Strength in Battle: The Memoirs of Joseph Anderson Panton Goldfields’ Commissioner and Magistrate [first edition]

Octavo Size [approx 15.5 x 22.8cm]. MINT – a NEW copy. Illustrated with Black and White plates. Robust, professional packaging and tracking provided for all parcels. 345 pages. The Victorian gold rushes attracted punctilious worthies and sharp operators, but rarely were these characters fused as in the personality of Joseph Anderson Panton, high-minded pillar of society as well as scourge of poor miners and political foes. Panton’s previously unpublished memoirs trace vividly his strange career as itinerant dignitary, severe commissioner and magistrate, vigneron, pastoralist and painter, revealing new and surprising aspects of colonial social life. The book is essential reading for anyone who wants to know more about life on the Victorian goldfields, the foibles of the era’s prominent personalities such as Lola Montez and Governor Hotham, and the remarkable society that gold left in its wake.