Transcriber’s Note:
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.
Errors, when reasonably attributable to the printer, have been
corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for
details. Corrections made to the text are summarized there.
Footnotes have been resequenced to be unique across the book, and have
been gathered at the end of each chapter.
The illustrations have been moved to avoid falling within a paragraph.
The captions will appear here as [Illustration: <caption>]. A large map
and accompanying legend was bound as a fold-out inside the end cover.
The Reference, included in that image is presented here, and contains a
daily location of the unit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LUMSDEN’S HORSE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: D.M. Lumsden.]
THE HISTORY
OF
LUMSDEN’S HORSE
A COMPLETE RECORD OF THE CORPS FROM ITS
FORMATION TO ITS DISBANDMENT
EDITED BY
HENRY H.S. PEARSE
(WAR CORRESPONDENT)
AUTHOR OF ‘FOUR MONTHS BESIEGED—THE STORY OF LADYSMITH’ ETC.
WITH MANY PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
AND A MAP
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1903
[All rights reserved]
PREFACE
Although this History of Lumsden’s Horse embraces a period in the South
African campaign that was crowded with great issues, it makes no
pretence to rank among the many able and comprehensive works dealing
with those events. Elaborate descriptions and criticisms of operations
as a whole have been purposely avoided, except so far as they serve to
explain and emphasise actions in which the corps took part.
First of all, the book is intended to be no more than a regimental
record, enlivened by the personal experiences of men who helped to make
history at a time when the whole British Empire was moved by one
impulse. India’s part in that movement is the inspiring theme, and one
object has been to show how the idea of organising an Indian Volunteer
Contingent for service in South Africa passed from inception to
accomplishment, through the efforts of a Committee in Calcutta which
made itself responsible for every financial liability in connection with
the corps from its formation to its disbandment.
The cost of publication is being defrayed out of a balance of funds
remaining in the hands of the Committee, and each member of the corps
will receive a copy as a souvenir of his interesting experiences and a
proof that his services are still remembered. Publication, however, is
not restricted to members of the corps, and the Editor ventures to think
that this book will suggest to general readers many points worthy of
consideration. It illustrates the facility with which British subjects
in India are able to band themselves together, and affords yet another
instance of many in which the Indian Government has shown itself capable
of utilising instantly its resources for the Empire’s benefit. And, more
than this, it will stand as a proof of the cordiality with which the
Indian public—British and Native—came forward at a time of Imperial need
with offers of personal service or liberal subscriptions, which enabled
the Committee to raise and despatch a Mounted Contingent completely
equipped in every detail.
Among those who have assisted the Editor with information that has
enabled him to produce this History, he has especially to thank the
Committee, the Adjutant of the Regiment (Major NEVILLE TAYLOR, 14th
Bengal Lancers), whose sketch-map of the positions at Houtnek was made
from personal reconnaissance, and Messrs. D.S. FRASER, GRAVES,
BURN-MURDOCH, KIRWAN, and PRESTON. He is also indebted to Major Ross,
C.B., Durham Light Infantry, for interesting material. Acknowledgment is
due to Messrs. JOHNSTON & HOFFMANN, Messrs. F. KAPP & CO., Messrs.
BOURNE & SHEPHERD, and Messrs. HARRINGTON & CO., of Calcutta, and
others, who have kindly placed photographs at the Editor’s disposal; and
to the proprietors of the ‘Englishman,’ ‘Pioneer,’ ‘Indian Daily News,’
‘Statesman,’ ‘Times of India,’ and ‘Madras Daily Mail,’ for permission
to reproduce from their columns the personal narratives that brighten
many pages of this book.
H.H.S.P.
ARTS CLUB, LONDON: _January 1903_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
I. HOW THE CORPS WAS RAISED AND EQUIPPED 7
II. PREPARING FOR THE FRONT—DEPARTURE FROM CALCUTTA 40
III. OUTWARD BOUND 68
IV. NEARING THE GOAL—DISEMBARKATION AT CAPE TOWN AND
EAST LONDON 85
V. AN INTERLUDE—THE RESULTS OF SANNA’S POST 96
VI. BY RAIL AND ROUTE MARCH TO BLOEMFONTEIN 109
VII. IMPRESSIONS OF BLOEMFONTEIN—JOIN THE 8TH MOUNTED
INFANTRY REGIMENT ON OUTPOST 127
VIII. THE BAPTISM OF FIRE—LUMSDEN’S HORSE AT OSPRUIT
(HOUTNEK) 144
IX. AFTER OSPRUIT—SOME TRIBUTES TO MAJOR SHOWERS AND
OTHER HEROES 175
X. PRISONERS OF WAR 191
XI. TOWARDS PRETORIA—LUMSDEN’S HORSE SCOUTING AHEAD OF
THE ARMY FROM BLOEMFONTEIN TO THE VAAL RIVER 208
XII. JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA IN OUR HANDS 230
XIII. ON LINES OF COMMUNICATION AT IRENE, KALFONTEIN,
ZURFONTEIN, AND SPRINGS—THE PRETORIA PAPER-CHASE 248
XIV. ALARMS AND EXCURSIONS—BOER SCOUTING—A
RECONNAISSANCE TO CROCODILE RIVER—FAREWELL TO
COLONEL ROSS 270
XV. A MARCH UNDER MAHON OF MAFEKING TO RUSTENBURG AND
WARMBATHS—IN PURSUIT OF DE WET 286
XVI. EASTWARD TO BELFAST AND BARBERTON UNDER GENERALS
FRENCH AND MAHON 313
XVII. MARCHING AND FIGHTING—FROM MACHADODORP TO
HEIDELBERG AND PRETORIA UNDER GENERALS FRENCH
AND DICKSON 340
XVIII. HOMEWARD BOUND—APPROBATION FROM LORD ROBERTS—CAPE
TOWN’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS—FAREWELL TO SOUTH AFRICA 359
XIX. THE RETURN TO INDIA—WELCOME HOME—HONOURS AND
ORATIONS—DISBANDMENT 377
XX. A STIRRING SEQUEL—THE STORY OF THOSE WHO
STAYED—MEMORIAL TRIBUTES TO THOSE WHO HAVE GONE 409
------------------
_APPENDICES_
I. ROLL OF LUMSDEN’S HORSE, INCLUDING TRANSPORT 427
II. MOBILISATION SCHEME FOR LUMSDEN’S HORSE 437
III. THE ADJUTANT’S NOTE-BOOK 446
IV. LIST OF OFFICERS, N.C.O.S, AND MEN WHO HAVE BEEN
AWARDED DECORATIONS, COMMISSIONS, OR CIVIL
APPOINTMENTS 454
V. HONOURS AND PROMOTIONS 456
VI. HONORARY RANK IN THE ARMY 461
VII. LUMSDEN’S HORSE EQUIPMENT FUND 462
VIII. FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS OF THE CORPS 476
IX. LUMSDEN’S HORSE RECEPTION COMMITTEE 480
X. THE FINAL ACCOUNTS 483
XI. REPORT OF TRANSPORT SERGEANT 485
XII. TOPICAL SONG BY A TROOPER 490
INDEX 491
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_PLATES_
_From Drawings, and from Photographs by Messrs._ JOHNSTON & HOFFMANN,
KAPP & CO., BOURNE & SHEPHERD, _and_ HARRINGTON & CO., _Calcutta_;
_Messrs._ ELLIOTT & FRY, _London_, _and others_.
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL D.M. LUMSDEN, C.B. _Frontispiece_
(_Photogravure_)
SIR PATRICK PLAYFAIR, C.I.E. _facing 1
page_
HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON, VICEROY OF INDIA ” 8
BEHAR CONTINGENT OF LUMSDEN’S HORSE ” 14
MYSORE AND COORG CONTINGENT ” 18
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ” 26
COLONEL LUMSDEN, C.B., SIR PATRICK PLAYFAIR,
C.I.E., COLONEL MONEY, MAJOR EDDIS, MR. HARRY
STUART
OFFICERS OF THE CORPS ” 30
COLONEL LUMSDEN, MAJOR SHOWERS, CAPTAINS TAYLOR,
BERESFORD, NOBLETT, RUTHERFOORD, CHAMNEY,
CLIFFORD, AND STEVENSON, LIEUTENANTS CRANE,
NEVILLE, SIDEY, AND PUGH
MESSING AT CALCUTTA ” 34
HORSES IN CAMP AT CALCUTTA ” 40
ON PARADE, CALCUTTA ” 44
TAKING HORSES ON BOARD TRANSPORT 28 ” 52
EMBARKATION AT CALCUTTA ” 56
H.E. THE VICEROY ADDRESSING THE CORPS ” 60
B COMPANY LUMSDEN’S HORSE LEAVING CALCUTTA ” 64
THE REGIMENT IN CALCUTTA ” 72
MAXIM-GUN CONTINGENT ” 76
CAPTAIN HOLMES, SERGEANT DALE, C.V.S. DICKENS,
N.J. BOLST, P.T. CORBETT
SURMA VALLEY LIGHT HORSE. CONTINGENT OF ” 80
LUMSDEN’S B COMPANY
MAJOR (LOCAL COLONEL) W.C. ROSS, C.B. ” 117
TRANSPORT AND WATER CARTS ” 132
OUTLYING PICKET TAKING UP POSITION ” 136
HOUTNEK, SHOWING POSITIONS OF BRITISH AND BOER ” 144
TROOPS
N.C.O.S AND TROOPERS ” 156
SERGEANT F.S. McNAMARA, LANCE-SERGEANT J.S.
ELLIOTT, CORPORAL A. MACGILLIVRAY, R.U. CASE,
C.A. WALTON, A.F. FRANKS, J.S. SAUNDERS, R.N.
MACDONALD, L. GWATKIN WILLIAMS
BRINGING HALF-RATIONS UP TO NORMAL ” 213
N.C.O.S AND TROOPERS ” 214
H.J. MOORHOUSE, A.K. MEARES, W.K. MEARES, H.W.
PUCKRIDGE, R.G. DAGGE, R.P. WILLIAMS, R.C.
NOLAN, T.G. PETERSEN, S. DUCAT
N.C.O.S AND TROOPERS ” 230
CORPORAL L.E. KIRWAN, J.S. CAMPBELL, C.E. TURNER,
E.S. CHAPMAN, G. INNES WATSON, C.E. STUART, C.
CARY-BARNARD, E.S. CLIFFORD, H. GOUGH
INVALIDED HOME AFTER THE SURRENDER OF PRETORIA ” 248
J. SKELTON, R.P. HAINES, H.W. THELWALL, C.K.
MARTIN, H.S. CHESHIRE, H.B. OLDHAM, M.H. LOGAN,
J.V. JAMESON, H. HOWES
NIGHT IN CAMP ” 296
PHILIP STANLEY ” 306
TRANSPORT DRIVERS ” 320
T. HARE SCOTT, H.G. PHILLIPS, R.P. ESTABROOKE, J.
BRAINE, R. PRINGLE, W. BURNAND
TRANSPORT DRIVERS ” 324
L. DAVIS, LEO H. BRADFORD, C.W. LOVEGROVE, S.W.
CULLEN, F.C. MANVILLE, F.C. THOMPSON
THE LAUNDRY ” 328
H.P. BROWN, A TYPICAL TROOPER ” 340
N.C.O.S AND TROOPERS ” 346
SERGEANT A.H. LUARD, CORPORAL G. LAWRIE, F.G.
BATEMAN, L. KINGCHURCH, IAN SINCLAIR, PERCY
COBB, HARVEY DAVIES, C.E. CONSTERDINE, D.
ROBERTSON
N.C.O.S AND TROOPERS ” 360
SERGEANT G.E. THESIGER, CORPORAL W.T. SMITH, E.B.
MOIR-BYRES, J.A. BROWN, H. EVETTS, J.L. STEWART,
H.N. SHAW, E.S. CLARKE, B.E. JONES
GAZETTED TO THE REGULAR ARMY ” 366
CORPORAL F.S. MONTAGU BATES, H.S.N. WRIGHT, J.D.L.
ARATHOON, S.L. INNES, F.W. WRIGHT, R.G. COLLINS,
A.E. NORTON, W. DOUGLAS-JONES, T.B. NICHOLSON
RECEIVING THE MAYOR OF CAPE TOWN’S FAREWELL ” 372
ADDRESS ON THE SOUTH ARM
CHEERING IN RESPONSE ” 372
HOME FROM SOUTH AFRICA—N.C.O.S AND TROOPERS ” 378
SERGEANTS STOWELL, DONALD, RUTHERFOORD, FOX,
FARRIER-SERGEANT EDWARDS, LANCE-CORPORAL GODDEN,
S.C. GORDON, E.A. THELWALL, A.P. COURTENAY
HOME FROM SOUTH AFRICA—N.C.O.S AND TROOPERS ” 384
SERGEANT J. BRENNAN, H. NICOLAY, A. ATKINSON, C.H.
JOHNSTONE, G. SMITH, N.V. REID, W.R. WINDER,
R.M. CRUX, L.K. ZORAB
MEMBERS OF LUMSDEN’S HORSE WHO JOINED THE ” 410
JOHANNESBURG POLICE, DECEMBER 1900
SILVER STATUETTE, PRESENTED TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ” 418
LUMSDEN
TABLET IN ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, CALCUTTA ” 424
_OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS_
PAGE
CAPTAIN NOBLETT (MAJOR ROYAL IRISH RIFLES), COMMANDING 142
B COMPANY LUMSDEN’S HORSE
CAPTAIN H. CHAMNEY 152
CAPTAIN NEVILLE C. TAYLOR 156
H.C. LUMSDEN (KILLED IN ACTION, HOUTNEK, APRIL 30, 159
1900)
LIEUTENANT C.E. CRANE 162
J.H. BURN-MURDOCH 163
HERBERT N. BETTS, D.C.M. 167
MAJOR EDEN C. SHOWERS (KILLED AT HOUTNEK) 175
BUGLER R.H. MACKENZIE 187
E.B. PARKES 187
DAVID STEWART FRASER 193
WATERVAL PRISON, PRETORIA 206
PERCY JONES, D.C.M. 228
LIEUTENANT G.A. NEVILLE 234
LIEUTENANT H.O. PUGH, D.S.O. 242
WALTER DEXTER, D.C.M., CUTTING THE TELEGRAPH WIRES AT 243
ELANDSFONTEIN
P.C. PRESTON, D.C.M. 244
CAPTAIN RUTHERFOORD, D.S.O. 263
CAPTAIN W. STEVENSON, VETERINARY SURGEON 268
SERGEANT ERNEST DAWSON 269
A TYPICAL BOER 275
CAPTAIN CLIFFORD 277
J.A. GRAHAM, D.C.M. 278
BERNARD CAYLEY 279
L.C. BEARNE 280
A HALT ON THE MARCH TO BARBERTON: GENERAL MAHON AND 339
COLONEL WOOLLS-SAMPSON
SERGEANT STEPHENS 346
CAPTAIN C. LYON SIDEY 352
D. MORISON 354
CORPORAL J. GRAVES 355
LANCE-CORPORAL JOHN CHARLES 376
J.S. COWEN 382
SWORD OF HONOUR PRESENTED TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL 407
LUMSDEN
A. NICHOLSON 414
G.D. NICOLAY 416
H. KELLY 417
K. BOILEAU 418
_MAP_
PART OF SOUTH AFRICA, SHOWING THE ROUTES TAKEN _facing page_ 490
BY LUMSDEN’S HORSE
[Illustration:
_Photo: Elliott & Fry_
SIR PATRICK PLAYFAIR, C.I.E.
]
THE
HISTORY OF LUMSDEN’S HORSE
INTRODUCTION
To Lumsden’s Horse belongs the high honour of having represented all
India in a movement the magnitude and far-reaching effects of which we
are only beginning to appreciate. While the stubborn struggle for
supremacy in South Africa lasted, no true sons of the Empire allowed
themselves to count the cost. Some were prepared to pay it in blood,
others in treasure, to make success certain, and none allowed himself to
harbour even the shadow of a thought that failure, with all its
inevitable disasters, could befall us so long as the Mother Country and
her offshoots held together. At the outset only those blessed with
exceptional foresight could have believed in the completeness of a
federation the elements of which were bound together by no other ties
than sentiment. Selfish interests were merged in combined efforts for
the common weal, and, while the necessity for action lasted, few cared
to reckon the price they were paying for an idea.
Even the long-looked-for advent of Peace has hardly brought home to us a
knowledge of all that War in South Africa meant, not only in a military
sense, but also in its greater imperial significance. The men who fought
and bled for the noble sentiment of British brotherhood never dreamed
that they were doing more than duty demanded, though they had perhaps
given up every chance of success in life to answer the call of
patriotism; and among those who stayed at home there are millions
untouched by the bitterness of personal bereavement who can have no
conception of the sacrifices that were made to keep our Empire whole.
Casualty lists, with all their details of killed and wounded, do not
tell half the story. To know it all we must dip deep into the private
records of every contingent, British and Colonial, that volunteered for
active service, and deeper still to fathom the motives of men who, when
their country seemed to need them, threw aside all other considerations
and rallied to her standard.
Continental critics may sneer at us for making much of this idea, but
none know better than they do the difference between loyalty expressed
in such a noble form and the mere instinct of self-preservation that too
often passes current for patriotism. They tell us that it is every
citizen’s duty to be a soldier and every soldier’s duty to die, if
necessary, for his country; but when they see self-governing nations
from every quarter of the world coming into line by their own free will
and all welded together by one sentiment, they have no better name for
it than lust of empire. Nevertheless, they know it for what it is, a
thing of which they had previously no conception, and they recognise in
the impulses that led to this mighty manifestation the secret of Great
Britain’s world-wide power. Let envious rivals say what they will. Let
them magnify our reverses and minimise our triumphs, if the process
pleases them. In spite of everything, the South African War stands a
great epoch of an age that will some day come to be reckoned among the
greatest in British History, and all who have helped towards the shaping
of events at this memorable time can at least claim to have earned the
gratitude of posterity.
And India may well be proud of her share in the work. Measured by the
mere number of men whom she sent to the war, her contribution seems
perhaps comparatively small; but when we remember the sources from which
that contingent was drawn, the munificence of gifts from Europeans and
natives alike for its equipment and maintenance, and all the sacrifices
that war-service involved for every member of the little force, we
cannot but admire the spirit that called it into being. A great crisis
was not necessary to convince us that British residents in India would
fight, if called upon, with all the valour that distinguished Outram’s
Volunteers of old. Few, however, would have been bold enough to predict
that for any conceivable cause hundreds of men would readily relinquish
all that they had struggled for, give up the fruits of half a life’s
labour, and calmly face the certainty of irreparable losses, without
asking for anything in return, except the opportunity of serving their
country on a soldier’s meagre pay. Still less could anybody have
imagined that a time might come when Indian natives, debarred from the
chance of proving their loyalty by personal service, would give without
stint towards a fund for equipping a force to fight in a distant land
against the enemies of the British Raj. If Indian princes had been
permitted to raise troops for the war in South Africa, our Eastern
contingent would have numbered thousands instead of hundreds. What
natives were not allowed to give in men they gave in cash and in
substance, according to their means, thereby showing that they were with
us in a desire to defend the Empire against any assailant. In reality
this meant more than an offer of armed forces, and to that extent it was
worthy to rank with the self-sacrifice of Anglo-Indians who gave
personal service, and thereby took upon themselves a burden the weight
of which cannot be readily estimated. It must not be forgotten that
raising a corps of Volunteers in India is a very different matter from
the enrolment of a similar force at home, or wherever there are dense
populations and ‘leisured classes’ to be drawn upon. There are no idle
men in India, everyone having gone there to fill an appointment and earn
his livelihood. When the call came, therefore, it could only be answered
by sacrifices or not at all, and nobody is more conscious of this fact
than the man whose laconic appeal for Volunteers brought three or four
times more offers than he could possibly accept. In his opinion ‘the men
who vacated appointments worth from 300 to 500 rupees a month and went
to fight for their country on 1_s._ 2_d._ a day have given a much larger
contribution to the War Fund than they could afford.’ As an instance he
mentions three members of the medical profession, Doctors Charteris,
Moorhouse, and Woollright, each of whom threw up a lucrative practice
and joined the ranks as a trooper. These are not exceptional but simply
typical cases. Scores of other men gave up equally remunerative
appointments with the same noble unselfishness to enrol themselves in
Lumsden’s Horse.
To Colonel Lumsden alone belongs the honour of having evoked this
splendid manifestation of patriotic feeling. The idea of forming a corps
of Indian Volunteers was his; and though similar thoughts may have been
in many minds at the same moment, nobody had given a practical turn to
them until his message—electric in every sense—startled all
Anglo-Indians into active and cordial co-operation. How all that came
about will be told with fuller circumstances in its proper place, but
some reference must be made here to the man whose firm faith in the
patriotism and soldierly qualities of Indian Volunteers led him to the
inception of a scheme which events have so abundantly justified.
Lieutenant-Colonel Dugald McTavish Lumsden, C.B., needs no introduction
to the East, where the best, and perhaps the happiest, years of his life
have been spent. Without some details concerning him, however,
completeness could not be claimed for any record of the corps which is
now identified with his name. The eldest son of the late Mr. James
Lumsden, of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, he was born in 1851. At the age of
twenty-two he obtained an appointment on the Borelli Tea Estate, in the
Tezpur District of Assam, and sailed for India. Consciously or
unconsciously, he must have taken with him some military ambitions
imbibed through intimate association with leaders of the Volunteer
movement in Scotland. At any rate, he soon became known as a keen
Volunteer in the land of his adoption, and when in 1887 the Durrung
Mounted Rifles was formed, he was given a captaincy. A year later that
corps lost its identity, as other local units did, in the territorial
title of Assam Valley Light Horse, with Colonel Buckingham, C.I.E., as
commandant, while Captain Lumsden got his majority and took command of F
Squadron in the Durrung District. Subsequently he commanded the regiment
for a time, and, though he left India in 1893, he did not lose touch
with his old comrades. Every year he returned to spend the cold weather
among his friends in Assam, showing always undiminished interest in the
welfare of his old regiment. Thus, when the time came for a call to
active service, he had no sort of doubt what the response would be from
the hardy, sport-loving planters of Northern Bengal. Himself an
enthusiastic _shikari_ and first-rate shot, he knew how to value the
qualities that are developed in hunting and stalking wild game. And his
experience of Indian Volunteers was not confined to his own district. He
knew every corps in Bengal by reputation, and could thus gauge with an
approach to accuracy the numbers on which he would be able to draw for
the formation of an Indian contingent. Much travel in many lands had
also made him a good judge of men, as evidenced by the first thing he
did when the idea of calling upon India to take up her share of the
Imperial burden came to him.
At that time he was travelling in Australia, and had no means of knowing
how deeply the feelings of British residents and natives of the East had
been stirred by news of the reverses to our arms in South Africa. The
dark days of Stormberg and Magersfontein had thrown their shadow over
Australia as over England, chilling the hearts of people who until then
had refused to believe that British troops could be baulked by any foes,
notwithstanding the stern lesson of Ladysmith’s investment. Through that
darkness they were groping sullenly towards the light, and wondering
what national sacrifices would have to be made before the humiliation
could be wiped out. It is in such moments of emergency that natural
leaders come to the front. Among the few in England or the Colonies who
realised the military value of Volunteers was Colonel Lumsden. Though
thousands of miles away from the scenes of early associations, his
thoughts turned at once to the bold riders and skilful marksmen with
whom he had so often shared the exciting incidents of the chase. He made
up his mind at once that the planters, on whose spirit he could rely,
were the very men wanted for South African fighting. On the parade
ground they might not be all that soldiers whose minds are fettered by
rules and traditions would desire, but he knew how long days of exercise
in the open air at their ordinary avocations, varied by polo,
pig-sticking, and big-game hunting, had toughened their fibre and
hardened their nerves. He could count on every one of them also for keen
intelligence, which he rightly regarded as more important than mere
obedience to orders, where every man might be called upon to think and
act for himself. Colonel Lumsden would be the last to depreciate Regular
soldiers, or undervalue their discipline, but experience had taught him
that men who can exercise self-restraint and develop powers of endurance
for the mere pleasure of excelling in manly sports, adapt themselves
readily enough to military duties. To them, at any rate, the prospect of
hardships or privations would be no deterrent, the imminence of danger
only an additional incentive. On December 15, 1899—a day to be
afterwards borne in mournful memory—Colonel Lumsden made up his mind
that the time for action had come to every Briton who could see his way
to giving the Mother Country a helpful hand. He cabled at once to his
friend Sir Patrick Playfair in Calcutta his proposal to raise a corps of
European Mounted Infantry for service in South Africa, and backed it
with an offer, not only to take the field himself, but to contribute a
princely sum in aid of a fund for equipping any force the Government
might sanction. Then, without waiting to know whether his services had
been accepted, he took passage by the next steamer for India.
CHAPTER I
_HOW THE CORPS WAS RAISED AND EQUIPPED_
Offer Government fifty thousand rupees and my services any capacity
towards raising European Mounted Infantry Contingent, India, service
Cape. Wire Melbourne Club, Melbourne.—Leaving nineteenth, due Calcutta
January 9. Do not divulge name until my arrival.—LUMSDEN.
These were the stirring words of Colonel Lumsden’s laconic message
flashed by cable from Australia to Calcutta at a time when all India was
ripe for any movement in aid of the Empire, and only waiting for a lead
in the course it should take. No wonder that the spirit of a man whose
enthusiastic confidence was expressed in an offer so munificent
communicated itself to all whom Sir Patrick Playfair consulted on the
subject. Still, official susceptibilities, ever prone to look askance at
anything that seems like civilian interference with military
prerogatives, had to be considered. Tact was necessary at the very
outset to avoid all possibility of friction. Colonel Lumsden had
evidently foreseen this when he selected as the recipient of his cable
message an Anglo-Indian of diplomatic temperament, great social
influence, and varied experience. Few men, if any, could have been
better qualified for the delicate negotiations, or could have appealed
to the Indian public, Native and European, with more certainty of
success than Sir Patrick Playfair, whose services then and for months
afterwards entitle him to a niche in India’s Walhalla beside the founder
of Lumsden’s Horse. Even at the sacrifice of continuity, it is
appropriate to quote here an appreciative comment by one who knew how
much Sir Patrick Playfair did towards the formation and equipment of a
thoroughly representative force. From the moment of receiving Colonel
Lumsden’s telegram he displayed the keenest interest in its object, and
endeavoured to ensure a successful issue with all the energy that has
characterised him in his advocacy and support of many public enterprises
during a brilliant career. He was the prime mover in every social
function organised in honour of Lumsden’s Horse, and in everything done
for their benefit apart from military details while they remained in
India. After their departure for the front he never lost an opportunity
of identifying himself with them in every way, and none would have been
keener than he to share their dangers and hardships if his position had
enabled him to accompany them. In this connection Sir Patrick had an
entertaining dialogue one day with General Patterson, of the United
States army, who said, ‘What I have been wondering about is why you did
not go yourself, Sir Patrick.’ To this the knight replied, ‘Well, you
know, I am a busy man. Of course I should have liked to go above all
things, but with my engagements it was impossible.’ ‘Ah, yes!’ said the
General; ‘I guess you’re like Artemus Ward’s friend, the Baldinsville
editor, who would “delight to wade in gore,” but whose country bade him
stay at home and announce week by week the measures taken by Government,
or, like Artemus himself, who, having given two cousins to the war, was
ready to sacrifice his wife’s brother and shed the blood of all his
able-bodied relations “rather’n not see the rebellyin krusht.”’ As it
was, Sir Patrick took the pains to publish every item of interest sent
to him by the officer commanding throughout the campaign. When, after
twelve months of honourable service, the corps turned homewards again,
he took the initiative in preparing a welcome worthy of them, and after
Lumsden’s Horse had been disbanded he showed a kindly interest in the
men by endeavouring to procure appointments for all who needed
assistance of that kind, and thereby won their gratitude as he had long
before gained their esteem. This is anticipating events, but, like the
prologue to a play, it may help to give some idea of a character whose
influence on the whole story is potent though not often in evidence.
[Illustration:
_Photo: Elliott & Fry_
CURZON
]
Sir Patrick Playfair’s first step was to approach General P.J. Maitland,
C.B., Military Secretary to the Government of India, to whom he made
known Colonel Lumsden’s offer and explained something of its probable
scope. General Maitland, who warmly supported the proposal, said he
would place it before His Excellency the Viceroy, but intimated that the
matter would then have to be referred to the War Office, without whose
consent the Government of India could do nothing in connection with the
war. At that time Colonel Lumsden was on his way to Calcutta, and had
telegraphed again from Albany to find out what progress was being made,
but got no answer. Sir Patrick, knowing his man, had no misgivings that
he might turn back discouraged by the prospect of an official cold
shoulder. Lord Curzon was still absent from Calcutta on tour, and the
Commander-in-Chief, the late Sir William Lockhart, had not returned from
his official round of inspection in Burma, so that no immediate
opportunity occurred for placing the proposal before either of them at a
personal interview. General Maitland, however, did more than he had
promised by so urging the case in a communication to the Viceroy that
His Excellency took it up, and immediately on his arrival in Calcutta
telegraphed to the Commander-in-Chief, who thereupon gave his approval
promptly. The headquarters authorities asked how many men were to go,
and Sir Patrick said he thought from two hundred and fifty to three
hundred. That suggestion was embodied in a telegram to the War Office,
which, as usual, took time to consider it. Again Colonel Lumsden, who
had then reached Colombo, cabled for information as to the state of
affairs, but again no reply was vouchsafed. So he came on, fully
prepared to meet disappointment at the end of his journey. When he got
within sight of land, however, all India knew of his splendid offer and
its acceptance by the Home Government. The whole story had been
published in every newspaper two days before Colonel Lumsden steamed up
the Hooghly to find himself a hero. Crowds of his friends and admirers
were there to welcome him as chief of a corps that had neither a local
habitation nor a name, nor even a substantial existence at the moment.
With characteristic abnegation of self, he had offered his services in
any capacity, but nobody doubted from the hour of his arrival in
Calcutta that whatever force India might send to the front would have
Lumsden for its leader. The newspapers even began to give his name to
the contingent before it had assumed bodily shape or anybody knew
exactly how it was to be raised. Some days later the popular choice was
confirmed by publication of a War Office order couched in the following
words:
‘Her Majesty’s Government having accepted the offer of the Government
of India to provide a force of Mounted Volunteers for service in South
Africa, two companies of Mounted Infantry, to be called the Indian
Mounted Infantry Corps (Lumsden’s Horse), will be raised immediately
at Calcutta under the command of Lieut.-Colonel D. McT. Lumsden, of
the Volunteer Force of India, Supernumerary List, Assam Valley Light
Horse.’
With this order, giving unqualified approval of the project, came a
mobilisation scheme in which the Government undertook to provide the
necessary sea-kit for use on board ship only, the transport, the daily
rations as for other soldiers, the weapons, the munitions of war, and
pay at the rate of 1_s._ 2_d._ a day, but nothing else. The rest was
left to private enterprise working on popular enthusiasm and the loyal
sentiments of a great community. Towards the sum requisite for the
complete equipment and maintenance of a mounted force in the field, even
half a lakh of rupees would not go very far. The spirit that had
prompted one man to offer that sum and his own services to boot proved
contagious, however, and Colonel Lumsden had so little doubt what the
result would be that he immediately announced his readiness to receive
applications from men who might be willing to serve in South Africa for
a year, or ‘for not less than the period of the war.’ That call was
published by Indian newspapers on January 10, 1900, and in response
Volunteers sent their names from every district far and near, until
Colonel Lumsden might have enrolled a thousand as easily as the two or
three hundred sanctioned by Government. His one difficulty, indeed, was
that of selection, and there the experience he had gained from studying
character closely under many different conditions came in. He was
assisted by suggestions from officers commanding the Calcutta Light
Horse, the Assam Valley Light Horse, the Surma Valley Light Horse, the
Behar Light Horse, the Punjab, the Mysore, and the Rangoon Volunteer
Corps. Authorities at home had by that time learned a very important
lesson, the outcome of which was expressed in a phrase very different
from the unlucky telegram that gave so much offence to Australians a few
weeks earlier. Colonel Lumsden was told ‘preference will be given to
Volunteers from mounted Volunteer Corps, but Volunteers belonging to
Infantry corps who may possess the requisite qualifications will also be
eligible.’ One of the qualifications laid down was that they should be
‘good riders’ before joining Lumsden’s Horse. Here the value of previous
training in military duties and of something more than haphazard
horsemanship was recognised; and happily Colonel Lumsden knew exactly
the sort of men who would meet both requirements, especially as the
limits of age (between twenty and forty) brought the best of those who
had the riding and shooting experiences incidental to a planter’s life
into the category. It is not surprising if he showed a partiality for
them when rival claims had to be decided upon. The fact that many of
them offered to bring their own horses weighed nothing with him, though
he knew that the companies would have to be mounted somehow and that the
Government had explicitly declined to provide horses for that purpose.
Either by private contributions in kind or by public subscription toward
the necessary funds for purchasing, a horse for each trooper had to be
furnished; but this consideration did not weigh for a moment against the
chances of a man who could only give himself to the Empire’s service, so
long as he had in essential points better qualifications than other
candidates could boast. The wife of a prominent and popular soldier—now
a general—asked, as a great favour, that her brother might be allowed to
serve as a trooper in the corps. To such a pleader Sir Patrick could not
say ‘no,’ so he arranged a little dinner at which the fascinating lady
was to sit beside Colonel Lumsden. Whether her gentle persuasions
prevailed or the brother’s merits were too obvious to be disregarded, it
is certain that he joined the ranks of Lumsden’s Horse, and so
completely justified the choice that he is now an officer of the Regular
army and a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. Naturally, the
selection of two hundred and fifty men to represent all India from among
a thousand who were anxious for the opportunity of seeing active service
gave rise to much jealousy and heart-burning on the part of the
rejected. Reading some of their vituperations, one might imagine that
they had been aspirants to posts of high distinction, or at least to
lucrative sinecures, rather than candidates for the khaki jackets of
privates in a regiment about to share the hardships of a perilous
campaign. One disappointed applicant, whose martial ardour was not to be
quenched by rejection, wrote angrily to the ‘Englishman,’ suggesting
that there was gross favouritism in the preference shown for planters
over townsmen. His letter is worth quoting at length as typical of the
fighting spirit that had been aroused everywhere by Colonel Lumsden’s
patriotic manifesto. Thus he wrote:
_To the Editor of the ‘Englishman.’_
SIR,—I hope I am in time to draw the attention of the Government to
the _Bahadur_[1] style in which the selection to the ‘Indian Yeomanry
Corps’ of Volunteers is being conducted. Because a man is the son of
his father, and owns a few ponies and a few hundred rupees, is he to
be given the preference as a fighting unit?
There are to-day in India, even in the city of Calcutta, men of
unquestionable merit, men who are sons and the recipients of a
heritage of blood shed in England’s and her Most Gracious Majesty’s
cause from fathers who had bled and died for England and England’s
prestige, and I beg to ask you, Sir, are these men to be shelved to
suit the convenience of a few planters? I am not a planter, and, as an
outsider, I put my claims forward as a test of merit. I am willing to
shoot a match up the range with the best man selected from Behar, run
him a given distance, ride him on strange nags (catch weights), and in
the end with my weight and other recommendations beat him.
[Illustration:
_Photo: Bourne & Shepherd_
BEHAR CONTINGENT OF LUMSDEN’S HORSE
]
There is quite a ring of mediaeval chivalry about that challenge to
‘shoot up the range.’ One cannot mistake its blood-thirsty significance,
and perhaps it is lucky for the Champion of Behar that he did not take
up the gauntlet thus ruthlessly thrown down. It will be noticed that
this duel, after the manner suggested by one of Bret Harte’s heroes, was
to precede all other events in the prolonged ordeal; and imagination
shudders at the picture of awful slaughter that would have been wrought,
as the picked marksmen of Behar and Hyderabad and Oudh and Assam went
down one by one, if they had dared to face the deadly rifle of that
truculent citizen of Calcutta, without getting a chance to prove whether
he could run or ride. Happily, the selected two hundred and fifty kept
their heads, so that the trial by single combat never came off; but one
must hope that a place was found in Lumsden’s Horse for the
self-confident challenger, and that he proved as formidable on the field
as in a printed column. Readers may scan the names of troopers, whose
occupations before enlistment are all given in the Appendix, and yet be
left speculating whether or not the writer of that letter was among the
chosen after all. He will not be found in the first or second section of
Company A, composed almost to a man of indigo-planters, or in the third
section, whose tea-planters, mainly from Assam, have not a townsman
among them; and the planters who make up an overwhelming majority of
three sections in Company B would equally disclaim all knowledge of the
fire-eating citizen. Can it be that he figures in the more casual fourth
section of either company, under the vague designation of a ‘gentleman’
or a ‘journalist’? A little levity may be pardoned now in reference to a
matter which, at the time, aroused some acrimony. All that, however, was
swept away by the wave of enthusiasm, leaving no bitterness behind it,
even in the minds of those who at first thought themselves humiliated by
rejection. If Lumsden’s Horse were almost entirely a corps of planters,
few questioned the care and discretion with which Colonel Lumsden had
chosen his men, and none could deny that they made a goodly show at
manœuvres on the Maidan, where their camp was pitched within easy
reach of the city. Though quartered there for six weeks in circumstances
that exposed them to many temptations, those troopers behaved in a
manner that would have been considered exemplary for the best regiment
of disciplined Regulars. This is not surprising when we consider that in
civil life they had been accustomed to exercise, command, and to exact
obedience from others, even at the risk of their own lives. At the
outset Colonel Lumsden made it a condition that he would have none but
unmarried men in the ranks, and to this rule there were few known
exceptions, though some Benedicts crept in undeclared. As a regiment,
Lumsden’s Horse had an _esprit de corps_ to maintain from the day of its
birth under auspices that made the occasion imperial, and every man of
it was tacitly pledged to prove himself a worthy recipient of the honour
conferred upon him as one of India’s chosen representatives. How that
feeling prevailed over all other considerations in the moment when
Lumsden’s Horse played their manful part in battle for the first time,
and how it held them together in a comradeship that was akin to
brotherhood through after-months of hard campaigning, will appear as the
narrative unfolds itself. It began to have an influence while the corps
was as yet but an invertebrate skeleton, and it helps to explain the
anxiety of Indian Volunteers to join the ranks of a force that was
destined by the nature of things to become historical. One can
understand, therefore, the alternations of hope and depression that
passed over certain districts where men who had offered their services
waited anxiously for the decision on which their chances of distinction
hung. Some glimpses of this may be got through the letters received by
Colonel Lumsden from all parts of India at that time, and from the
diaries in which thoughts as well as actions are recorded by the men
themselves. One begins his notes—two days after Colonel Lumsden’s call
for Volunteers had been published—with the entry: ‘An express came from
—— to say he had sent in the names of twenty men from C Company.’ After
waiting impatiently several days for news that did not come, the diarist
got his friend to send two telegrams, one to Colonel Lumsden, the other
direct to the Adjutant-General at Calcutta, offering a complete company.
The next day somebody turned up with news that they had been accepted.
Jubilation on this score, however, lasted no longer than twenty-four
hours, when it gave place to dejection caused by rumours that they ‘were
not accepted after all.’ This wave of depression passed away as speedily
in its turn, dispelled by the rays of hope that burst out radiantly on
receipt of a chit from —— ‘asking me to come in at once.’ Under the next
day’s date comes the crowning triumph of that anxious time, told very
simply but in a way that makes one feel the nerves of those men
throbbing through every word. ‘Started for Chick,’ runs the entry; ‘met
——, who told me we really were accepted. Then we met —— dashing along on
his bike. He had already upset a woman.’ A week later, after many
festive farewells, that contingent was on its way to Calcutta and
foregathering with other contingents, whose experiences had all been the
same, for every man of them was buoyant at the prospect of seeing active
service, and would have regarded it as a personal slight, if not an
indelible stigma on his reputation for courage, if he had been left
behind.
[Illustration: MYSORE AND COORG CONTINGENT]
So day by day the ranks of Lumsden’s Horse gained strength until their
numbers were complete and recruiting had to be stopped; while many
candidates whom the Colonel would gladly have taken tried in vain for
admission. It was a regiment of which any commanding officer might be
proud, whether judged by physical or mental standards. A corps of
planters it might have been justly called, for they outnumbered all of
other occupations; but it represented many classes, and nearly every
district in India where sport-loving Britishers are to be found. In its
ranks were fifty-five indigo-planters, sixty-one tea-planters,
thirty-one coffee-planters, and five of similar occupation not
specifically designated. Beside these, the sixteen Civil Service men of
various grades, three bank assistants, twelve railway officials,
including civil engineers, three medical men from the planting
districts, one inspector of mounted police, a brewer, a tutor, a
journalist, and a few others whose peaceful days until then had been
devoted to commerce, form a comparatively small proportion. Thus
considerably more than half the fighting strength were planters. Among
the remainder, townsmen must have been fairly represented, to say
nothing of artificers who formed the Maxim Gun detachment under command
of Captain Bernard Willoughby Holmes, whose services had been placed at
Colonel Lumsden’s disposal by consent of the East India Railway Company.
The Mercantile Marine also furnished its quota in the persons of a
captain, a chief officer, a second officer, and two engineers of the
British India Steam Navigation Company’s fleet, and a chief officer of
the Hajee Cassim Line. A veterinary surgeon, police inspectors,
policemen, clerks in the Military Accounts Department, travelling
agents, hotel assistants, a photographer, a theatrical agent, and a
superintendent of the Rangoon Boating Club joined the Transport, from
which two very smart fellows were drawn into the ranks as troopers
during the campaign, and one of them was subsequently gazetted to the
West India Regiment as second lieutenant. Counting all these, the
enrolled strength was just 300.
Then came the difficult and delicate task of appointing company officers
and section commanders—a difficulty enhanced by the fact that many
Volunteer officers had enlisted as troopers. I have said that the
Government had given its unqualified approval to Colonel Lumsden’s
project. This statement, however, applies only to the general scheme. It
must be remembered that he had made no stipulation as to his own rank,
or the right of selecting officers, and it was not in the nature of a
British War Office to let the prerogative of veto slip entirely out of
its hands. Colonel Lumsden’s own appointment as commanding officer came
directly from headquarters, on the suggestion probably of Lord Curzon.
Two other conditions, not very irksome, the military authorities made at
Colonel Lumsden’s urgent request. These were that captains commanding
companies should be Regular officers on active service, and that the
adjutant, who would also act as quartermaster, should be appointed from
the Staff Corps or have graduated in it. These nominations were left to
the Commander-in-Chief in India, and in the ordinary course of things
they involved the appointment of Regular non-commissioned officers as
quartermaster-sergeants and company sergeant-majors. Other subordinate
posts for which military experience or special training is necessary
were also filled by Regulars, who thus relieved the Volunteer troopers
of some laborious duties. An officer second in command, four captains
acting as senior subalterns, four lieutenants, a medical officer, and a
veterinary surgeon had still to be selected, and the choice must have
involved many anxious moments, seeing how much depended on the unknown
qualities that are hidden in all men and may lie dormant for years, only
to be developed for good or ill in the crisis of an emergency. How
Colonel Lumsden succeeded in this, as in every other preliminary task
that he imposed upon himself, is now a matter of history to be dealt
with in proper sequence. The wisdom of his selections could only be
proved by events, and to these, as narrated by men who were best able to
judge, appeal may be confidently made. Naturally, some who had held
commissioned rank previously, and thought their claims to consideration
indisputable, felt sore at being passed over in favour of others who
were junior to them in the Volunteer service. But this irritation was
not allowed to show itself or interfere with loyal subordination in all
military duties.
To the inviolable pages of his diary one, whose merits were not at the
time so well known as they ought to have been, confides the pregnant
sentence: ‘Heard to-day that —— was to be a _captain_, I a _corporal_.’
There the entry ends, leaving a blank more eloquent than any scathing
comment could have been. For all that, the captain and the corporal
remained on the best of terms, and, though they ceased for discipline’s
sake to call each other by their Christian names, there is reason to
believe that both soon came to the conclusion that no very serious
mistake had been made in estimating their relative fitness for command.
At any rate, after a little friction they shaped themselves like round
pegs to round holes. But that is the habit of Britishers, who, however
unaccustomed to discipline, are not slow in recognising its inevitable
necessity and its inestimable value. They come to see that without it no
concerted movement, whether big or small, is certain of success. You
cannot conduct military operations to a definite end, any more than you
can navigate a ship or rule a family, if individuality is allowed to
take the form of insubordination. These lessons Colonel Lumsden began to
inculcate in his peculiarly persuasive way directly he had got his men
together and placed officers in authority over them.
Men and officers, however, are not the only things necessary to keep a
fighting unit going when once it has been formed and organised. Sir
Patrick Playfair found the full equipment of such a force no less costly
than he had estimated. Fortunately, however, he had foreseen all
difficulties in this connection and provided for them. After
consultation with General Maitland, General Wace (Director-General of
Ordnance), Sir Alfred Gaselee (then Quartermaster-General), Sir E.R.
Elles (Adjutant-General), and the late Surgeon-General Harvey, it was
decided that nearly a thousand rupees per man would be necessary for
equipping the force, buying horses in addition to those brought in by
troopers themselves, and establishing a reserve fund sufficient for all
emergencies that might arise while the men remained on active service.
This meant that a sum amounting to two and a half lakhs of rupees, or
about sixteen thousand five hundred pounds sterling, would have to be
got together by public subscription. Until this campaign proved the
depth and sincerity of Imperial sentiments among nearly all classes of
the community, few people, even in England, believed that such a sum
would be given to send a mere handful of Volunteers on active service
far from their home. And most people, having but a superficial knowledge
of Indian affairs, would have ridiculed the suggestion that native
princes or merchants would contribute in proportion little less than
Johannesburg millionaires to uphold British supremacy in South Africa.
Sir Patrick Playfair, however, knowing by experience how liberal had
been the response of those people to all calls on their generosity, and
gauging with remarkable insight the genuineness of their loyal devotion
in a time of possible peril to the Empire, had no doubt what the result
would be. But even he was not prepared for anything like the unanimity
of enthusiasm that his appeal evoked. It took simply the form of a
general invitation to subscribe. The marvellous rapidity with which the
subscription list filled may therefore be taken as a voluntary
expression by Europeans and natives alike of staunch fidelity to the
cause for which Lumsden’s Horse were being enrolled as a fighting unit.
The contributors included His Excellency the Viceroy (Lord Curzon of
Kedleston), His Excellency the Governor of Bombay (Lord Sandhurst), His
Excellency the Commander-in-Chief in India (the late Sir William
Lockhart), their Honours the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal (Sir John
Woodburn), the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab (Sir W. Mackworth
Young), the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces and Oudh
(the Bight Honourable Sir A.P. MacDonnell, P.C.), and the
Lieutenant-Governor of Burma (Sir F.W.R. Fryer). Princes, rajahs,
landowners, mercantile firms, and European residents almost without
exception, came forward, subscribing munificently, until the sum of
227,000 rupees had been promised and received in cash, besides
contributions from tradesmen in kind amounting to another 100,000
rupees.
No single subscription rivalled Colonel Lumsden’s splendid offer, or
came anywhere near it in amount; but Sir Seymour King, K.C.I.E., M.P.,
on account of Messrs. Henry S. King & Co., London, and two allied firms
in Bombay and Calcutta, gave a lump sum of 10,000 rupees, while
Maharajah Sir Jotendro Mohun Tagore, K.C.S.I., Rajah Sir Sourindro Mohun
Tagore, Knt., C.I.E., Nawab Sir Sidi Ahmed Khan, K.C.S.I., Mr. F.
Verner, Messrs. Apcar & Co., and Kumar Rada Prosad Roy sent 5,000 rupees
each. The last named, a zemindar, or landed proprietor, was quite
diffident and doubtful whether he ought to subscribe without being asked
directly, but he expressed a hope that his contribution would be
accepted. A great many merchants and others who were only known to Sir
Patrick Playfair by name sent cheques for amounts varying from fifty to
2,500 rupees. No fewer than twenty-eight mercantile firms in Calcutta
subscribed 1,000 rupees each, and among the most liberal donors were
native princes of nearly every State in the three Presidencies.
His Highness the Maharajah of Bhownagar, whose palace is 2,500 miles
distant from Calcutta, sent fifty Arab chargers and saddlery; the
Maharani Regent of Mysore, twenty-two country-bred and Arab horses; and
other potentates, like the Maharajah Bahadur of Soubarsa and the Rajah
of Mearsa, gave handsome presents of a similar kind according to the
resources of their studs. The natives of Aligarh, clubbing together,
sent twenty-seven horses and one mule; while one, Mohammed Mazamullah
Khan, gave two horses, a mule, a donkey, and two small sleeping tents,
accompanied by a touchingly simple letter saying, ‘They are all I have
to help to conquer the enemies of the Great White Queen.’ Other
contributions in kind ranged from tents sufficient for the whole force
presented by the Elgin cotton mills of Cawnpore, rough serge cloth for
all coats requisite from the Egerton woollen mills at Cawnpore, puttees
from Kashmir and Cawnpore, gaiters, Cardigan jackets, hats, horseshoes
and nails, forage, tea, coffee, beer, whisky, and cigars, down to
matches, of which no fewer than 7,000 boxes were sent by one thoughtful
gentleman. The India General Steam Navigation Company, the River Steam
Navigation Company, the East India Railway, and the Eastern Bengal State
Railway combined to carry men and horses free of charge from all parts
of India to Calcutta.
A small executive committee was formed by Colonel Lumsden to carry out
the arrangements for the equipment and despatch of the corps. Its
members were:
Colonel LUMSDEN, _President_.
Sir PATRICK PLAYFAIR, C.I.E.
Colonel GEORGE MONEY.
The Hon. Colonel BUCKINGHAM, C.I.E.
Major EDDIS.
Mr. HARRY STUART.
The work of organising naturally fell to Colonel Lumsden, who was also
busily engaged in selecting officers and enrolling men; while Sir
Patrick Playfair undertook the entire management of the collection of
subscriptions in cash and in kind, assisted by Mr. Shirley Tremearne,
Editor of ‘Capital,’ whose local knowledge enabled him to render
valuable aid in appealing to the mercantile community where personal
appeals were necessary, and in collecting the promised subscriptions for
which personal application had to be made in accordance with traditional
etiquette. Mr. Harry Stuart, formerly executive manager of the Bengal
State Railway, took charge of all arrangements for receiving and messing
the different detachments on their arrival in Calcutta from distant
districts until a camp could be formed.
[Illustration:
_Photo: Bourne & Shepherd_
MR. HARRY STUART SIR PATRICK PLAYFAIR, C.I.E.
COL. MONEY COL. LUMSDEN, C.B. MAJOR EDDIS
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
]
Though the mobilisation scheme—drawn up by the Indian Headquarters Staff
and sent to Colonel Lumsden after approval by the War Office in
London—promised no more substantial assistance than the provision of
arms, ammunition, rations, and transport to South Africa, it furnished
many suggestions of the greatest importance, and, as a model for use on
any similar occasion hereafter, it is reproduced at length in the
Appendix. This document will be found of interest also as giving a
comprehensive idea of the many requirements for which provision had to
be made by Colonel Lumsden and his colleagues. Their labours were
lightened by the cordial co-operation of military officials, who went
out of their way to render every possible assistance. Without the advice
and practical aid thus given by heads of departments of the Government
of India, it would have been impossible for Colonel Lumsden, or any
other commanding officer in his position, to have carried out all the
War Office conditions economically. Major-General Wace, C.B., as head of
the Ordnance Department, gave every facility for Colonel Lumsden to
indent on Government stores for clothing and accoutrements at regulation
prices, and not only so, but he and Colonel Buckland, the Superintendent
of Army Clothing, with Major-General T.F. Hobday, Commissary-General,
and Surgeon-General Robert Harvey, C.B., were ready to place the fruits
of their long experience and special knowledge of various details at the
service of Colonel Lumsden whenever he felt the need of advice in such
matters; and Captain A.L. Phillips, an officer on the Staff of Sir
Alfred Gaselee, Q.M.G., was untiring in his efforts to make the movement
a success so far as his personal efforts and influence could avail. So
everything went well from the beginning, thanks in great measure to the
lively interest taken in the corps by Lord Curzon, who was pleased to
become its Honorary Colonel, and by all officers of his personal Staff.
Her Excellency Lady Curzon was equally zealous and lent her influence to
every good work by which the ladies of Calcutta sought to express their
admiration, and perhaps their tender regard, for the heroes who were
going forth to fight. What form that expression should take was a
subject much debated and long in doubt. Of course Sir Patrick Playfair
had to be consulted by a deputation of charming damsels. He thought a
bazaar might give them the opportunity they wanted. Yes! that was just
the thing; but then—and then came a string of fatal objections. A
smoking-concert was next suggested, and the young ladies thought that
idea splendid, only—well, in short, it wouldn’t do. Then, as if it were
the last resource to be thought of—a sort of forlorn hope—Sir Patrick
hinted that a dance might meet the case. To that his fair interviewers
demurred most effusively; but then and without any hypnotic suggestion,
so Sir Patrick avers, they began to see that something might be urged in
favour of it, and at last, with a unanimity that was wonderful, they
decided that a dance was the only means of fitly celebrating the
occasion. Having come to that conclusion, all their coy objections
vanished in a moment. Sir Patrick saw his opportunity and seized it to
persuade them that, as it was to be a ladies’ enterprise, they must
manage it entirely themselves. Thereupon they formed a committee, of
which Miss Pugh was elected Honorary Secretary, invited Lady Curzon of
Kedleston to become patroness, and set to work with an energy which no
mere man could hope to rival. They had of course to enlist masculine
services for subordinate duties. This they did with a sweet despotism
that made revolt impossible. The men had to accept without a murmur the
positions assigned to them as stewards, and obeyed every mandate like
the willing slaves we all should be in similar circumstances. The
committee of ladies showed a business-like promptitude in settling every
detail and a faculty for organisation which won from a military admirer
the approving comment that they could conduct a campaign if they would
only give their minds to it. This or some other feminine attribute had
such an effect on the wine merchants of Calcutta that they sent
champagne for the ball-supper and gallantly refused to accept payment.
So the Calcutta Ball in honour of Lumsden’s Horse became an assured
success almost from the moment of its happy inception. Brilliant beyond
the dreams of a _débutante_, it left on many a susceptible heart
impressions which neither time nor the changing scenes of warfare could
dim, as the secret archives, to which an editor alone has access,
attest; and in a less romantic way it proved the unselfish devotion of
those ladies, who, after paying all expenses, handed over a balance of
6,000 rupees to the war-chest of Lumsden’s Horse.
LIEUT. SIDEY LIEUT. PUGH CAPT. CLIFFORD LIEUT. CRANE LIEUT.
NEVILLE CAPT. RUTHERFOORD
[Illustration:
_Photo: Harrington & Co._
]
CAPT. CHAMNEY MAJOR SHOWERS COL. LUMSDEN CAPT. TAYLOR CAPT.
BERESFORD
CAPT. NOBLETT VET.-CAPT. STEVENSON
OFFICERS OF THE CORPS
Such financial aids came not amiss at the moment. Government transports
chartered by the Royal Indian Marine for taking troops to Natal were
delayed on the return, and, one vessel having broken down, Colonel
Lumsden found that he would have to encamp his men on the Maidan for two
or three weeks longer than he had anticipated, and this entailed an
additional expenditure of nearly 1,000_l._ for extra rations and
comforts. To soldiers of Spartan mould, who pride themselves on
discarding luxuries at the first call to arms, this might have seemed
like pampering the Volunteer troopers; but it must be remembered that in
India men cannot give up the habits of a lifetime all at once and come
down to bare soldier’s rations without danger to their health. And
Colonel Lumsden’s first object after getting his men was to keep them
fit. His care in this respect was justified by events no less than his
judgment in the selection of men for mental and physical attributes. At
the end of a year’s campaigning he was able to boast that his losses
from sickness were proportionately less than in any other regiment. This
delay had its advantages in so far as it gave Colonel Lumsden and his
officers a chance of training the troopers for their duties and
accustoming them to their horses before the day of embarkation. The
postponement, we may be sure, was no disappointment to the people of
Calcutta, who felt that the Maidan would be a cheerless blank without
Lumsden’s Horse. It will be well to give here a few details of
organisation. By War Office order the corps was to consist of two
companies, each commanded by a Regular officer, and the Government also
appointed a Regular adjutant to assist Colonel Lumsden in executive
work; while Colonel Eden C. Showers, Commandant of the Surma Valley
Light Horse, offered to serve as Major, and was gazetted with that rank
as second in command. When other officers had been selected, chiefly on
the recommendation of commandants under whom they had served in
Volunteer Corps, they were posted in the following order:
STAFF.—Lieutenant-Colonel Dugald McTavish Lumsden, Commandant.
Major Eden C. Showers, Second in Command.
Captain Neville C. Taylor, 14th Bengal Lancers, Adjutant and
Quartermaster.
Captain Samuel Arthur Powell, Medical Officer.
Veterinary Captain William Stevenson, M.R.C.V.S., Veterinary Surgeon.
A COMPANY.—Captain James Hugh Brownlow Beresford, 3rd Sikhs
(commanding), Captain John Brownley Rutherfoord, Lieutenants Charles
Edward Crane and George Augustus Neville.
B COMPANY.—Captain Louis Hemington Noblett, Royal Irish Rifles
(commanding), Captain Henry Chamney, Captain Frank Clifford,
Lieutenants Charles Lyon Sidey and Herbert Owain Pugh.
MAXIM GUN DETACHMENT.—Captain Bernard Willoughby Holmes (commanding).
Each company had a Regular non-commissioned officer as Company
Sergeant-Major and another Regular as Company Quartermaster-Sergeant for
office duties under the Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant. Regulars from
the Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry were also attached as
Farrier-Sergeants, Saddlers, and Signallers, and from the Indian
Commissariat as Transport Sergeant. The Maxim Gun Contingent, under
Captain Holmes was raised and equipped by the East India Railway
Company, who offered its services to Colonel Lumsden. The Calcutta
Committee had decided, with the sanction of the Government, that
Lumsden’s Horse should not want for adequate regimental transport in the
field, but, on the contrary, should leave India as a thoroughly
organised unit in that respect, with a complete train of transport
carts, ponies, and pack mules, all properly equipped. It is hardly
necessary to say that the grant of transport, saddlery, and draught
harness, for which provision was made in the mobilisation order, did not
comprise all that the committee desired; but the inexhaustible Ordnance
Stores were again open to be requisitioned ‘on payment,’ and carts of
the Indian Army Transport pattern were drawn in a similar way from the
Commissariat Department. The ponies and mules, however, had to be
collected by agents in the hill districts of Assam and Thibet, a
distance of 1,000 miles from Calcutta. When all this was done, the corps
could justly be considered fit for active service, and it is certain
that no contingent, Volunteer or Regular, landed in South Africa with a
more efficient transport than Lumsden’s Horse. It came near being upset,
however, by a War Office decision. Almost at the last minute Colonel
Lumsden was told that the native drivers would not be permitted to
accompany the corps, and that no natives could go except one personal
servant for each officer and a limited number of syces, or grooms, in
the proportion of one to each charger, as laid down in the mobilisation
scheme. This allowance of three native attendants to every officer was
on a sufficiently liberal scale, but it did not meet the requirements
for transport purposes. Therefore Colonel Lumsden had to enlist European
drivers, of whom twenty-six were needed for each company. In ordinary
circumstances Anglo-Indian prejudices would have combined to make this
an insuperable difficulty; but so keen was the anxiety of men to see war
service in South Africa that they volunteered to go in any capacity not
necessarily menial, and so Colonel Lumsden got the full complement of
drivers together just as readily as lie had filled the ranks with
fighting men. War Office conditions stipulated that officers and
troopers of the corps must provide their own horses and saddlery, though
nearly all of the latter might be drawn from Ordnance Stores at cost
price. Naturally the supply of suitable animals for Mounted Infantry
work had to be made a corps affair from the outset. Very few of the
enlisted troopers owned horses of a class that they would have cared to
ride through the rough work of a campaign, even if they could be always
sure of having their own; and Colonel Lumsden was not likely to
countenance any claims of private ownership when once horses were
numbered as of the troop. He therefore informed every man who brought a
horse with him that it must be considered corps property, and might not
be appropriated by its owner without the commanding officer’s sanction.
No other arrangement could have worked satisfactorily. In consideration
of this understanding Colonel Lumsden promised that he would endeavour
to obtain from Government a scale of compensation for horses thus
appropriated, and in the event of being successful the sums obtained
under this head would be returned _pro rata_ to the owners of horses. It
may be mentioned in passing that Colonel Lumsden’s efforts to this end
were ultimately successful, the Government consenting to allow an
average of 30_l._ per horse to the corps, so that every man who brought
his own charger was compensated at last.
[Illustration:
_Photo: F. Kapp & Co._
MESSING AT CALCUTTA
_Under the Shamiana_
]
The men having drawn their Lee-Metford rifles with short bayonets and an
abundant supply of ·303 ball cartridges, both for practice and the
sterner work to come, were duly clothed and equipped, much to their
satisfaction.
Not many of these things, in addition to rifles and ammunition, were
free gifts from Government, whose contributions in kind had to be
supplemented by purchases out of store at the cost of corps funds and by
gifts from the appreciative public to whom no appeals were made in vain.
The troopers, at any rate, were troubled not a whit about these things,
being quite satisfied with the completeness of their personal outfit,
even before Mrs. Pugh and the ladies of Calcutta bethought them to work
woollen comforters for presentation to every man of Lumsden’s Horse on
the day of embarkation. They did not, however, take so kindly at first
to the Lee-Metford rifle. It was a new weapon to most of the men, who
had never handled anything more complicated than the old Martini
carbine. So batches of men went to the ranges every morning to practise
and accustom themselves to the peculiarities of a firearm that made no
more noise than the crack of a whip and ‘had no kick in it.’ This was a
time of gradual but sometimes painful initiation to the hardships and
discomforts inseparable from camp life. Lessons, however distasteful,
had to be learned, and it must be said that Lumsden’s Horse took the
rough with the smooth cheerily enough, enlivening their daily routine
with many pleasantries. They were always ready to laugh at a comrade or
with him in a merry jest at their own expense. Some literary
contributions from the ranks to local papers were amusing in their
fanciful exaggerations, which nobody enjoyed more than did the troopers
whose foibles were thus humorously railed at. For sanitary reasons they
were one day ordered, by medical authority, to strike their camp and
pitch it on fresh ground, whereupon one of them wrote:
Like a bolt from the blue has fallen upon this camp the Æsculapian
decree that we must go hence! It happened to-day that the medical eye
of Lumsden’s Horse opened wide, and beheld strange sights. What the
vision was has not been recorded owing to no ink being found in camp
capable of expressing its blackness, but it is no secret that microbes
as big as mastodons were observed freely gambolling in the immediate
vicinity of the commissariat tent. The marvel is that a number of men
can have lived on such a spot for ten days without coming to more
serious harm.
The green sward on the banks of the Tolly’s Nullah has presented an
animated appearance within the last few days, for every train arriving
in Calcutta has brought its quota to swell the corps. A number of men
from the Assam Valley Light Horse are now in camp. The Mysore
contingent is also established, while the Behar lads are expected
to-morrow by 10 o’clock. These will number a few over fifty, and will
prove no doubt the _crème de la crème_ of the corps. In a day or two
the Maxim gun will come into quarters, and Oakley, of Kooch Behar and
Tirah fame, has gone to some up-country sequestered spot whence comes
a particularly quiet _jat_ of pony, where he will choose animals of
gentle temperament and so small that falling off them won’t hurt—for
Maxim gun men scorn to ride.
This question of riding is no small one, and many gallant sportsmen
may be seen tearing down the lines trying to get there before their
horses. One like this was advised by a real Tommy Atkins to sit
further back and so enjoy a longer ride. Not the least pleasurable
sight in the camp is when bold Volunteers begin grooming their own
horses. Some never do more than the neck, because of the risk attached
to venturing within range of hind feet, with which country-bred horses
are notoriously handy—if it may be so said of feet. Then saddling
troubles others, because of the difficulty in distinguishing between
cantle and pommel when a saddle hasn’t a horse inside to illustrate
the difference.
There is a touch of boyish imagination about that sketch, but it is not
altogether fanciful. Some of the Volunteers who joined first were by no
means experienced horse-masters, and, to nearly all, the equipments for
Mounted Infantry in full campaigning kit were not less strange than
military technicalities. There was a rich fund of amusement for
Lumsden’s Horse in the unauthorised version of ordinary commands as one
trooper construed them. When sections in line were crowding too much
upon him he would say, ‘Fall off, man! Fall off to the left.’ The
comrade thus admonished would murmur, ‘Hang it all, man, that is just
what I am trying not to do.’ Still, young Malaprop would repeat, in
defiance of the Sergeant-Major’s peremptory request for silence in the
ranks, ‘Fall off! fall off!’ meaning all the time ‘Ease off.’ These
simple incidents of every day gave a piquancy to camp ‘gup,’ and were
the cause of more mirth than the elaborate jokes concocted by literary
troopers could arouse. One civilian, in a playfully prophetic mood,
devised a new coat of arms for Lumsden’s Horse, which was published in
the ‘Indian Daily News’ as a clever play upon the cant of Heraldry;
though the Earl Marshal and all the Kings-at-Arms and all the learned
pursuivants of Heralds’ College might have been puzzled if called upon
to emblazon the quaint conceit with its complicated quarterings, its
proper shield of pretence, and its lurid crest of augmentation.
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Footnote 1:
Hindustani for ‘cavalier.’—ED.
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