Libel, corruption and duels…

Busy 1850 cover from Jersey to Christchurch Dorset, then to Cheltenham, and then back to Christchurch. SG8 1d tied by Jersey 409.

Sender is Charles Carus Wilson, a London lawyer who a few years earlier was embroiled in a scandal that made headlines and that landed him in a Jersey jail.

The recipient is Grantley Berkeley, MP for West Gloucestershire, whose main parliamentary claim to fame was the bill to approve women being allowed into the House of Commons gallery, but is now better remembered for challenging Irish writer William Maggin to a duel (shots were fired, nobody died).

1850 cover Jersey > Christchurch > Cheltenham > Christchurch. SG8 Jersey 409