MAJOR PROWER [Emeritus]: The Militiaman at home and abroad… with sketches of the Ionian islands, Malta and Gibraltar. London 1857 First edition. In 8vo (20x14 cm), contemporary red cloth, rebacked, covers trimmed. Text clean and bright. Complete:frontis, title, [8], 300 p., [16]. With manuscript ownership inscriptions of William St Clair, leading Hellenist, and his manuscript pencil notes on the title page identifying the true author of the work,the British officer of the Militia, Prower behind the anonymous Emeritus. Overall in almost very good condition, with fine provenance. The British Militia were light military units stationed in the colonies. This anonymous work, written by someone with long service in the Ionian Islands during the 1850s, drew the attention of William St Clair, who successfully identified the “phantom Emeritus” as the Major Prower, a militia officer then serving in Corfu. A crucial reference in the text to a general order dated Corfu, 24 May 1855, enabled St Clair to confirm the attribution. Most of the book focuses on the Ionian Islands, offering detailed descriptions of Corfu, Kephalonia, and Zakynthos, where Prower served as a militia officer in 1855. A very particular travel and military account of Greece, made even more valuable by St Clair’s scholarly identification of its author.