Four Yearso Service in India (Punjab Campaign 1848-49)

Written after the author had retired from the army into the ranks of the Leicestershire Police this is a rare worms eye view of British military service in India in the mid-19th century. John Ryder was an illiterate working man when he took the queens shilling ( he learned to read and write in the army) but as the editor of his memoirs patronisingly writes though ungrammatical the bright ore gleamed through the rough earth in which [the manuscript] was encrusted. The book is indeed a vividly rough and ready acount of the authors Indian military service including honest accounts of atrocities ( some by British troops); military actions including the siege of Mooltan; as well as the more ordinary trials and tribulations in the heat and dust of India. An eye-opening account of great value to all those who want a taste of the sweaty reality at the sharp end of life in the armed service of the East India Company.