NAM.2009-02-110-407

Letter from Lt Gen Sir F S Roberts to Sir John Cowell, HQ Madras Army, 28 Dec 1883. Ilbert Bill. My paper on reading Lord Hartington’s speech, decided not to publish. Army will require additional expense if one wishes to keep it voluntary. Agree with you that would not be prudent for me to publish on Britain and Russia. If Anglo-Indian Force sent against the Mahdi hope I might command it. 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).