Letters from Crimea published

OVER 150 years after a young Scottish doctor set sail for the horrors of the Crimean War, a volume of his personal letters home have been published for the first time.

The letters, which are critical of Crimean War heroine Florence Nightingale and the British Commander Lord Raglan, provide a fascinating record of a controversial conflict that changed the way the British army looked after its troops.

Now, the leather-bound volume of letters, described as a "rare and exciting" discovery by historian Trevor Royle, has been published as a book, Letters From The Crimea: Writing Home, A Dundee Doctor.

Mr Royle, who has written the book's introduction, said: "These letters provide a fascinating insight into a conflict that with its first use of high-velocity rifles, improved artillery, trenches and telegraph, would shape so many more wars to follow.

"David Greig's comments on Florence Nightingale would also seem to support the modern revisionist view that really what she did was just common sense and that her achievements were not that heroic."

Greig's early excitement quickly gives way to cynicism and sarcasm when confronted by the horrors of Scutari but ultimate joy in his first-hand account of the taking of Sevastapol.

The book is available through Dundee University Press, priced 9.99.