Typescript diary of the first Anglo-Abyssinian campaign against Sayyid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, the "Mad Mullah." COBBOLD, Ralph Patteson.

A granular firsthand account by one of the two liaisons to Britain's Abyssinian allies during the 1901 campaign, adding much colour to the official published account. We have traced only one other confirmed copy, in the Cobbold papers at Yale. The campaign was mounted in response to the attack by 6,000 of Hassan's Dervishes on an Abyssinian force at Jijiga. In March, Lieutenant-Colonel Eric J. E. Swayne, Indian Army, was tasked with raising a force of local levies, supported by a staff of 21 British officers, including Cobbold (1869-1965), who was assigned to Abyssinian forces in the Ogaden. The campaign, a series of independent British and Abyssinian actions, failed to capture Hassan and rout his forces but nonetheless provided Swayne with important on-the-ground experience for subsequent efforts to quell the Dervish rebellion. Cobbold's diary, covering the period from 8 March to 30 September, is far from a dry summary, adding a large amount of detail on the day-to-day official and social life of an officer on campaign and his dealings with the imperious Ras Makonnen, to whom he is assigned as an advisor. He records his positive impressions of the Abyssinian forces and their encounters with enemy detachments, as well as problems with looting, discipline, and food supplies. Commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1888, Cobbold followed a period of service in India with an expedition to the Pamir Mountains, publishing Innermost Asia: Travel and Sport in the Pamirs in 1900. He retired at the rank of colonel after the First World War, having won the DSO and been mentioned twice in despatches. In addition to the Yale copy, it is possible that a copy is still held in the Whitehall Library of the Ministry of Defence and that this example was deaccessioned as a duplicate. Octavo. With 306 typescript leaves, each typed one side only. Contemporary brown buckram, spine lettered in gilt. Ex-War Office Library, with shelf mark on spine, ink stamps, and later M.O.D. deaccession stamp; pencilled notes on front endpaper, occasional marginalia and colour pencil underlining in text. Shadow from old label at foot of spine, a few old adhesive tape repairs in gutter of text, even toning: very good.