[CARTLAND, Ronald (1907-40)] - William LANGLAND. The Vision of Piers the Plowman, London, 1935, 8vo, original cloth. ASSOCIATION COPY, inscribed, "In memory of your friendship with my son Ronald, Mary Cartland, April 12, 1942."

[CARTLAND, John Ronald Hamilton (1907-40) & Mary Hamilton CARTLAND (1877-1976)] - William LANGLAND (c.1332-c.1386, attrib.).  The Vision of Piers Plowman. Newly rendered into Modern English by Henry Wells. London: Sheed and Ward, 1935. 8vo (218 x 140mm). Half title. Original brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt (without the dust-jacket). Provenance: John Ronald Hamilton Cartland (armorial bookplate); Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (modern armorial bookplate loosely-inserted). FIRST EDITION, ASSOCIATION COPY, the front free endpaper inscribed, "In memory of your friendship with my son Ronald, Mary Cartland, April 12, 1942." Ronald Cartland became one the youngest M.P.s in the House of Commons where he was elected to represent King's Norton in 1935, but he is perhaps best remembered as one of the so-called "Glamour Boys" (a scathing term coined by Chamberlain), a group of openly gay M.P.s who expressed their early opposition to Hitler and opposed Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. A month before the outbreak of war, Ronald Cartland delivered a speech to Parliament which included the words, "We are in the situation that within a month we may be going to fight, and we may be going to die." His words proved sadly prophetic: he was killed in action on 30 May 1940 at Dunkirk. His sister, Barbara Cartland - the famously colourful socialite and writer best known for her prolific historical and romantic fiction - wrote a memoir of her brother for which Winston Churchill, known to be a great admirer of Ronald Cartland and his anti-appeasement stance, provided an introduction. Anthony Eden shared his esteem of Ronald and, although his name is not mentioned in the book's inscription, we can safely assume it was a gift from Mary Cartland to Anthony Eden, in memory of her son.