Big Game Hunting. Mabuscript accounts of lengthy Indian hunting trips by a serving British officer, 1908 & 1909

I acquired these accounts years ago, in the early 2000s, and have never found the time to read and analyse them properly so am now offering them for sale in the hopw that they appeal to someone with the dedication and specialist interest to do so.

The accounts are written in ink in a very legible hand in a stout old military style ledger with lined paper [folio page size 12½ x 8 ins.]. Sadly the author has not put his name to the hunting diary but there are clues which lead to his discovery. He begins his first 43 page account oa trip from \February 29th to May 16th giving us tantalising clues: A shootbing trip in the Deccan in 1908. Being stationed at Secunderabad in 1907, I joined in with three other men, C. F. M. [almost certainly fellow officers in his regiment and, considering Edwardian ways, the initials likely to be their surnames and the F probably stands for someone named Faber] to apply for one of the preserved shoots in the Nizam’s dominion for the months of March, April, & May in 1908. The aurhor helpfully prints the names of the places through which they travel in capitals –WARANGAL, PURKUL, PAKHALL, WOORTELLA, SAMNAPALLI, VUJANAPULLY, TARCHERLA, KAPRA  in the first week. There is considerable effort put into tracking tigers but numerous other animls are mentioned and he sometimes details dimensions and where the bullets have entered and left the animal. A long entry on March 12th notes he has shot his first tiger. The author mentions on March 21st that they celebrated my 12th regimental birthday which could be useful in tracking the man through army lists. At this point he also identifies one of his companions Faber arrived directly we reached camp. There are a few pages of a little hunting in October but the next substantial account is A Fortnight’s trip in the Godavery District 11 pages Nov. 13th to 29th. There are couple of other short shoots around Xmas 1908. The other lengthy account is of Hot weather shoot 1909 which is Feb 27th to May 3rd and covers 42 pages with some hand drawn plans. In this trip he travels again with his colleague C. There are a few other pages on a 10 dyas leave expedition in November 2009. The trips appear very exhausting but they are refreshed with bottles of chmpagne from time to tome.  The remainder of the book is blank.  jul5/1