Autograph Letter Signed, to “My dear Alice”, about her visit to the Boltons at Christmas, discussing the transport and the Christmas traffice, and suggesting a visit to the Albert Hall by RAWLINSON, Robert

Lancaster Lodge, Botlons, West Brompton, 9 December 1872. 3 pp. 8 x 5 inches, in good condition, traces of former mounting. Sir Robert Rawlinson (1810 – 1898), engineer and sanitarian. Lord Palmerston sent a sanitary commission to the Crimea, consisting of Rawlinson and two medical members (Dr. John Sutherland and Dr. H. Gavin), with full powers from the War Office, to do whatever it thought would lead to better hygienic conditions in camp and hospital. The commission reached Constantinople in March 1855, and, by insisting on what now seem the most obvious precautions, succeeded within a few weeks in reducing the death-rate in the Levantine hospitals from 42 to 23.4%. Passing on to the Crimea, it effected a similar improvement there, and by the end of the year the health of the whole British army in the field was even better than it enjoyed at home.