'Legs-Eleven'. Being the Story of the 11th Battalion (AIF) in the Great War of 1914-1918
Perth, Imperial Printing Company, 1940.
Octavo, xii (first and last blank), 667 pages with 6 maps and 68 illustrations. The first leaf is in fact the front flyleaf, with the half-title printed on the verso.
Green cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and front cover; cloth a little stained, rubbed and sunned, with slight wear to the extremities; inner hinges expertly reinforced; endpapers offset; occasional emphases in ink and pencil (mainly small marks in the margins); overall, a very good copy of a scarce work.
Provenance: the family of Lieutenant James Murray Aitken, killed in action near Harbonnières on 10 August 1918. He is mentioned by name several times in the text. 'An extract from a letter written by Private J.M. Aitken in the early days of camp life' is found on pages 13 and 14; he appears in a photograph reproduced on page 17, with the caption 'Men from the Goldfields in original 11th Battalion. (Lieut.) Jim Aitken, top left'; on page 284, it is reported that 'Lieut. J.M. Aitken was knocked over and slightly wounded by the same shell' that killed Lieutenant George Walters at Pozières; and on page 612, 'Captain Le Nay fell and with him the gallant Lieut. Jim Aitken, who had been at the Landing at Anzac and in most of the big stunts since that day'. Inscribed in ink on the final blank page are some brief biographical details (including 'inlisted Aug 14 - 1914') and a few page references. A contemporary newspaper cutting is also present: it refers to the Pozières Battle, and both Aitken and Belford, the author of this history, are listed as being recommended 'For Conspicuous Gallantry', as well as being 'wounded but remaining on duty'. Dornbusch 299; Fielding and O'Neill, page 226; Trigellis-Smith 213.
Item #129419
Price (AUD):
$2,000.00