Christopher Joll - The Speedicut Papers Book 2 (1848–1857): Love & Other Blood Sports

The Memoirs of Jasper Speedicut

The Speedicut Papers
Book 2 (18481857)

Love & Other Blood Sports

Edited
by
Christopher Joll

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2017 Edited by Christopher Joll. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/07/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5462-8527-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-8528-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-8526-7 (e)

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CONTENTS

Also by Christopher Joll

Uniquely British: A Year in the Life of the Household Cav alry

The Speedicut Papers Book 1 (1821-1848): Flashmans Se cret

The Speedicut Papers Book 2 (1848-1857): Love & Other Blood Sp orts

The Speedicut Papers Book 3 (1857-1865): Uncivil Wars

The Speedicut Papers Book 4 (1865-1871): Where Eagles Dare

The Speedicut Papers Book 5 (1871-1879): Suffering Be rtie

The Speedicut Papers Book 6 (1879-1884): Vitai Lam pada

The Speedicut Papers Book 7 (1884-1895): Royal Scan dals

The Speedicut Papers Book 8 (1895-1900): At War with Churc hill

The Speedicut Papers Book 9 (1900-1915): Boxing Iceb ergs

For

EPM

Whose shade is a constant and welcome presence

After serving time at Oxford University and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Christopher Joll spent his formative years as an officer in The Life Guards, an experience from which he has never really recovered.

On leaving the Army, Joll worked first in investment banking, but the boredom of City life led him to switch careers and become an arms salesman. After ten years of dealing with tin pot dictators in faraway countries, he moved - perhaps appropriately - into public relations where, in this new incarnation, he had to deal with dictators of an altogether different type.

From his earliest days, Joll has written articles, features, short stories and reportage. One such piece of writing led to an early brush with notoriety when an article he had penned anonymously in 1974 for a political journal ended up as front page national news and resulted in a Ministerial inquiry. In 2012 Joll wrote the text for Uniquely British: A Year in the Life of the Household Cavalry , an illustrated account of the Household Cavalry from the Royal Wedding to the Diamond Jubilee, and in 2018 he published The Spoils of War . His yet to be published memoires, Anecdotal Evidence , promises to cause considerable consternation in certain quarters should it ever appear in print.

Since leaving the Army in 1975, Joll has been involved in devising and managing charity fund-raising events. This interest started in 1977 with The Silver Jubilee Royal Gifts Exhibition at St Jamess Palace and The Royal Cartoons Exhibition at the Press Club. In subsequent years, he co-produced Jos Carreras & Friends, a one-night Royal Gala Concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane; Serenade for a Princess, a Royal Gala Concert at the Banqueting House, Whitehall; and Concert for a Prince, a Royal Gala Concert staged at Windsor Castle (the first such event to be held there following the post-fire restoration).

More recently, Joll has focused on devising, writing, directing and sometimes producing events primarily for military charities. These include in various different roles the Household Cavalry Pageant (2007); the Chelsea Pageant (2008); the Diamond Jubilee Parade in the Park (2012); the British Military Tournament (2010-2013); the Gurkha Bicentenary Pageant (2015); the Waterloo Bicentenary National Service of Commemoration & Parade at St Pauls Cathedral (2015); the Shakespeare 400 Memorial Concert (2016); The Patrons Lunch (2016), the official London event to mark The Queens 90 th Birthday and The Great War Symphony to be premiered in 2018 at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2017, Joll was appointed Regimental Historian of the Household Cavalry.

With the first publication of The Speedicut Papers in 2013, the reading public was shocked to learn that Brigadier General Sir Harry Flashman VC, one of the greatest heroes of the Victorian age, was nothing more than a Paris-based remittance man and a plagiarising fraud. Almost as shocking was the revelation that, for more than 250 years, there has been a secret organisation at the heart of the British Establishment, called The Brotherhood of the Sons of Thunder, which was ruthlessly interfering in the nations affairs.

These facts were revealed in a cache of letters written over a lifetime by Colonel Sir Jasper Speedicut to his friend Harry Flashman, which I discovered in 2010 in the basement of the New Walk Museum in Leicester. Taken together, the letters are a comprehensive record of the life and times of Speedicut: soldier, courtier, bi-sexual and reluctant hero.

In this, the second volume of The Speedicut Papers, the public will once again learn of further previously hidden truths that cast a new light on real historical incidents, set against the major events of the 19 th and early 20 th centu ries.

Although the first seven volumes of The Speedicut Papers were originally published in letter format, in response to popular demand I have re-edited the books into a narrative text. As with the previously published work, in the interests of clarity I have also annotated the text with dates and historical or explanatory background mate rial.

CHRISTOPHER JOLL

www.jasperspeedicut.com

Any similarity to persons now dead is entirely intenti onal

Jasper Speedicut an officer and a gentleman, usually known as Speed

Harry Flashman a remittance man based in Paris, who is a friend of Speedicut and his controller in The Brotherhood of the Sons of Thunder, usually known as Flashy

Muhamad Khazi Speedicuts coachman, formerly a Kizilbashi irregular cavalryman

Frederick Searcy Speedicuts butler and valet, formerly a riding instructor in the 2 nd Life Guards

Henry Speedicuts young footman

The Countess of Landsfeld otherwise known as Mrs Rosanna James and/or Lola Montez, a notorious courtesan

Cornet George Heald a young officer in the 2 nd Life Guards

The 3 rd Marquess of Steyne millionaire art collector, influential Establishment figure and head (Great Boanerges) of a quasi-masonic secret society called The Brotherhood of the Sons of Thunder

Lady Mary Steyne the only daughter of the 3 rd Marquess of Steyne

Miss Letitia Prism a governess and paid companion

Christian August II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg- Augustenberg leader of the breakaway Duchy of Holstein

Mrs Lucretia Cazenove the randy wife of a City financier

Baron Fritz von Einem a Prussian officer

Count Vladimir de Dracule an Hungarian aristocrat

Miss Euphemia Maplin the paid companion of Mrs Cazenove

Mrs Lydia Empson ne Miss Lydia Bennett, later Mrs Wickham

Count Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev a young Russian aristocrat

HRH Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg & Gotha husband of HM Queen Victoria

Clotilde, Madame la Vicomtesse de la Frotte-Aage an elderly French dowager of American origin