NAM.2009-02-110-403

Letter from Maj Gen Sir F S Roberts to Sir John Cowell, Ootacamund, 2 Jun 1883. Horrified to hear that Lord Hartington spoke so inaccurately about the difficulty and value of the Kabul operations during the Wolseley annuity debate. Have written to Lord Lytton; hope he will publish my letter in order to set the facts straight. Russia and central Asia. Threat to Herat. 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).