Lumsden. Inspection of the Q.M.G. Office, Army Headquarters, Simla.1871

 A manuscript letter in a fine secretarial hand and marked in purple ink at the bottom of the single page reads Original officially recorded in Quarter Mr. General’s Office. It is headed Inspection of the Quarter Master General’s Office, Army Head Quarters. Simla, by the Right Honorable the Commander in Chief in  India on the 9th August 1871.  The c-in-c, General Lord Napier of Magdala gives a very positive report of the office and its efficiency shewing a state of administrative efficiency which is highly creditable in the first degree to Colonel Lumsden and next to the officers and subordinate officers under his orders.      The letter, on the first side of a 10 x 8 ins bifolium,  is pasted by the final blank page to an old card album page. mar14/4    SOLD 18th March 2023

Provenance: From a large archive of the General’s papers passed down through descendants of his brother, General Sir Harry Lumsden. Lumsden himself had no children.

General Sir Peter Stark Lumsden, G.C.B., C.S.I.. A.D.C. [1829-1918] had a very distinguished career in India, China, and Afghanistan and was the author of the standard work on his brother’s regiment Lumsden of the Guides. He joined the Bengal Army in 1847 and first saw action on the N.W.F. in 1851. In 1857 he was on a special mission to Kandahar and served in the China War with Napier., Bhutan War 1854, QMG India 1868-72, acting Resident Hyderabad 1873, Chief of the Staff in India in 1879 and headed the British Commission for the Demarcation of the N. W. Boundary of Afghanistan 1884-5.  He was made G.C.B. and an ADC to Queen Victoria.