Duty, Honor, Empire; The Life and Times of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen

E-316: Random House. Very Good in Very Good- dust jacket. 1970. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Hardcover. 8vo. Published by Random House, New York. 1970. Xi, 412 pgs. Illustrated. First Edition/First Printing. DJ has light shelf-wear present to the DJ extremities. Bound in cloth boards with titles present to the spine and front board. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. Richard Meinertzhagen's life began at the high noon of Victorian power, and his remarkable career coincided with England's gradual loss of mastery over one fifth of the earth's surface. Born in the spring of 1878, Meinertzhagen endured the harsh schooling of the Victorians at a sadistic private establishment and at Harrow. He went first to India as a career infantry officer, and then for four years he roamed Kenya pacifying tribesmen and shooting big game. He served the Empire in South Africa, Mauritius, and again in India, managing one furlough during which he spied on the Russian defenses of Sevastopol, rescued a little Jewish girl from a pogrom, and delivered a baby on a Greek train. By 1914 he had become a staff officer and sailed to East Africa for the disastrous and forgotten campaign against the extraordinary von Lettow Vorbeck. He emerged a superb intelligence officer and later helped Allenby smash the Turks at Gaza and free Jerusalem. At the Peace Conference at Versailles, he urged the Jewish case against his close friend Lawrence of Arabia and continued his vigorous championship as Allenby's chief political officer in Palestine. EB; 9.4 X 6.6 X 1.6 inches; 412 pages .