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King's Own Royal Regiment Museum Lancaster |
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The Journal of Captain Mason of the 4th (or King's Own) Regiment of Foot, Recording his voyage to Australia, his service there and his return journey 1831 - 1835 Transcribed by Edith Tyson, from the original document in the collection of The King's Own Royal Regiment Museum Copyright
© 1981 & 2005
The Trustees of the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum. Introduction Captain George Mason served in the 4th (or King's Own) Regiment of Foot from 1826 to 1838. Portions of his Journal are paraphrased in Volume II of THE KING'S OWN, The Story of the Royal Regiment, by Colonel L.I. Cowper, O.B.E., D.L., 1939, together with anecdotes culled from a diary of Captain Fyans which is not in the Regimental Museum. Over fifty years after its gift to the museum by his descendant, Miss Mason, of Yateley, in September 1929, the Journal is made available in transcript, to save further handling of the original. The Journal is contained in a small octavo (184 x 110 mm) book of 282 pages of unruled paper watermarked G H GREEN 1829. It is bound in half leather and a red and blue marbled paper which is also used for the end-papers. Inscribed on the spine, barely legible in ink, is 'Journal of Voyage' and a later hand has written on the front cover 'MANUSCRIPT DIARY of Capt Geo Mason 1831 - 1835'. King's Own Regimental Museum stamps and the Library Number 25 are inside the front and paper. Captain Mason's handwriting is fairly consistent and at its best easy to read. Proper names have on occasion presented difficulty and in parts he has continued to write with a pen in need of mending. Words crossed out but still legible are given thus; words corrected by alteration are given thuus; words totally obliterated by striking out are given xxxxx and words or parts of words which could not be read have been left blank. The readings of latitude and longitude seem to have been entered later and are squeezed in inconsistently to the left or right, above or below the date of each entry in the Journal. The Journal has been divided into a number of parts; files will take a moment to download. |
