Introduction

John Charles Campbell Perkins, D.S.O, who lived in Poona, India, was Auditor General of Military Accounts for the Western Circle, a part of India which today covers the modern states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, together with parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, as well as Sind in Pakistan. He married Charlotte Mary Beauchamp, KM’s sister (known variously as Chaddie or Marie by the family), on 26 May 1913 in Wellington, and left her a widow just three years later, dying in Mhow, India, on 27 February 1916.

[5 or 6 May 1913] [HRC]

[The Gables, Cholesbury, Bucks]

May 5th or 6th

Dear ‘John’,

Do not think me bold to address you in so informal a fashion but you are going to marry my sister & I cannot feel that her lover could be quite strange to me.

I want to send you my sincerest good wishes. And to say I think you are the most fortunate of men to marry so enchanting a woman as Marie – Marie and I were very close to each other when we were little girls – and whole pieces of my memory are planted with her sweet and charming flowers. In fact whenever I think of my sister I see her walking in our garden with a little smile on her lips and a great posy in her arms. I am sure that is how she walks over the world. It is difficult for me to write to you because Im such a conceited and proud creature that I can hardly imagine a man ‘good enough’ for Marie. Forgive my frankness, but I cant explain otherwise my difficulty. I hope that we shall meet one day. Bring her to England – soon –

Bless you both –

Katherine Mansfield.