Description
Inscribed first edition of Listening for the Drums by British Army General Ian Hamilton.
Octavo, 280pp. Red cloth, title stamped in gilt over green on spine. Stated “first published in Mcmxliv” on copyright page. Complete with frontispiece portrait, 27 photographs, 2 maps and 5 facsimiles. Illustrated endpapers with maps of India. Bookplate of The Press Club on half-title, remnant of another on copyright page. Includes the publisher’s exceptionally scarce dust jacket, retail price on front flap, chipping to edges with some loss to covers.
This copy is signed by General Ian Hamilton on the copyright page: “For the Press Club with all good wishes from the Author. Ian Hamilton. London – 1-8-’44.”
Sir Ian Hamilton (1853-1947) was a British Army general who served as Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I. A career military officer, Hamilton was wounded in action at the Battle of Majuba during the First Boer War, leaving his left hand permanently injured. He also served in the Second Boer War, the Russo-Japanese War and finally the First World War. His command of the Allied Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli in 1915, at the age of 62, was his final military command. His orders were to gain control of the Dardanelles from the Ottoman Empire and to capture Constantinople, but his invasion stalled and resulted in heavy casualties. Hamilton was recalled to London and lived until 1947.
