Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Henry Knollys') to 'Staff Surgeon Walter Haydon, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Conquest'.

Both letters lightly creased and spotted, but good overall. Letter One (8vo, 8 pp): In stamped, addressed envelope. Begins by asking whether Haydon would consider acting as co-executor to his estate with his wife Flora. Outlines his financial situation and discusses the executor's duties. Turns to 'the naval situation', Haydon's letter on the subject being 'so guarded that it might be nailed up in Trafalgar Square without helping the enemy'. Knollys has nevertheless been able to 'piece it into other sources of information [so] that I can construct, in what I am pleased to call my mind, a Cinematograph more lucid & accurate than any I have thus far filmed'. Lays out seven of the 'opinions I industriously collate in London' as regards 'the Home aspect'. ('4. Some appreciation however inadequate, of the devastation, the suffering, the savagedom and the brutish autocracy which a German army is wont to inflict on a hostile foreign district. My personal experience in 1870, 1, obsesses my thoughts, though the infamy of then was benevolence compared to now'. Letter Two (8vo, 4 pp): Thanks him for agreeing to act as executor. He is aware that 'these are not ordinary times and it is possible that your life may be required for your country and that Lettice would thus be left in sore need of aid and defence. I appeal to her to confirm my belief that I proved an earnest friend to, as well as brother of, her father and that I have ever striven to be of use to her.'