NAM.2009-02-110-294

One of four letters to Sir John Cowell from his sister Mrs Fanny Beadon, nd. Reacting to news of the death of Gen Gordon. She remembers his last words to her, worries about his dependent sisters, and is indignant at the attempt of Reginald Barnes to interpose himself at this time. From the archive of Maj Gen Sir John Cowell, 1854-1893. Cowell served with the Royal Engineers in the Baltic in 1854 and in the Crimea in 1855. As Master of the Queen’s Household from 1866 until his death in 1894, Cowell acted as military gatekeeper to Queen Victoria and was the man to whom Victorian generals wrote if they wished their views to be communicated to the monarch. Associated with the Crimean War (1854-1856), 1st Sudan War (1884-1885), the Egyptian War (1882), the Sekukuni Campaign (1878-1879) and the 2nd Afghan War (1878-1881).’