AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY SOLDIER AND WRITER ON MILITARY MATTERS MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN BARTON STERLING.

[London]: 14 February, 1896., 1896.. Fine. - Letter filling one side of a 7 inch high by 4-3/8 wide sheet of light gray letterhead with the address printed in raised lettering at the top. Signed "John Sterling". Folded twice for mailing. Near fine. <p>Sterling writes to Mrs. Richard Ford thanking her for sending him a military book about the Jameson Raid. ["It is] of great interest, & is in every way far superior to the English version of the same events published at a much later date. In military matters the Germans know apparently very well what to say & what not to say: perhaps in political matters they are not always as wise. The Transvaal is most serious in all its bearings & Rhodes, Jameson & Co have spoilt for all time a splendid hand of trumps."<p>Major-General John Barton Sterling [1840-1926] entered the army in 1861, serving in Egypt and the Sudan. He was wounded at Tel-el-Kebir in 1882 and subsequently commanded the Coldstream Guards until his retirement in 1901. He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Atheneum Club. At the Atheneum he befriended Kipling who wrote of him that he "dealt faithfully with me when I made technical errors in any tale of mine that interested him." ["Something of Myself", page 143].