[Frontispiece: Major-General WAUCHOPE, C.B., C.M.G., LL.D. _From a
Photograph by Horsburgh, Edinburgh._]
GENERAL WAUCHOPE
BY
WILLIAM BAIRD, F.S.A. SCOT.
AUTHOR OF
'JOHN THOMSON OF DUDDINGSTON, PASTOR AND PAINTER'
'ANNALS OF DUDDINGSTON AND PORTOBELLO'
'SIXTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE IN AYRE'
ETC.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
OLIPHANT ANDERSON AND FERRIER
1900
TO THE
OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE HIGHLAND BRIGADE
WHO BRAVELY FOUGHT AT MAGERSFONTEIN
THIS MEMOIR OF THEIR LEADER
IS INSCRIBED
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAP.
I. THE WAUCHOPES OF NIDDRIE MARISCHAL
II. CHILDHOOD--EARLY TENDENCIES--THE 'HOUSEHOLD
TROOP'--EDUCATION--NAVAL TRAINING--THE 'BRITANNIA'--THE 'ST.
GEORGE'--PRINCE ALFRED
III. ENTERS THE ARMY--THE BLACK WATCH--ASHANTI WAR--RETURN
HOME--BANQUET AT PORTOBELLO
IV. DEATH OF WAUCHOPE's FATHER--ORDERED TO
MALTA--REMINISCENCES--RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS--CYPRUS--APPOINTMENT AS
CIVIL COMMISSIONER OF PAPHO--REMINISCENCES--SIR ROBERT BIDDULPH--THE
SULTAN'S CLAIMS
V. WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA--ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION IN
EGYPT--TEL-EL-KEBIR--MARRIAGE--LIFE IN CAIRO
VI. THE EASTERN SOUDAN--BATTLE OF EL-TEB--ATTEMPT TO RELIEVE GENERAL
GORDON--ASCENT OF THE NILE--THE WHALE-BOATS--BATTLE OF
KIRBEKAN--RETURN TO CAIRO--MALTA--GIBRALTAR
VII. THE MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN
VIII. THE 73RD REGIMENT AT MARYHILL BARRACKS--INCIDENTS OF HOME
LIFE--MILITARY LIFE AT YORK--APPOINTMENT TO SOUDAN CAMPAIGN
IX. THE SOUDAN--BATTLES OF ATBARA AND OMDURMAN--ARRIVAL
HOME--RECEPTION AT NIDDRIE--DEGREE OF LL.D.--PAROCHIAL
DUTIES--PARLIAMENTARY CONTEST FOR SOUTH EDINBURGH
X. OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA--COMMAND OF THE HIGHLAND
BRIGADE--DEPARTURE FOR SOUTH AFRICA--THE SITUATION--BATTLE OF
MAGERSFONTEIN--DEATH--FUNERAL--AFTER THE BATTLE
XI. CHARACTERISTICS
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT . . . . Frontispiece
NIDDRIE MARISCHAL, FRONT VIEW
ANDREW WAUCHOPE, MIDSHIPMAN, AGE 14
ANDREW WAUCHOPE, AGE 30
NIDDRIE MARISCHAL, BACK VIEW
GENERAL WAUCHOPE ON HORSEBACK
THE GRAVE ON THE BATTLEFIELD
THE GRAVE AT MATJESFONTEIN
{9}
INTRODUCTION
On the 11th day of December 1899, amid the rattle of rifles, the
fierce booming of cannon, and the sharp bang of exploding shells, a
British force of Scottish Highlanders found themselves suddenly
confronted in the darkness of an early African morning by an unseen
enemy. All night they had been on the march, tramping the bare rocky
veldt north of the Modder river, to attack, and if possible capture,
the fortified and strongly entrenched position held by the Boer army
of General Cronje among the rocks and cliffs of Magersfontein. This
was full of difficulty and danger. But the relief of the beleaguered
garrison of Kimberley was urgent, and if the work were to be done, it
demanded the best the British army could achieve. Steadily and
determinedly stepped out the men of the Highland Brigade, commanded
by him they had long had reason to trust. As lieutenant, as captain,
as colonel, they had followed him in many a well-fought battle, and
now with Major-General Wauchope leading them in the darkness, no
doubt or fear entered their breast.
But suddenly there was a flash of light from the rocks above,
followed immediately by a long belching flame of fire from a thousand
rifles in front. They had unexpectedly {10} stumbled on the enemy.
There was no time for reorganisation, and in the midst of an
entanglement of trenches and barbed wire fencing, and exposed the
while to a withering fire against which nothing human could stand,
the Highland Brigade was mown down. Here it was, but well in front
of his men, endeavouring to the last to cheer on his followers, one
of the most gallant and daring of modern British generals fought and
fell, a martyr for his Queen and country.
General Wauchope's tragic end was no unfitting conclusion to a life
of devoted, arduous service. He died as he had lived, ever in the
midst of strife, an earnest, brave, and self-denying man, thinking
more of others than himself; graced with the dignity that comes from
inborn gentleness of spirit, and ever in his conduct exemplifying the
faith he professed. No wonder that when such a man fell, there was a
wail of lamentation, not merely around his own home in Edinburgh
where he was best known and loved, but throughout the whole British
Empire.
The story of his life is one of incident and hairbreadth escapes, and
it deserves to rank high in the military annals of our country; for
among those who have helped to raise Great Britain to the honourable
position she holds among the nations of the world, as the vindicator
of freedom, as the protector of the weak against the strong, as the
pioneer of commerce, and the disseminator of Christianity, there are
few who have laboured more zealously or fought more bravely than he
whose career we shall in the following pages attempt to sketch.
{11}
In biography there is perhaps nothing more alluring than to trace out
traits in remote kindred, and to watch them coming forth with new
accompaniments in later generations, to work out, as it were, the
full story of the race, and probably to mark a climax in some chosen
individual. Though we have not space to follow this out in the
present case, the distinguishing characteristics of General
Wauchope's ancestors may easily be discerned throughout his career;
to them he doubtless owed that simple manliness which looked upon
every man--whatever his station--as a brother; that unswerving
courage in time of danger, that unflinching devotion to duty, that
cheerfulness of disposition, which made him a general favourite; all
sobered by a sense of the unseen and eternal which entered into the
very heart of his life.
The author's efforts to gather the scattered material of so chequered
a career have been met on all hands by so willing a response from
those who could in any way claim the General's acquaintance, that his
task has been a pleasant and a comparatively easy one. For
interesting details and incidents coming under their personal
observation, his best thanks are due to Admiral Lord Charles W. D.
Beresford, C.B.; General Sir Robert Biddulph, G.C.M.G., G.C.B.,
lately Governor of Gibraltar; Sir John C. M'Leod, G.C.B.; Colonel R.
K. Bayly, C.B.; Colonel Brickenden; Colonel Gordon J. C. Money; Major
A. G. Duff; Captain Christie, and other of his brother officers who
shared with him the dangers and toil of naval and military service,
in various parts of the world.
{12}
He cannot too gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance heartily
given by the Rev. George Wisely, D.D., Malta; the Rev. John
Mactaggart, Edinburgh; and the Rev. Alexander Stirling, York, army
chaplains. Their contributions have been invaluable.
So fully indeed has material been placed at the author's disposal,
that the volume might have been easily extended beyond its present
limits. But enough, it may be hoped, has been said in illustration
of General Wauchope's career as a soldier, and his character as a
man, to enable his fellow-countrymen to realise that in his lamented
death the nation has lost one of its bravest and best.
{13}
CHAPTER I
THE WAUCHOPES OF NIDDRIE MARISCHAL
Andrew Gilbert Wauchope came of a long line of ancestry, who have
distinguished themselves as soldiers, as churchmen, or in the more
commonplace capacity of country gentlemen.
The family history can be traced back for several centuries at least,
as occupying in the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh the estate of
Niddrie Marischal; and throughout the various troubles in which
Scottish history has been involved, the Lairds of Niddrie had their
fair share, forfeitures and restorations being an experience not
uncommon in their career.
Glancing over their genealogy, one might almost say with truth that
the Wauchopes have ever been a fighting race, holding opinions
strongly, and as strongly asserting them by word or deed when
occasion arose.
The very name of their estate has a smack of the military in it, if
it is true, as Celtic scholars say, that 'Niddrie' is derived from
the Gaelic _Niadh_ and _Ri_--signifying, in the British form of
Celtic, the king's champion. Then the addition to the word, as
distinguishing it from several other Niddries in Scotland, of
Marischal, Marishal, or Merschell appears to have been given to the
{14} estate from the fact that the Wauchopes of Niddrie were in early
times hereditary bailies to Keith Lords Marischal, and later,
Marischal-Deputies in Midlothian, in the reign of James v.
Whether it be true, as stated by Mackenzie in his _Lives of Eminent
Scotsmen_, that the Wauchopes had their first rise in the reign of
Malcolm Caenmore, and that they came from France, we shall not stay
to discuss; but it is generally allowed that the name is a local
patronymic, common in the south of Scotland, and that the Wauchopes
of Niddrie Marischal belonged originally to Wauchopedale in
Roxburghshire, where they were for long vassals of the Earls of
Douglas.
The records of the earlier generations of the family having been
lost, one cannot with accuracy say who was its founder, or when he
lived. In James the Second's reign, for making an inroad into
England, and again in Queen Mary's time, for espousing the cause of
that unfortunate sovereign, the estate of Niddrie was confiscated and
passed for a time into the hands of others, while the feu-charters
that remained were afterwards destroyed when the English under Oliver
Cromwell came to Scotland. But notwithstanding these misfortunes,
there are documents extant which go to show that as far back as the
time of Robert III., who began to reign in 1390, there was one
Gilbert Wauchope holding the lands of Niddrie from that king, who is
supposed to be the grandson of _Thomas Wauchope in the county of
Edinburgh_, mentioned in the Ragman Rolls of 1296.
One scion of the family, born about the year 1500, in the reign of
James IV. attained to considerable distinction as an ecclesiastic.
This was Robert, the famous Archbishop of Armagh, a younger son of
Archibald, the Laird of Niddrie. Defective in his vision almost to
blindness, he was, {15} notwithstanding this misfortune, possessed of
great natural abilities, and by diligent study attained to high and
varied accomplishments. So proficient did he become in the study of
the Scriptures, the Fathers, and the Councils, that he was appointed
Doctor of Divinity in the University of Paris; and in 1535, having
attracted the notice of Pope Paul III., he was called to Rome, and
employed by him as legate to the Emperor of Germany and the King of
France, in both of which commissions he is said to have exhibited the
highest qualifications as an ambassador. Some time after he was
promoted to be Archbishop of Armagh, in Ireland. There he laboured
with incredible pains to enlighten the ignorant natives, travelling
about his diocese, and often preaching to them four or five times a
week. Archbishop Wauchope found scope for his great talents at the
Council of Trent. This famous council, called together by the Pope
to counteract the influence of the Reformation initiated by Luther in
Germany, met in March 1544, and continued its sittings till 1551.
The archbishop not only took a part in its proceedings, but wrote a
full account of them, a labour which, however, proved too much for
his strength, for he died at Paris on his way home on 9th November
1551. He appears to have been held by his contemporaries in high
admiration. Lesley says: 'Such was his judgment in secular affairs,
that few of his age came near him,' and in his capacity as legate 'he
acquitted himself so well that every one admired his wit, judgment,
and experience.'
Sir James Ware, speaking of him in a similar strain, and alluding,
like Lesley, to his having been born blind, says: 'He was sent legate
_a latere_ from the Pope to Germany, from whence came the German
proverb, "a blind legate to the sharp-sighted Germans."'
{16}
[Sidenote: Some ancestors]
Robert's elder brother, Gilbert Wauchope, was meanwhile Laird of
Niddrie, acquiring more property, extending his borders, and getting
himself involved in the local feuds peculiar to the time of James V.;
that king on one occasion, April 1535, having to grant a letter of
protection in favour of him 'and his wife and bairns' against Sir
Patrick Hepburn of Wauchtonne and thirty-four others for 'umbesetting
the highway for his slaughter.' In this quarrel, even the Pope was
called upon to interfere in the interest of peace and safety. In
1539 Paul III. put forth a mandate to the Dean of the Church of
Restalrig, stating that a beloved son, a noble man, Gilbert Wauchope,
lord in temporals of the place of Niddriffmarschall, within the
diocese of St. Andrews, had represented to the Pope that some sons of
iniquity, whom he was altogether ignorant of, had wickedly brought
many and heavy losses upon the said Gilbert Wauchope by concealing
the boundaries and limits or marches of the piece of land or place
called Quhitinche, feued to him by the Abbot and Convent of the
Monastery of the Holy Cross (Holyrood).... Therefore the Pope
intrusted to the discretion of the said Venerable Dean and Commissary
to admonish publicly in churches, before the people, ... all holders,
etc., and to discover and restore these to the said Gilbert Wauchope
or to the Abbot of the Monastery, under a general sentence of
excommunication against these persons, till suitable satisfaction was
made.
But the Reformation brought many changes, upsetting the laws,
customs, and opinions held sacred for centuries. The sons no longer
walked in the ways of their fathers, but began to think for
themselves. And so we find that Gilbert, the son of the laird who
had sought and obtained protection from the Pope, renounced the Pope
and took {17} an active part in promoting the Reformation. He was
present at Knox's first sermon at St. Andrews in 1547. And at the
conference of notables that afterwards was held, where Knox and his
preaching were fully discussed, and Wauchope was asked what he
thought of the Reformer, 'this answer gave the Laird of Nydre--"a man
fervent and uprycht in religioun."' This Gilbert Wauchope of Niddrie
was a member of the famous Parliament, held at Edinburgh in August
1560, by which the Reformation was established.
Later on we have a George Wauchope, a celebrated Professor of Civil
Law at Caen, in Normandy, who was a grandson of Gilbert, and who in
1595, when he was about twenty-five years of age, wrote _A Treatise
concerning the Ancient People of Rome_.
But the early Wauchopes were a wonderfully varied class of men, who
could take their share of fighting when necessary; and towards the
close of the sixteenth century their feuds, their 'slauchters,' and
political partisanship well-nigh led to their extinction. The feuds
with the neighbouring Hepburns and Edmonstons were the occasion of
many unhappy conflicts, while their adhesion to the cause of Queen
Mary for a time brought ruin on the family. Professor Aytoun, in his
poem of 'Bothwell,' referring to Bothwell's attempt to intercept the
Queen on her way from Stirling and carry her to Dunbar Castle, says:--
'Hay, bid the trumpets sound the march,
Go, Bolton, to the van;
Young Niddrie follows with the rear;
Set forward every man.'
The estate of Niddrie is quite close to Craigmillar Castle, where
Mary frequently resided, and in all {18} probability the fascination
of her character brought the Wauchopes into frequent contact with
her, and led them to espouse her cause when many of the leaders of
the Scottish nobility had declared against her. We find, therefore,
that Robert Wauchope and his son Archibald are mentioned in the
'charge agains personis denuncit rebellis' in June 1587. This
Archibald appears to have been a youth of wonderful pugnacity, and to
have got himself continually involved in trouble with the authorities
for breaches of the peace, out of which he as often extricated
himself, with no little cleverness. Once, in 1588, for an attempted
'slauchter' of 'umquhile James Giffert, and Johne Edmonston,' the
adjoining laird, he was arrested, tried, and warded in the Tolbooth
of Edinburgh; but 'no pardoun being granted' by the king, 'and about
a thousand persouns in the Tolbuith waiting upon the event, the
candles were put furth about ellevin houres at night, and Nidrie and
his complices escaped out at the windowes.' It is a curious
reflection upon the Wauchopes of this time that their name should be
associated with the wild Clan Gregor of Perthshire as disturbers of
the peace. King James VI. was married in 1590 to the Princess Anne
of Denmark. On the 1st May the king and queen landed at Leith, amid
a great concourse of loyal subjects, 'and with volleys of cannon, and
orations in their welcome.' James had been absent from Scotland more
than six months, and it was remarked at the time, and came to be
memorable afterwards, that these months were a time of universal
peace and good order in Scotland. 'The only notable exceptions,'
according to Spottiswood, 'had been a riot in Edinburgh by Wauchope
of Niddry, and an outbreak of the Clan Gregor in Balquhidder.'
In connection with this, we find Wauchope charged {19} by the Privy
Council (7th January 1590), 'along with all other keepers of the
places and fortalices of Rossyth and Nudry,' to deliver the same to
the officer executing these letters, within six hours after charge,
under penalty of treason; the said officer to fence the goods and
rents belonging to Wauchope, which are ordered to remain under arrest
at the instance of the King's Treasurer, 'aye and quhill he be tryit
foule or clene of sic crymes quharof he is dilaitet.'
[Sidenote: Attack on Holyroodhouse]
Not to mention other scrapes of a similar kind, Archibald Wauchope
was implicated in the attack on the palace of Holyroodhouse, 27th
December 1591, and for this and other misdemeanours he was forfeited,
along with the Earl of Bothwell and others, and had to leave the
country for a time. He afterwards came to an untimely end by falling
from a window in Skinner's Close in Edinburgh, about the year 1596.
It was apparently about this period that the old house or tower of
Niddrie Marischal--'so commodious that it could garrison a hundred
men'--was destroyed by the enemies of the family.
For some years the estate was in the hands of Sir James Sandilands of
Slamannan, until 1608, when, through the good graces of James VI., it
was restored to Francis, son of Archibald Wauchope, a restitution
which was confirmed by Act of Parliament in 1609. Francis (usually
styled Sir Francis Wauchope) appears to have done a good deal for the
estate, but his son, Sir John Wauchope, may be regarded as the chief
restorer of the house of Niddrie. He was frugal in his living, and
he added several adjoining properties to the estate by purchase, and
received the honour of knighthood from Charles I. on his visit to
Scotland in 1633. He was an intimate friend of the {20} notorious
Duke of Lauderdale in their younger days, living with him, and spoken
of as 'his bed-fellow.'
Sir John exercised great judgment in the management of his affairs;
so much so, that in 1661 he acquired by purchase the border estate of
Yetholm or Lochtour, in Roxburghshire, which has remained in the
family ever since. He was present in London at the coronation of
Charles II.; in 1663 he was elected a member of the Scottish
Parliament, and one of the Committee for the Plantation of Kirks; and
in 1678 was a member of the Convention of Estates.
Other lairds appear in succession as the years rolled on. There are
Williams, Andrews, Gilberts, Roberts, following one another as the
leaves succeed in the spring to those that have fallen in the autumn,
but it is not our purpose to follow their story. One fought and fell
at Killiecrankie with Viscount Dundee in 1689; another fought for the
Stuarts at the Revolution, and afterwards rose to high command in the
French and Spanish services; and though the Wauchopes took no active
part in the Stuart risings of 1715 and 1745, their sympathies were
all for the exiled race.
In Niddrie House there are to be seen full-length portraits of
Charles I. and his queen; four small half-lengths of the Chevalier
and his consort, and their two sons, Prince Charles Edward and the
Cardinal York, as boys. These are understood to have been forwarded
direct from the Chevalier himself to the Niddrie family as an
acknowledgment of their loyalty, and the assistance--pecuniary and
otherwise--which the royal line of Stuart had received at their hands.
[Sidenote: A 'Minden' hero]
To come to more recent times, we find that Andrew Wauchope of
Niddrie--the great-grandfather of the subject {21} of our sketch,
born about the year 1736--was a captain in the First Regiment of
Dragoon Guards, and fought at the battle of Minden in Westphalia,
where in 1759 the French were defeated by an army of Anglo-Hanoverian
troops. He lived to a good old age, for it was he who was alluded to
by Sir Walter Scott in the ballad written on the occasion of the
visit of George IV. to Scotland in 1822:--
Come, stately Niddrie, auld and true,
Girt with the sword that Minden knew;
We have owre few sic lairds as you,
Carle, now the King's come.
This Andrew Wauchope married, in 1786, Alicia, daughter of William
Baird, Newbyth, and sister of the celebrated Sir David Baird, the
hero of Seringapatam, who a few years afterwards--in 1805--commanded
the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope which, after a decisive
victory over the Dutch, received, on 6th January 1806, the surrender
of the colony to Great Britain. There were nine children of this
marriage, five boys and four girls. The eldest, Andrew, was killed
in 1813 at the battle of the Pyrenees while in command of the 20th
Regiment of Foot, and so the second son, William, succeeded to the
property, old Andrew Wauchope having resigned it in his favour in
1817, retaining for himself the liferent.
William Wauchope, who had the year before married Elizabeth, eldest
daughter of Robert Baird of Newbyth, and niece of the then
Marchioness of Breadalbane, was a lieutenant-colonel in the army.
Curiously enough, William's younger brother, Admiral Robert Wauchope,
was stationed at Cape Town at the beginning of the century, where he
resided for many years with his wife. They knew the Dutch well, and
were on the most friendly terms with both Dutch and English settlers
in the colony.
{22}
William Wauchope died in 1826, leaving a family of two, the eldest of
whom, Andrew Wauchope, born in 1818, being then a minor, succeeded to
the property. His sister, Hersey Susan Sydney, was married in 1842
to George Elliot, captain, Royal Navy, eldest son of the Hon. Admiral
Elliot. Andrew Wauchope, the father of the subject of our memoir,
was for a time in the army--an officer in the dragoons; but, being of
a delicate constitution, he retired after his marriage to reside at
Niddrie, where he was long known and respected as a kind and
indulgent landlord, ever ready to give a helping hand to his tenants
or to religious and philanthropic objects. He did a great deal
towards completing the extensive improvements begun by his father on
the house and grounds of Niddrie.
The newer part of the house, forming the north-east wing, was erected
by William Wauchope about seventy-five years ago. It contains some
handsome apartments, and it is interesting to note that the
celebrated Hugh Miller, when a lad, was employed (in 1823) as a mason
at the work, and is said to have carved a number of the ornamental
chimneys which form a distinctive feature of a most picturesque
edifice. What the father began, the son ultimately completed. The
park was extended, new approaches and avenues were formed, lodges
erected, and gardens and vineries laid out--the whole place being
transformed into one of the most beautiful country seats to be found
in the county of Midlothian. These somewhat extensive works, resumed
by the father of the General about the year 1850, were steadily
carried on year by year until his death, 22nd November 1874, for he
took much pride in the work, and made it his life hobby.
[Sidenote: Sir William Wallace]
So far this brief genealogy of General Wauchope's family has been
traced through the male line, but it would be {23} incomplete and
lacking in public interest, did we not also refer to his descent on
the female side from the family of Sir William Wallace, the champion
of Scottish freedom. This interesting connection is traced to James
Wauchope, the grandfather of the 'Minden' hero. In 1710 he married
Jane, daughter of Sir William Wallace, Bart, of Craigie, near Ayr,
whose eldest son, Andrew, succeeded his cousin in 1726, and in his
line the property has remained to the present time.
[Illustration: Niddrie Marishchal, Front View]
Over the fireplace of the dining-room of Niddrie House there is a
painting on canvas inserted in panelling said to be a portrait of
'Wallace Wight.' It has been in possession of the family for nearly
two hundred years, being mentioned in various inventories of the
property from the year 1707. An interesting notice of it appeared in
James Paterson's _Wallace and his Times_, and the family tradition is
that it is a genuine portrait of the hero, the words inscribed above
the likeness, 'Gvl: Wallas: Scotvs: Host: ivm: Terror,' certainly
giving colour to the supposition. We are more inclined to think,
however, that the portrait represents one of the more immediate
ancestors of the Jane Wallace who brought the connection into the
family--probably Sir William Wallace of Craigie, who distinguished
himself as a loyalist in the civil wars. It certainly came into the
family through the marriage of James Wauchope in 1710 with Jane,
daughter of Sir William Wallace of Craigie, and if it does not
represent the champion of Scottish independence, it is from the same
source as a similar portrait preserved at Priory Lodge, Cheltenham,
in the hands of a descendant of the Craigie-Wallace family.
It was when he was serving with his regiment at Monaghan, in Ireland,
that the father of General Wauchope first met his future wife,
Frances Maria, daughter of Henry Lloyd of {24} Lloydsburgh, County
Tipperary. They were married on 26th March 1840, and two sons and
two daughters were the issue of the marriage. These were--
1. William John Wauchope, born in September 1841.
2. Harriet Elizabeth Frances, afterwards married to Lord Ventry of
County Kerry, Ireland, by whom she has issue, five sons and four
daughters, of whom her daughter, the Hon Hersey Alice
Eveleigh-De-Moleyne, is the present Countess of Hopetoun.
3. Andrew Gilbert, the subject of our story, born at Niddrie on 5th
July 1846.
4. Hersey Josephine Frances Mary, now residing in London.
A typical Scotsman, loyal to the backbone to the land of his birth,
Andrew Gilbert Wauchope had always a warm corner in his heart for
Ireland, and was ever ready to acknowledge, and indeed to boast of,
his Irish extraction. Combining as he did much of the canniness of
the Scot with that steady-going determination of purpose and
fearlessness in danger peculiar to his countrymen, he displayed the
Irish side of his character in that generous light-heartedness and
impulsive good nature which often led him into self-denying deeds of
kindness, and now and again into trouble. General Wauchope was, as
we have seen, the heir to no mean family traditions. The record of
the Wauchopes is one of patriotic energy through five or six hundred
years of stirring Scottish history, many of them years of turmoil and
strife; and the warlike spirit of the fathers, as well as their more
peaceful characteristics, may be found not infrequently imaged in
this last scion of the race.
{25}