Three Months of My Life

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Three Months of My Life

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Title: Three Months of My Life
Author: J. F. Foster
Release Date: November 30, 2004 [EBook #14213]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MONTHS OF MY LIFE ***

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[Transcriber's Note: At the conclusion of this diary, the author writes:
"If these notes should ever be written out by my relations after my
death--for I am now like to die, let me beg that the many mistakes in
spelling, consequent upon the hurry and roughness of the writing, may
by corrected and not set down to ignorance." The relations may indeed
have corrected many errors, but many remain, and they have been left
as in the original.]

THREE MONTHS OF MY LIFE.
A DIARY
OF THE LATE J.F. FOSTER, ASSISTANT-SURGEON, HER
MAJESTY'S 36TH FOOT.

_Edited by LIZZIE A. FREETH._
GUERNSEY: LE LIEVRE, PRINTER, STAR-OFFICE, 10,
BORDAGE STREET. LONDON: SIMPKIN & MARSHALL 1873.

I DEDICATE,
_Firstly,_
MY GRATITUDE TO GOD-- FOR HIS MERCY IN PRESERVING
ME THUS FAR, AND BRINGING ME SAFELY HOME AFTER
SEVERAL YEARS SERVICE IN INDIA, TO MEET AGAIN ALL
(SAVE ONE) THOSE MOST DEAR TO ME.
_And Secondly,_
MY BOOK TO MY PARENTS, WITH THE CERTAIN AND HAPPY
KNOWLEDGE THAT THEY WILL READ WITHOUT CRITICISM
AND ONLY WITH AFFECTIONATE INTEREST, THE ACCOUNT

OF MY THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES WHILE WANDERING
IN A REMOTE AND LOVELY CORNER OF THE EARTH.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.
In laying the following pages before the public, I do so with a feeling
that they will be read with interest, not only by those who knew the
writer, but those to whom the scenes described therein are known, and
also those who appreciate a true description of a country which they
may never have the good fortune to see. We are all familiar with
Kashmir in the "fanciful imagery of Lalla Rookh," at the same time
may not object to reading an account--with a ring of truth in it--of that
lovely land, lovely and grand, beyond the power of poets to describe as
it really is, so travellers say. Readers will see that Mr. Foster intended
to have published this Diary himself had he been spared to reach
England, he has offered any apology that is necessary, so I will say
nothing further than to state, the daily entries were kept in a
pocket-book written in pencil, occasionally a word is not quite legible,
that will account for any little inaccuracy. After being two years at
Elizabeth College, Guernsey, under the Rev. A. Corfe, Mr. Foster
entered St. George's Hospital, as Student of Medicine, he received there
in his last year the "Ten Guinea Prize" for General Proficiency. From St.
George's he went to Netley, and on leaving that he served for a short
time in Jersey, with the 2nd Battallion 1st Royals, and 1st Battallion 6th
Royals, after which he embarked for India, where from February, 1868,
to the beginning of 1869, he served with the following Regiments, &c.,
91st Highlanders, at Dum Dum; F Battery C. Brigade Royal Horse
Artillery, at Benares; 27th Inniskillings, at Hazareebagh, Bengal Depôt,
Chinsurah; Detachment 58th Regiment, at Sahibgunge; Head-Quarters
58th Regiment, at Sinchal, again at the Bengal Depôt Chinsurah;
Head-Quarters 107th Regiment, at Allahabad; Detachment 107th
Regiment, at Fort Allahabad; G Battery 11th Brigade Royal Artillery,
at Cawnpore; Left Wing 36th Regiment, Moradabad; Head-Quarters
36th Regiment, Peshawur, from whence ultimately we find he started
for Kashmir in the hope of regaining his health, a vain hope as events
proved, as he died on the passage home at Malta. During the course of

publication I have received many letters from people who were
personally acquainted with Mr. Foster who had met him at home and
abroad, from the tone of which letters I gather he was held in the
highest possible estimation as a friend, a medical man, and an officer. I
am indebted to the kindness of his father, Dr. John L. Foster, of this
island, for being allowed to publish these interesting memorials of one
who had now passed "To where beyond these voices there is peace."
LIZZIE A. FREETH. Montpellier, Guernsey, Nov. 1873.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
This Work requires few prefatory remarks. I have transcribed without
alteration, the Diary that I kept during my