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Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley (1833-1913) - Autograph Letter Signed "Wolseley." Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces; the model for Gilbert & Sullivan's "modern Major-General'
Written from 52 Davies Street, Berkeley Square, on stationary with the printed Hill Street address struck through and a coronet and cipher monogram. Undated, but datable to June 1887 from its contents.
Transcription:
"My dear Mrs Holl, if you have not a good position from which to see the procession next Tuesday, will you & your daughter come to my room in the War Office? It would be a great pleasure to me to think that you make use of my room. if you have already made your arrangements, will you kindly send me back the enclosed tickets - I hope your husband has not been overworking himself. Very sincerely yours, Wolseley."
The recipient is Annie Laura Holl, wife of the celebrated portrait painter Frank Holl R.A. who had painted Wolseley in 1883. The procession is Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, Tuesday 21 June 1887, and the invitation was accepted - the Holls are recorded as Wolseley's guests at the War Office for the procession in William Allingham: A Diary (London, 1907), p 359.
Frank Holl dies thirteen months later, on 31 July 1888, aged forty-three, his death widely attributed to overwork - which gives Wolseley's closing line an unusual poignancy
Condition: Mailing folds; offsetting and light toning to the blank leaf; otherwise clean and fully legible.
