With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
This book, which has been written by a relative of the late Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, gives a deeply interesting account of the Admiral’s long and varied career in China, the Near East, Africa and Australia.
Entering the Navy as long ago as 1857, when the sailing ship still held the seas, Sir Harry, as a young cadet, thirteen years of age, took part in the China War of 1858-60, being present in the Calcutta’s launch at the capture of the Taku forts.
In 1863, when only nineteen years of age, he held Ning-po for three months against the rebels, with 1,300 Chinese troops under his command. He served for two commissions as Commander of the battleship Hercules, and acted as Flag-captain in both the Channel and Mediterranean Squadrons.
During the Egyptian Campaign of 1882, he acted as principal Transport officer, and after his promotion to Flag rank, was appointed Commander-in-Chief on the Cape Station, 1895-98. Whilst holding this important position, he landed the Naval Brigade which captured Mweli, the stronghold of a rebel Arab chief; part of his squadron bombarded the palace at Zanzibar; and, in 1897, he commanded the famous expedition for the capture of Benin, which was successfully accomplished.
For more than two years he commanded the Channel Squadron, and the work contains a chapter devoted to the naval manœuvres of 1900.
The book terminates with a well-told account of Sir Harry’s Governorship of New South Wales, and a chapter on his short-lived but no less famous brother, Commander Wyatt Rawson, who led the historic night march over the desert to Tel-el-Kebir.
RICHARD CORFIELD OF SOMALILAND.
By H. F. PREVOST-BATTERSBY,