Home / Browse / Military & Naval / The Image of War, or Service in the Chin Hills.
NEWLAND, A.G.E., Surgeon-Captain.
The Image of War, or Service in the Chin Hills.
With an Introductory Historical Note by J.D. MacNabb esq., Political Officer, S. Chin Hills.
Publisher: Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., 1894
Stock code: 59472
Price: £1,875 Currency Conversion
First edition. Superb photographic record of the punitive expedition in the Chin Hills, 1891-2, as suggested in the blurb in Thacker & Co's catalogue bound in at the rear, "No work has yet appeared, in Europe or America, of this beautiful character. The price to subscribers is Rs.25 but only a small edition is printed, Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co. hold themselves at liberty to raise the price upon publication to Rs. 30. From its nature the book cannot be reprinted, and subscribers will possess a work of extreme beauty, interest and rarity." Newland returned reports on the campaign to an Indian newspaper and his photographs were to win him five bronze medals from the Photographic Society of London. He became so enamoured of Chin Hills and their people during this expedition that he resigned from the army in 1899 whilst stationed in Hakha, and married Si Na, daughter of Sang Cin and Thla Cer the same year. His son was born the following year. He set up his home in considerable style, "An avid reader and lover of music... his library in Haka contained the complete works of Dickens, the Brontës, Eliot, Scott, Thackeray and other classic authors, while among his record collection he numbered the works of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and a host of other composers." He also established a clinic in his home, having bought up spare medical supplies from his Regiment. He also experimented with the growing of various English fruits and vegetables, "He grew the giant corn (maize) from California and so successful was he and so palatable was it to the Chins, that to this day it is their staple food, being known as 'Newland Fawn-Voi' in Chin, or Newland Corn." Newland had intended to send his only son, Sam, to St. Pauls and in April 1911 returned to England, but found the life unconducive and so they returned to Hakha in September 1913. 7 years later they returned to Britain again, to Edinburgh where Sam studied forestry. Major Newland died there in 1925 from bowel cancer. Sam went on to become one of the 'British Officer Johnnies,' men with local knowledge of Burma operating behind Japanese lines during WWII, and it is from Lt.-Gen. Sir Geoffrey Evans's account of their services, The Johnnies, that the above quotations are drawn. We thank Tom Donovan for drawing our attention to this source of biographical information on Newland, and to Wim Vervest, son-in-law of Sam Newland for correcting some significant errors of fact. Uncommon and splendid.
Quarto. Original plum cloth, title gilt to spine and upper board, large and highly-detailed gilt block of a visit to a Chin chief on the upper board, top edge gilt, dark green surface-paper endpapers. Collotype frontispiece and 34 other similar plates, 160 collotype illustrations to the text. Slightly rubbed, spine a touch mottled, front hinge carefully repaired, slight foxing to the prelims, light toning, a very good copy.
