Add MS 89468

Manuscript diary of Thomas William Bowlby, correspondent for The Times, made during Lord Elgin’s expedition to China in 1860 during the Second Opium War. The diary covers the period between 26 April–16 September 1860. The final entry in the diary was written just days before Bowlby was captured and tortured to death by Chinese forces. Bowlby's death led directly to the punitive destruction and looting of Yuanmingyuan, the Summer Palace, in Peking by British and French forces under Lord Elgin on 18 October 1860.

The diary records Bowlby's activities in China as well as his outward voyage from London on 26 April 1860. His description of the voyage includes an account of the wreck of SS Malabar in Galle Harbour, Ceylon, on 22 May and his impressions of Singapore. In the diary, Bowlby refers to James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, Baron Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gros, Henry Loch, Harry Smith Parkes, and Sir James Hope Grant.

The opening pages of the diary contain Bowlby's preparatory notes and research on China, as well as various statistics and translations of phrases and proverbs. At the back of the diary are Bowlby's lists of expenses. When Bowlby runs out of space in a diary entry he continues his observations at an earlier point in the diary, noting the continuation. The diary itself is a Letts's Diary or Bills Due Book and an Almanack for 1860 bound in publisher's gilt cloth with marbled endpapers and page edges. It is held in a leather case with brass lock and embossed with the word 'Diary'.