AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY ORNITHOLOGIST, STATISTICIAN AND INDOLOGIST WILLIAM HENRY SYKES WHO SERVED WITH THE BRITISH MILITARY IN INDIA.

[London]: 20th August, 1867.. 1867.. Good. - Letter penned in black ink & filling a 4-3/4 inch high by 3-7/8 inch wide sheet of gray paper, which has been mounted on a slightly larger piece of cream-colored card. Signed "W H Sykes". The paper is lightly stained & creased from the mounting. Folded twice for mailing. Good. <p>Sykes writes to a Mr. J. Robinson about serving on a committee: "I am glad that the subject of India is to be taken up by the [-------] [------ ]. I shall be happy to act in the proposed committee, but on Thursday I leave London & shall not be able to attend the first meeting."<p>Colonel William Henry Sykes [1790-1872] was an English naturalist who served with the British military in India. He was a pioneer of the Victorian statistical movement and a founder of the Royal Statistical Society. He was actively involved in the Siege of Bhurtpur [1805] and the battles of Kirkee and Poonah. After traveling in Europe for four years, he returned to India as a statistical reporter. He produced voluminous statistical reports and natural history reports illustrated with drawings. He retired from active service with the rank of colonel in 1833 and subsequently was made a director of the East India Company.