_1871-1874. DOVER. ALDERSHOT_
Ordered to Dover--Garrisons--Short service--“Golden Rules”--
Administrative duties--Lady de Ros--Alas! Alas!--M. Henry
Dunant--Aldershot.
The official Report of the mission performed had to be sent in, that
done, orders directed me to take over duty in the South-eastern
District, of which Dover is Headquarters. A few weeks elapsed, when
I received an order of readiness for India. For the first and only
time in my career I had to plead inability to proceed; long-continued
semi-starvation in Paris had so lowered physical strength that
reluctantly I was forced to plead the circumstance. The authorities
were pleased thereon to consider that episode equivalent to a tour of
foreign service; my name was placed at the bottom of the roster, and so
the next three years were spent at the favourite station of England.
All that time the quiet routine of duty was more of an agreeable
occupation than arduous or unpleasant work. Among some of the
resident families acts of civility towards myself and family were
numerous; intercourse with staff and regiments most pleasant, so that
recollections of place and people remain agreeable.
Military positions and Departmental establishments connected with
the ancient town itself had to be visited from time to time; so also
had several throughout the “district,” including Shorncliffe camp,
whence had proceeded in the early years of the century the force
destined for Spain, under command of Sir John Moore; Canterbury, with
its associations connected with St. Augustine; Maidstone, provincial
capital of England’s garden; Brighton, etc.
Gradually was the system of short service in the ranks of the Army
taking the place of that to which most officers of considerable
standing had been accustomed. Complications and friction occurred
in such a stage of transition among departments concerned in giving
the change effect. In the ranks themselves all was not propitious;
the old class of non-commissioned officers gave place to young and
inexperienced, whose authority, even when rightly exerted, was not
always tacitly accepted by the youthful and unbroken elements
concerned. Moral influence such as emanated in many instances from old
and experienced sergeants had all but died out; trivial shortcomings on
the part of young lads were magnified into “crimes”; more than ordinary
difficulty experienced by officers in keeping things smooth, yet
“going.”
In matters of administrative routine difference of views between
officers concerned seemed inevitable; a satisfactory phase of official
life, however, was that in the few instances in which such divergence
occurred it was limited to official relations. Previous experience
induced me to formulate certain principles in accordance with which
correspondence submitted for decision should be dealt with; to them
I endeavoured to adhere.[320] Another point taught by experience was
that, in directing particular administrative ends to be attained, to
leave to officers concerned the details of means by which instructions
were to be carried into effect; in that way responsibility attached to
the executive, while at the same time it left to them freedom of action.
As a matter of history relating to an important episode, and some
personages connected therewith, it is worth while to refer to the
account of the famous ball in Brussels on June 15, 1815, related to me
by Lady de Ros, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, and who was present
on the occasion in question. How, while dancing and conviviality
proceeded, sounds of waggons and other heavy conveyances, guns and
tumbrils among them, broke upon the ears of the gay throng; how small
groups of the higher officers entered into grave and subdued talk; how,
without exciting notice, singly they slipped away; how in the early
hours of morning of the 16th, “the Duke” himself took his departure;
how, as the remaining guests left the room, the turmoil in the streets
of the Belgian capital resounded with the bray of bugles, trumpets, and
military movements;[321] and how, before the day was over, several of
those who had so left were brought back wounded, some dead, from Quatre
Bras.
[Subsequently, taking advantage of the sixty-one days’ leave to which
officers are entitled, I visited the house, now a convent, which
stands on the site of the ball-room just mentioned--40-42, Rue de la
Blanchisserie.]
It was while at Dover that one of those sad bereavements befel my
dear wife and myself which leave their after-impress upon memory and
affection. The taste for sea life had been early developed in my second
son. As far as possible it was discouraged, but that having failed, he
was permitted to carry his wishes into effect. Alas! alas! the result
was very grievous. The ship in which he was proceeding was ultimately
“declared missing” at Lloyd’s; the dear, affectionate boy was never
heard of. It is too painful to write even this brief notice.
A short visit by M. Henry Dunant gave me the opportunity of hearing
from his own lips the story of the Red Cross convention, of which he
has the distinction of being Founder. To his experiences gained among
the thousands of wounded left on the field in and near Solferino
without necessary help from the Austrians or Allies between whom that
most sanguinary battle was fought,[322] and afterwards in extemporized
ambulances for reception of those for whom provision could be made, M.
Dunant assigned his resolve to institute, if possible, an Association
whereby to mitigate in some measure at least the horrors of war such
as he then witnessed. Of medical officers and their work as seen by
him on that occasion he expressed himself in this way: “Certes, si
tuer les hommes est un titre de gloire, les guerir, et cela, souvent
au peril de sa vie, mérite bien l’estime et la reconnaissance.” But
in numbers they were altogether insufficient for the task required of
them, supplemented as they soon were by volunteers, not only from the
countries immediately concerned, but from others, including Belgium,
Switzerland, and even Canada. Bearing these matters in mind, he asked
himself the question, “Is it not possible to found through all the
nations of Europe societies the object of which shall be aid to the
wounded in times of war; that care the most prompt possible, not by
mere mercenaries, but by persons devoted by high principles to so high
a vocation.” His appeal, formulated in a most touching narrative[323]
of what he had seen in Lombardy, produced the effect desired by him;
the subject he had at heart was earnestly taken up by all classes of
persons, from crowned heads to peasants, and soon he had the reward of
seeing organizations according to his own model in active operation.
It was while he was occupied in observing the working of volunteer
ambulances in Paris that I had the pleasure of being introduced to M.
Dunant.
At long last came the “gazette” of my promotion, and almost
simultaneously an order to take up at Aldershot the duties pertaining
to my new rank.[324] The chief event during my short stay at that
important military camp was the annual review and exercise of the
troops composing it. For some time previous the old system of
regimental hospitals and medical officers was in gradual process of
abolition, and now that destructive policy had been so far matured as
to be experimentally acted upon in the present manœuvres. My own duty
was limited to carrying into execution orders received. But sympathies
were altogether on the side of soldiers and their officers, who
raised their voices against it. By what was now called the system of
unification the fact became unpleasantly apparent that thenceforward
the sick soldier, together with his wife and child, must depend in
times of illness upon the aid of strangers, instead of, as heretofore,
obtaining the help of those who personally knew them, and whose
self-interest, even in the absence of higher motive, enhanced the care
and attention shown towards them.