WORLD WAR I - MESOPOTAMIA Collection of letters, photographs and ephemera relating to the career of Major James Wickham Ley, D.S.O., of the 2nd, attached to the 7th, Battalion (The Prince of Wales's) North Staffordshire Regiment, comprising over 70 letters to his mother and other members of his family from various postings, Blomfontein and Johannesburg in the Boer War, Simla, Lucknow and the North West Frontier, Basra, Mesopotamia ('Mespots') and Baghdad in the First World War, c.300 pages, with envelopes, dust-staining and usual signs of wear, 4to and 8vo, South Africa, India, Mesopotamia and Persia, 13 October 1897 to 22 September 1918; with some 70 photographs of family and camp life, his commission signed 'Victoria RI', a Stanford's map of Lower Mesopotamia, other personal papers and newspaper cuttings, with documents relating to his death, etc. (quantity) Footnotes: 'I JUST GOT A BULLET THROUGH THE LEFT SHOULDER & SHALL BE ALRIGHT AGAIN VERY SOON': correspondence from a career-soldier. Many of Major Ley's letters from India describe a seemingly never-ending round of parties and sporting events, whilst making light of impending skirmishes with the Afghans ('there may be a bust up...'), possibly to spare the feelings of his mostly female correspondents to whom he is most solicitous ('I think you're quite right that Surbiton is not a very healthy place for anybody'). Weeks later he is in 'Mespots' with Expeditionary Force D, tormented by insects and sandstorms and writes with evident frustration at the lack of activity ('we've been doing practically nothing here & it looks as if we shall go on doing it...') and relying on a trickle of news from the Western Front ('I see the French are using gases and burning liquid which seems rather a pity but suppose it has got to be done...'). He was finally selected to join the so-called 'Hush-Hush' army, Dunsterforce, which suffered a heavy defeat at Baku ('Didn't take my boots off for over ten days and had a pretty worrying time of it...') and was forced to evacuate (in his last letter he writes 'I have lost all my kit... I've been through so many stages... it would be difficult to know where to begin...'). At the battle he held a crucial position with a handful of men, enabling others to escape but enduring heavy losses of his own battalion. The responsibility for this was too much and, suffering from depression, James Ley took his own life on 22 October 1918. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com