Letters reveal cruel tricks and brave acts of soldier

AN Edinburgh soldier’s brave but bawdy behaviour at the Indian Mutiny has been revealed in letters set to be sold at auction.

Sergeant James Steven’s letters home give a startling contrast between the heat of battle and his questionable behaviour when off duty.

In one drunken night away from the front line, Sgt Steven played a cruel prank on a local “ugly” woman whom he tricked into thinking he wanted to marry in order to have his way with her.

A series of 20 letters written by Sgt Steven are now to be sold at Bonhams in London. He was killed after volunteering to man a Howitzer gun in the face of a marauding Indian enemy in the Battle of Delhi in 1857.

Luke Batterham, of Bonhams, said: “These letters give us an insight to the day-to-day life in the army and some of the adventures that befell this soldier.”