Full, frank and fraternal

The Army Records Society was founded 20 years ago in order to publish original documents describing the operations and development of the British army. Each year, in conjunction with Sutton Publishing, the society produces a meticulously edited volume printed on high-quality paper. Occasionally the subject matter, though important, is arcane and a shade dry: volume VIII, for instance, The British Army and Signals Intelligence in the Great War, still brings a knowing sigh from members. Usually, however, they are fascinating — in more recent years Lord Roberts and the War in South Africa, Rawlinson in India, and Amherst and the Conquest of Canada. And from time to time they are gems, significant papers hitherto unknown. This year’s volume is in that category. Indeed, the society says that ‘these letters represent the most important new source to be published on the Peninsular War in the last 70 years’.

Alexander Gordon was a 22-year-old aide-de-camp to his uncle, Sir David Baird, during the Corunna campaign 1808-9, and then ADC to the Duke of Wellington for the next six years, until he was killed at Waterloo. This volume comprises the letters written to his brother, Lord Aberdeen, later foreign secretary, and prime minister during the Crimean war, and Aberdeen’s replies, together with occasional others from family or friends. The remarkable thing about Gordon’s letters is their insight, fullness and frankness. They form an almost continuous narrative of the campaigns, and often reveal more of the thinking behind operations than do the duke’s own despatches. Indeed, they are so frank that in one reply Aberdeen begs more discretion, which fortunately his brother seems not to have heeded. And so, for instance, we read from Corunna on 14 January 1809:

Of Wellington, on the other hand, Gordon is almost wholly admiring.