DETAILS OF ITEM
Book
Title. The Life of Sir Percy Cox
Author/Editor. Philip Graves
Publisher. Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.
Publishing
Date. 1941
Edition. 1st
Hard
Cover/Soft Cover. Hard with no d/j
Pages. 341
Condition. Book only in fair condition – a working copy,
expected general discolouring for age, some light foxing, woodworm activity in
first quarter of book (mostly restricted to page margins), pages lightly
creased/rippled in places, binding a little loose and a couple of photograph
pages almost detached. Boards well
worn/rubbed, scratched/indented, stained/marked, nibbling at top of spine and
scuffing/bumping to edges/corners – spine faded. Despite stated flaws and other minor flaws
book complete, pages and text clean and overall condition still acceptable and
perfectly useable.
Description
of Contents. A biography of Sir Percy
Cox, a British Indian Army Officer and Colonial Office Administrator in the
Middle East who was one of the major figures in the creation of Iraq. The Author’s Preface reads as follows – In
writing this life of that remarkable diplomatist and administrator, the late
Sir Percy Cox, I have been to some extent handicapped by the lack of
documents. He kept no diaries, except of
his exploring and hunting trips, and many of his personal experiences have not
been set down in the official records.
One of the most modest of men, he never described his own struggles or
successes. A couple of papers in the Journal
of the Royal Geographical Society, several contributors to ornithological
magazines, an account of the pedigrees of two Somali tribes, a valuable chapter
in Volume II of the late Miss Gertrude Bell’s published Letters, and a number
of excellent articles in The
Encyclopaedia Britannica are all his literary remains. I have dealt at some length with his
experiences in Somaliland and Muscat, since the years that he spent in
those posts were the formative period of his career. I have devoted less proportionate space to
his work as Acting Minister at Teheran, since for the greater part of his
service there he was carrying out a policy determined chiefly by Lord Curzon,
instead of guiding and often shaping the decisions of his Majesty’s Government
as he did in Iraq. I have devoted what some readers may consider
excessive attention to his difficulties with General Maude and to the affair of
Seyyid Talib for the following reasons.
There has been a tendency in some military circles to put some of the
blame for the fall of Kut upon Cox’s shoulders, which is grossly unfair, while
the narrative of his difficulties with the Army Commander may be a useful
reminder to statesmen and soldiers in the event of another oriental war. A full account of the circumstances of Seyyid
Talib’s deportation was necessary to destroy the legend, unfavourable to Cox,
which grew up around the affair and was given wider currency than he realised
for some years. I am greatly indebted to
Lady Cox for her help on many points connected with her husband’s life and
services and more especially for allowing me full access to the documents in
her possession. The following are the
principal sources which the author has drawn upon – Foreign Office Annual
Reports on Persia to 1913; Administration Reports of the Persian Gulf and
Muscat; The Letters of Gertrude Bell
(two volumes); Colonial Office Report on Iraq Administration, March 1920 March
1923; Loyalties by Sir Arnold Wilson;
The Official History of the Campaign in Mesopotamia (four volumes); India
Office Correspondence to 1913; Iraq,
a study by Philip Willard Ireland; Journal of the Royal Geographical Society; The Life of Lord Curzon (three volumes);
The Independent Arab by Sir Hubert
Young. An extremely scarce and highly
prized title.
Photography. B/W
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