[Marsh, Catherine]; Vicars, Hedley. Memorials of Captain Hedley Vicars, Ninety-Seventh Regiment. London: James Nisbet and Co., 1856. Fortieth Thousand. [11853]
Red publisher's cloth bordered in blind, gilt wreath device to front, gilt titles to spine, slight edge-wear & soil, 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 inches. Steel-engraved portrait of Vicars with tissue guard; extra steel-engraved title page. xii, 315 clean pp., publisher's catalogue. Very good. Hardcover.
Hedley Shafto Johnstone Vicars (1826-1855), British army officer killed in action during the Crimean War. Born to a military family, Vicars took to the army as an officer in the 97th Foot. In 1851 he experienced a religious conversion, adopted evangelical views, and became an active Christian in his regiment, visiting the sick and praying with the men of his company, and while in the Crimea holding prayer meetings in his tent. He was killed in a sortie by the Russians from Sebastopol on the 22nd of March, 1855. His Memorials, by Catherine Marsh, contain many extracts from his diaries and letters.
Catherine Marsh (1818-1912), b. Colchester, England; d. Feltwell, England. The daughter of an Anglican clergyman, she lived in the vicarage of her father as long as he was alive. She developed a sympathetic personality, and was a firm evangelical in her beliefs. Colchester had been a military and naval center since Roman times, and Miss Marsh took a particular concern for the well-being of soldiers and sailors. Her biography Captain Hedley Vicars, a friend and evangelical evangelist, who fell in battle during the Crimean War, was well received by her contemporaries.
"The book resonated strongly with members of the church and individuals across the country, receiving multiple summarizations, synopsis, and abstracts in local and national newspapers...As a result of this work Marsh received letters of encouragement from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the evangelical John Bird Sumner, and the liberal Anglican Charles Kingsley..." - wikipedia.
