J.H. Patterson. With the Judaeans in the Palestine Campaign.

(ISRAEL, LAND OF)

Hutchinson & Co.

London

1922

FIRST EDITION. Frontispiece portrait of author. With map and 22 illustrations. Signed by the Author on front flyleaf (browned).

Colonel John Henry Patterson (1867-1947), was an Anglo-Irish soldier, hunter, author and Zionist. Born in Forgney, Ireland, he joined the British Army at age seventeen, rose quickly through the ranks and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Essex Yeomanry. In 1898, he was commissioned by the British East Africa Company to oversee the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo river in present-day Kenya. Patterson became an important figure in early Zionism as the commander in World War I of both the Zion Mule Corps and the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (aka The Jewish Legion), which would serve as the foundation of the Israeli Defense Forces decades later. Following his military career, Patterson continued his support of Zionism as a strong advocate toward the establishment of an independent Jewish State in the Middle East. See P. Streeter, Mad for Zion: A Biography of Colonel J.H. Patterson (2004).