilt.
This is not one of your more dry ‘Personal Narrative’ accounts, and is very much in the ‘Personal’. Entertainingly written, one wonders if Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Agincourt Fisher was in any way related to Harry Flashman....
Lt-Colonel Fisher begins his tales with the action at the Battle of Canton in late 1857, he remains in Canton, occupying his spare time with various adventures and sport (Cricket in Hong Kong, shooting snipe and riding ponies across the Canton countryside ‘Paper-Hunt’ style), and visits to Hong Kong and islands. Fisher then moves up the Pei-Ho River and is involved with the battles around the Taku Forts, as well as surveying the ‘Great Wall’, returning once again to the skirmishes on the Pei-Ho and around Canton. After the third and final ‘Battle of Taku Forts’ at the end of August 1860, Fisher is preparing to head to Peking but is taken sick and forced to spend two months on the hospital ship ‘Mauritius’ whilst hearing news from other wounded officers of the battles around Peking and the looting of the Summer Palace. In November of 1860 Fisher’s service in China ends with his shipment back to England. Arthur Agincourt Fisher, C.B (1830-1879), Royal Military Academy Class of '47. Royal Engineers from 1847. Crimean Campaign 1855-56, Second China Campaign 1857-60, retired Lieutenant-Colonel.
Note: Although this work is sometimes attributed to a George Battye Fisher, the only person of the name we can trace is Lieutenant George Battye Fisher who in 1862 was with the 3rd Bengal Infantry. Not the same man, unless a ruse of Flashmanian nature, so that he could marry both Caroline Eden in 1851 with whom he had six children, and, as George Battye Fisher, marry Jessie of North Yorkshire in 1862 (unsure of the children).
Provenance: With an inscription from a David Langsworthy, dated New Year’s day 1868.
Reference: Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 2378. Not in Löwendahl or Lust.
Large octavo (book size 23x16cm), pp. vi [2] 420 [three folding maps] [2]. In publisher’s patterned red cloth, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, brown coated endpapers. Condition: Very good, some wear to corners and spine ends, and minor splits to cloth along edges of spine, light spotting to verso of endpapers, frontispiece, and title. Ref: 112035 Price: HK$ 12,000
Illustrated with three wood-engraved plates, engraved plan, six in-text engravings and three folding maps at rear. Scarce in the original cloth and bright gilt.
This is not one of your more dry ‘Personal Narrative’ accounts, and is very much in the ‘Personal’. Entertainingly written, one wonders if Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Agincourt Fisher was in any way related to Harry Flashman....
Lt-Colonel Fisher begins his tales with the action at the Battle of Canton in late 1857, he remains in Canton, occupying his spare time with various adventures and sport (Cricket in Hong Kong, shooting snipe and riding ponies across the Canton countryside ‘Paper-Hunt’ style), and visits to Hong Kong and islands. Fisher then moves up the Pei-Ho River and is involved with the battles around the Taku Forts, as well as surveying the ‘Great Wall’, returning once again to the skirmishes on the Pei-Ho and around Canton. After the third and final ‘Battle of Taku Forts’ at the end of August 1860, Fisher is preparing to head to Peking but is taken sick and forced to spend two months on the hospital ship ‘Mauritius’ whilst hearing news from other wounded officers of the battles around Peking and the looting of the Summer Palace. In November of 1860 Fisher’s service in China ends with his shipment back to England. Arthur Agincourt Fisher, C.B (1830-1879), Royal Military Academy Class of '47. Royal Engineers from 1847. Crimean Campaign 1855-56, Second China Campaign 1857-60, retired Lieutenant-Colonel.
Note: Although this work is sometimes attributed to a George Battye Fisher, the only person of the name we can trace is Lieutenant George Battye Fisher who in 1862 was with the 3rd Bengal Infantry. Not the same man, unless a ruse of Flashmanian nature, so that he could marry both Caroline Eden in 1851 with whom he had six children, and, as George Battye Fisher, marry Jessie of North Yorkshire in 1862 (unsure of the children).
Provenance: With an inscription from a David Langsworthy, dated New Year’s day 1868.
Reference: Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 2378. Not in Löwendahl or Lust.
Large octavo (book size 23x16cm), pp. vi [2] 420 [three folding maps] [2]. In publisher’s patterned red cloth, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, brown coated endpapers. Condition: Very good, some wear to corners and spine ends, and minor splits to cloth along edges of spine, light spotting to verso of endpapers, frontispiece, and title. Ref: 112035 Price: HK$ 12,000