Gordon at Khartoum
( General Charles George 'Chinese' GORDON ) BLUNT, Wilfrid Scawen
OUTSTANDING ASSOCIATION COPY IN FULL MOROCCO OF THE RARE FIRST EDITION
Published: Stephen Swift, 1911
Stock code: 19632
Price: £860.00
8vo., First Edition, with portrait frontispiece in photogravure (original tissue guard present), Contents page mounted on new leaf; handsomely bound in full dark red crushed morocco, sides with gilt frame border, back with raised bands, second and fourth compartments lettered and ruled in gilt, all other compartments tooled in gilt, gilt top, hand-made endpapers, ribbon marker, gilt from front board mounted on new leaf at front, in custom-made-slip-case, an elegant copy ideal as a gift or for presentation.
THIS COPY WAS PRESENTED BY SIR HUMPHREY BELL TO THE LIBRARY OF CHRIST'S HOSPITAL SCHOOL. IT BEARS HIS PRESENTATION BOOKPLATE ON FRONT PASTE-DOWN WITH NEAT PRESS-MARK OB FRONTISPIECE RECTO. This scarce account is more usually found in the second impression of the following year. One of the greatest English public servants of the Sudan, Sir [Bernard] Humphrey Bell (1884-1959) was the second son of the Rev. J.T. Bell, headmaster of Christ's Hospital School (then at Hertford). He was educated at Christ's Hospital (1894-1903) followed by a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1906. In the following year he joined the Sudan Political Service and in 1912 married Lilian Constance Bagot, daughter of the Rev. G.P. Dew. In 1917 he was called to the bar at Gray's Inn, and from 1918-1923 served in Baghdad, first as President of the Court of First Instance and then as President of the Court of Appeal. In 1923 he returned to Sudan as Judge of the High Court, having first been appointed CBE in that year. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Sudan in 1926, and received the insignia of the second class of the Order of the Nile from the King of Egypt in 1929. From 1930-1936 he served as Legal Secretary to the Government of the Sudan, after which he retired, and was created KBE in the following year. During WWII he served as Assistant Legal Advisor to the Home Office. Sir Humphrey Bell died in Hampshire in 1959. A SPLENDID AND HIGHLY RELEVANT ASSOCIATION COPY OF THE RARE FIRST EDITION.