Our second card gave us another man, a military man called "Stirling", who, so the card tells us, was injured at Tientsin, during the Boxer Rebellion. Now we don`t think he has any connection to the castle either, and again it is not named for a family, but for the stone it sits upon, known as Stirling Sill, and which was once part of a glacier.
Our man today is Lieutenant Anselan John Buchanan Stirling, born on the 27th of June, 1875, and he was on a ship called H.M.S. Barfleur, during the third China War, otherwise known as the Boxer Rebellion.
On June 9th and 10th, 1900, he was involved in the relief of Peking, an action which proved very costly indeed, sixty-five men losing their lives, two of whom were officers, and two hundred and thirty men injured. Though he was injured during this series of battles, and severely enough that he was supposedly invalided out of the Navy with a regular monetary payment, he went on to have a distinguished Naval career, on several vessels, including service in the First World War, during which he was in charge of H.M.S. Faulknor, head of the 12th Destroyer Flotilla at the Battle of Jutland.
After that he was Captain of several more ships, ending with H.M.S. Argus and Columbine, and then he seems to have started to move away from the fighting, becoming Captain in Charge at Port Edgar, a military base in the Forth of Forth near Edinburgh in 1922; though his last ship, the H.M.S. Columbine, was actually part of this base. In 1924 he moved on, to Hong Kong, where he was the Commodore in Charge. Then, in 1927, he became an Aide-de-Camp to King George V, but at the end of the year he turns up as being the Admiral Superintendent of the Chatham Dockyard.
At the time of his retirement, in April, 1931, he was a Vice-Admiral, and Companion of the Order of the Bath, with the right to wear the French Legion d`Honneur medal and the Order of St. Anne of Russia.
But he died, just five years after he retired, at the relatively early age of sixty.
This set first appears in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
- BOXER REBELLION - SKETCHES (A). Sm. 70 x 37. Black and white. Unnd. (25 known). See H.46 ... M122-2
It is part of the first group of cards ever issued by Stephen Mitchell, the others being several groups of actors and actresses, and a set showing Regimental crests, nicknames, and collar badges. None of these cards are titled as to a set name, and they all date from approximately 1899 to 1902, a time before Stephen Mitchell joined the Imperial Tobacco Company, and we know that because the next sets, issued from 1903, carry wording to show they are part of Imperial Tobacco. We also know that the theatrical personalities are all part of sets called FROGA A, B, C, and D, which were issued by several other companies.
H.46 takes us to the handbook, which at that time was published by the London Cigarette Card Company, though the work was jointly done by their head, Colonel Charles Lane Bagnall, and our editor, Edward Wharton-Tigar. And it is rather a lengthy listing, so it may appear in stages, but lets see how we go. It reads :
- H.46. BOER WAR AND BOXER REBELLION - Sketches. (adopted title). Front per Fig.46. The series was issued in black and white by Cadle, Lambert & Butler, and Mitchell and the same basic designs were used for a coloured issue by Phillips and Anonymous. There are a few minor dfferences in letterpress as between the two groups. All cards are unnumbered
Pre 1919
A. Anonymous - Coloured, plain back. 25 cards, all Boxer Rebellion subjects.
C. Cadle - Black and white, "Cadle`s Cigarettes are the Best...." back. 12 mixed subjects seen.
L. Lambert & Butler - Black and white, descriptive back. 22 mixed subjects seen.
M. Mitchell - Black and white, "Prize Crop" back (Illustrated in C.W. page 679). 25 cards seen, all Boxer Rebellion subjects.
P. Phillips - Coloured, "Guinea Gold" back. 25 cards, all Boxer Rebellion subjects.
41 subjects seen: the 25 cards in the two coloured issues are listed first, with letters, as above, indicating cards seen.
BOXER REBELLION
(Coloured and/or Black and White)
.
1. AP - Admiral Alexieff, Russian in Command of Allied Forces - L - M - Rear Admiral Alexieff, Russian Admiral 2. AP - Adm. Sir Edward Seymour, British Admiral in China - L - M - Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, British Admiral in China 3. AP - L - M - Admiral Kempff, U.S.A. Commander in China 4. AP - M - British Legation, Pekin 5. AP - Captain E.H. Bayly, H.M.S. "Aurora" (at Tientsin) - C - M - Capt. E.H. Bayly, H.M.S. "Aurora" (at Tientsin) 6. AP - Com. David Beatty, D.S.O. H.M.S. "Barfleur". Wounded at Tientsin 7. AP - Czar of Russia 8. AP - Emperor of Germany 9. AP - M - Emperor of Japan 10. AP - M - Empress Dowager of China 11. AP - M - General Fukushima, Commanding Japanese Troops 12. AP - M - Kwang Hau, Present Emperor of China 13. AP - C - M - Lieut. A.J.B. Stirling, H.M.S. "Barfleur". Injured at Tientsin 14. AP - C - L - M - Li Hung Chang 15. AP - M - Major-General Stoessel, Commands Russian Forces at Tientsin 16. AP - M - M. Pichon. The French Minister at Pekin 17. AP - M - Prince Ching, Friendly to Europeans 18. AP - M - Prince Chun, Present Emperor`s Father 19. AP - M - Prince Tuan. Father of Heir Apparent 20. AP - M - Sir Chih-Chen Lo Feng-Luh. Chinese Ambassador to England 21. AP - Sir Claude MacDonald, British Minister at Pekin - C - L - M - Sir Claud MacDonald, British Minister at Pekin 22. AP - C - L - M - Sir Robert Hart, Bart. Director of Chinese Customs 23. AP - The Late Baron Von Kettler. German Minister at Pekin - L - M - Late Baron Von Kettler. German Minister at Pekin 24. AP - The Late Count Muravieff. Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs . - L - M - Late Count Muravieff. Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs - C - M - Capt. E.H. Bayly, H.M.S. "Aurora" (at Tientsin) 25 AP - M - Yuan Shis Kai. Governor of Shantung (Black and White only )
26. - M - Count Von Waldersee. Commander European Forces 27. - M Mr. Edwin Conger. U.S.A. Minister at Pekin BOER WAR
(Black and White only)
28 . - C - L - Captain Mansel-Jones, V.C. 29. - C - L - C.I.V. Pte. No. 968 30. - C - L - Commandant de Wet 31. - C - L - Ex-President Kruger 32. - C - L - Hon. W. D. Schreiner, Late Premier, Cape Colony 33. - L - Late Col. Dick -Cunyngham, Killed at Ladysmith 34. - L - Late Gen. Woodgate, Killed at Spion Kop 35. - L - Late Lieut. Roberts, V.C. 36. - L - Late Major Gen. Penn-Symons 37. - C - L - Lord Kitchener at the Heilbron, S.A. 38. - C - L - Lord Roberts at the Front 39. - L - Lt. Gen. Forestier Walker 40. - C - L - Private, C.I.V. Queen`s Westminster Contingent 41. - C - L - Volksraad, Pretoria
Now looking in the London Cigarette Card catalogue, issued uniform with that handbook, we find that only two sets are given a date of issue, and that the retail prices (for 1955) of the respective issues, but not the anonymous version, were as follows :
- C. - Cadle - odds, 12 cards only, from 50/- to 140/-. Complete sets unavailable.
- L. - Lambert & Butler - 1904 - odds, 22 cards only, from 30/- to 100/-. Complete sets unavailable.
- M. - Mitchell - odds, 25 cards, from 40/- to 120/-. Complete sets unavailable.
- P. - Phillips - 1904 - odds, 25 cards, from 30/- to 80/-. Complete sets unavailable.
By the time of our updated World Tobacco Issues Index the listing of our set appears as :
- BOXER REBELLION - SKETCHES (A). Sm. 70 x 37. B&W. Unnd. (25). See H.46 ... M757-120
The H.46 here takes us to our updated handbook, published by us in 2003. Most of the wording is the same as above, but it does explain the wording "There are a few minor differences in letterpress as between the two groups" as "the captions in black and white being the (a) choice" or, in other words, the reason for certain numbers having two titles in the listing. The only part that is really altered is the description of each issuer, which now reads :
Pre 1919
Anonymous - Coloured, plain back. Nos. 1/25, all Boxer Rebellion subjects. Cards have been seen in black and white with captions in blue
Cadle - Black and white, "Cadle`s Cigarettes are the Best...." back. 12 mixed subjects known - Nos. 5, 13, 14, 21, 22, 28/30, 37, 38, 40 and 41
[New Issuer] Edwards Ringer and Bigg - Black and white, descriptive back. Nos. 29 and 37 known.
Lambert & Butler - Black and white, descriptive back. Series of 25 - Nos. 1/3, 14, 20/24 and 26/41.
Mitchell - Black and white, "Prize Crop" back. All Boxer Rebellion subjects. Nos. 1/27, excluding 7 and 8 (25)
P. Phillips - Coloured, "Guinea Gold" back. 25 cards, all Boxer Rebellion subjects.
41 subjects known: the 25 cards in the two coloured issues are listed first, followed by the balance of the Boxer Rebellion subjects and then the Boer War.
The list in the original handbook is then repeated, without the coding initials. It seems to be the same, but I may have mistyped two -
- 12. Kwang Hsu, not Hau
- 23 a. Ketteler not Kettler (the other one is Kettler)