author
J. F. (John Frederick) Foster
1839–1869
An army surgeon’s Kashmir diary became a moving portrait of travel, illness, and clear-eyed wonder. Written with honesty and warmth, it captures a young doctor’s observations of India and the mountains he crossed.
1 Audiobook
Three Months of My Life
by J. F. (John Frederick) Foster
About the author
J. F. (John Frederick) Foster was a British medical student and army surgeon whose surviving work is Three Months of My Life, a diary published after his death in 1873 and edited by Lizzie A. Freeth.
From the editor’s preface to that book, Foster studied medicine at St. George’s Hospital after two years at Elizabeth College in Guernsey, won a prize there for general proficiency, then trained at Netley before military service. The same source says he served briefly in Jersey and later in India, where he was attached to several regiments and worked as an assistant-surgeon with Her Majesty’s 36th Foot.
His diary follows a period in Kashmir and stands out for its mix of travel writing, personal reflection, and firsthand detail from a young doctor far from home. Because reliable biographical information is scarce, much of what can be confirmed about him comes from the book itself and its prefatory material.