1882--CHATHAM AND ALEXANDRIA
Hospital Nurses--War Office denying my existence between December
and February declines to issue even Half-Pay--Offered
the Governorship of the Isle of Man--Cardinal
Manning--Alexandria--A shell denudes a soldier of his
trousers--Smith-Dorrien--Mr. Gladstone in Downing
Street--Return to Egypt.
I was very happy at Chatham, being on good terms with all the officers,
including the Medical officers, the senior of whom would not agree
with me, however, as to the desirability of having female nurses to
attend the soldiers, a reform which has happily since been carried into
effect. He was one day arguing with me that Female nurses were entirely
out of place in a Military Hospital, so I told him of a scene I had
witnessed in the general Hospital under his charge only forty-eight
hours earlier. I was passing through a ward after the Medical officers
had left for lunch, and saw a soldier evidently on the confines of
the next world refusing some food which an orderly taken out of the
regiment was endeavouring to force on him. The man was too weak to
speak, but the look of disgust on his face was so strong that I went
up to the bed, and asked the orderly, “Why do you give him that black
stuff from the inside of the chicken, when you have got half the
breast, which he is more likely to fancy?” The soldier said somewhat
indignantly, “I was told to give him chicken, and I don’t see it
matters where he begins.” Having told my story, I said, “Now, doctor,
let us go to the Hospital, and see how he is.” On arriving there we
found the patient had died the previous evening.
I was engaged in a lengthy correspondence from March onward, with
the Financial Authorities of the War Office. For the nine months I
was Acting Governor and High Commissioner in South-East Africa I
was paid at the rate of £5000 per annum, and although the Colonial
Attorney-General advised me I was entitled to Half-Pay on my journey
home, that is at the rate of £2500 a year,--the amount drawn from
Colonial funds,--I drew nothing, for the Colonial Treasurer told me
that as I had never been officially appointed, and was only Acting
Governor, I should have troublesome correspondence with the Colony, and
the Colonial Office later, if I drew it.
When I resumed the Command at Chatham I asked for my half-pay as a
Major-General, from the 22nd December 1881 to the 13th February 1882;
but the War Office alleged that as I was in receipt of a Civil salary
I was not entitled to any ordinary pay, or to any allowance, on the
termination of my Staff appointment. Weeks of correspondence ensued;
I tried pleasant words, and then sarcasm, writing I would furnish a
certificate from a clergyman that I was alive from the 22nd December to
the 13th February, which would entitle me to half-pay in any case, but
in vain. I then appealed to Lord Kimberley, and pointed out that as he
had expressed satisfaction with my services, I hoped he would point out
to the Treasury that I should not be treated as if I had been dead for
two months.
His Lordship replied it was impossible for him to do anything except
ask the War Office to accord me the most liberal treatment, which he
did; nevertheless, there was no result until Mr. Childers helped me on
my appealing personally to him. This I was too shy to do, until shortly
before Sir Garnet Wolseley’s victory at Tel-el-Kebir, in the following
September, when an opportunity occurred.[235]
I had many reasons to be grateful to Her Most Gracious Majesty the
Queen, who invested me shortly after my arrival with the Grand Cross
of St Michael and St George, and I went during the following week to
stay at Sandhurst, where the Staff College students arranged a Drag
hunt over my favourite line, beginning with the two flights of rails in
East Hampstead Park. Captain George Gough,[236] 10th Hussars, mounted
me on his best horse, which had won the Point to Point race in 1881,
and would have probably repeated its victory in 1882, but that the
horse Gough rode fell at the rails, and my friend broke a collar bone,
so could not get into a saddle.
In the following week I had a kind letter[237] from Sir Vernon
Harcourt, offering me the post of Governor of the Isle of Man. I was
driving with Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Eugénie, when calling at
my club for letters I received the offer, and with her permission read
the letter. I had great difficulty in explaining to Her Majesty where
the Isle of Man was situated, until I told her in my voluble, but badly
pronounced French, it was the Island where the cats had no tails, when
she at once understood.
The next few months at Chatham gave me opportunities of seeing many
men in whom I was interested, Cardinal Manning coming twice to stay at
Government House. He received a very large number of soldiers of the
Royal Irish into the Temperance League, and was out on the “Lines,”
from immediately after dinner till 2 a.m., watching Siege operations.
Major Duncan, who later on commanded the Artillery of the Egyptian
Army, and was subsequently Member of Parliament for Finsbury, was
mounting heavy guns to open fire at daylight, and the glacis, which was
honeycombed from the result of previous excavations, being treacherous,
one gun slipped into a deep hole. As the scheme supposed him to be
close to the enemy, the work of extricating it, which took five hours,
had to be carried on in absolute silence. In spite of the fact that
His Eminence’s dinner, although he sat out as usual our succession of
courses, consisted of some weak tea and two slices of bread and butter,
he showed the most unflagging interest in the work, and did not return
to Government House until I coaxed him back under the plea that I
myself was tired.
On the 4th August I embarked in command of the 4th Brigade of the
Expeditionary force on board the steamship _Catalonia_, Her Majesty
coming on board to say good-bye to us. She embraced my wife, and was
very gracious to me. She had honoured me with a long private interview
in July, when I was commanded to Windsor, and treated me with a
condescension for the memory of which I shall be ever grateful.
We landed at Alexandria on the 15th August, and went out to Ramleh.
I took up my quarters in a convent school, which had prior to the
bombardment been vacated by the nuns, and there remained for a day or
two until another empty house became available.
Four days later I was a witness of an incident which is so remarkable
that most people will have difficulty in believing the story. During
the afternoon of the 19th of August, in accordance with orders received
from the Divisional General, I made a demonstration with two battalions
towards the enemy’s lines at Kafr Dowar. I took two companies only
within effective range, and few casualties occurred. We had extended
the two companies at six paces between men, and were advancing, when
the Egyptians getting the range dropped several shell just short, and
over the line. One shell fell about 60 yards to my left, and apparently
struck down a soldier of the 1st Berkshire Regiment. I saw the flash
immediately in front of his feet, and the man fell headlong. One or
two men near him wavered, but on my speaking to them they resumed their
places and moved steadily on.
When retiring an hour or so later, we repassed opposite the spot.
I was then riding on the bank of the Mahmoudieh Canal, and said to
Captain Hemphill, the Adjutant, “Send a stretcher and four men to
bring in your man’s body.” He replied, “The man is in the Ranks, he
was not much hurt.” “But I saw him struck by a shell; he was killed.”
“No; he is in the Ranks.” “I should like to see him.” “Well, you must
look at him only in front, sir!” When I overtook the company to which
the man belonged I asked for him, and a titter went round, as the man
halting, faced me. He had all his clothes on in front, but the shell
had burst immediately at his feet, and the flash of the explosion had
burnt off the back of his socks, the whole of the back of his trousers,
and the skirt of his serge up to the waistbelt; so that from heels to
belt he was absolutely naked. He was bleeding from burns on the more
protuberant parts up to the waist, but was not permanently injured.
A day or two afterwards, when we were advancing to carry out a similar
operation designed to give the Arabists an idea that Sir Garnet meant
to make his attack there, the Egyptians fired many shell at us, 5½
inches in diameter, and 15 inches in length. One of these which failed
to explode is now in my house, but another fell immediately in front of
a section of Fours which was following me, and exploded. Putting up my
hand to save my eyes from stones, I turned my face, and looked into the
eyes of a young officer of the Berkshire, who delighted me by his naïve
avowal. I asked, “A little nervous?” “Very much so indeed, sir;” but he
did not show it in his bearing.
When Sir Garnet Wolseley took three Brigades away to Ismailia to attack
Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir, I was left to defend a front 5½ miles long, and
on a Staff officer pointing out to our Chief that he was taking away
every mounted soldier, he observed, “It does not matter, Evelyn Wood
is sure to raise some more.” This I did, but under some difficulties,
for my Divisional General would not without authority from Headquarters
sanction the purchase of any saddlery.
In the Derbyshire Regiment then under my command in the City of
Alexandria was Lieutenant Smith-Dorrien.[238] By my orders he put fifty
saddles together in a shop, and ransacked the Khedive’s stables, which
had indeed already been drawn on by various Staff officers. Within
half an hour of the Divisional General embarking, Smith-Dorrien had
collected 15 men, increased in a few days to 30. Many of them had never
ridden, but before sundown a section defiled past me at Ramleh, 12
ponies, 2 mules, and a donkey; a somewhat motley detachment, and many
of them held on to the saddle, but they proceeded 5 miles farther to
the front, and managed to shoot an Egyptian officer that evening, and
in five days killed or wounded 12 of the enemy, as they admitted. Three
days later Smith-Dorrien had pushed back the Egyptian outposts, and we
were not again troubled by the Bedouins looting the houses in Ramleh,
as they had done the week before the other Brigade of the Division to
which I belonged, embarked.[239]
It was necessary for me to cut down a large grove of Date trees, but
I sent for the owner, and paid him the sum awarded by an Arbitrator,
himself an Egyptian. It transpired that the owner was delighted, for as
every female tree (and it is only the female which bears fruit) paid a
yearly tax, the owner got his money based on the number of years before
the trees would again bear fruit, and till then had no tax to pay.
Sir Garnet Wolseley, in sending instructions on the 5th of September,
to attract the attention of the Egyptians in my front, wrote very
kindly, “Your being detained at Alexandria is a sad blow to me, and
I know it will be to you.” He asked me to send some one into Arabi’s
lines, and find out the position of his troops. This I did by the help
of our Resident, Sir Edward Malet, and furnished Sir Garnet Wolseley
with information which he told me later was absolutely accurate.
I telegraphed to him on the 8th of September with reference to the
orders I was “not to risk a man,” that I proposed to attack three
regiments at Mandara, a few miles out from Ramleh, encamped on the spot
where Abercromby was killed in 1801. There were 3000 at Kafr Dowar, and
I urged that I should be allowed to attack the Mandara Force, to draw
the enemy from Kafr Dowar, explaining that I could carry the Mandara
position at daylight, and get back to Ramleh by twelve o’clock. He
telegraphed to me on the 10th and 11th, “Act on the defensive only,
risk nothing.”
The Cabinet was anxious at this time, regarding the six battalions
as insufficient to defend the frontage of 55 miles, and promised a
reinforcement in a fortnight. I replied to Mr. Childers, I did not
expect the Egyptians would attack, but if they did so I was confident
of defeating them. I could, indeed, have defended it against a force of
Egyptians of eight or ten times our numbers; and after a week’s labour
we opened on the 13th, the day of Sir Garnet’s victory at Tel-el-Kebir,
the seawall, and thus in a week, had the war continued, a lake would
have covered the south, or open front of the city, rendering it secure
against Assault.
I was at Chatham again early in November, and on the 8th dined with Mr.
Gladstone, in Downing Street, and had an enjoyable evening, in spite of
an adverse opinion on his Irish Land Bill, which, however, I gave only
on his repeated demand.
The arrangements about going in to dinner were peculiar. In a large
party there were only six ladies, and Mr. Gladstone did not take either
of them in to the dining-room. Lord Hartington took Mrs. Gladstone,
and our host followed his guests from the room in which we assembled.
As I was one of the juniors I went to the foot of the table and Mr.
Gladstone followed me, apparently intending to sit next to me, but
a Naval officer slipped in between us, and to our host’s evident
annoyance insisted in talking about what he did in the Egyptian
Expedition, from which several of us, including Sir John Adye, who was
on my left, had just returned. Mr. Gladstone indicated he wanted to
hear nothing more of Egypt, and then turning the conversation asked
me to describe the appearance of John Dunn. From this subject we got
accidently on the derivations of words, and when he had mentioned one
or two French words in ordinary use in Scotland, I asked him if he
had ever noticed the use in Cumberland of the German word “Gerade,”
pronounced “grade.” He was greatly interested, and asked how I came
across it. I told him that in 1862 being near Penrith with a Woolwich
cadet who was fishing, he asked a lad who had shown him a trout pool in
a stream with great success, to show him another. It was eight o’clock,
and the child replied, “No, I must go grade home.” I made him repeat
the word two or three times, until he became angry, thinking I was
laughing at him, and then he changed the word, saying, “I must just
go straight home.” I have never had a more delightful table companion
than Mr. Gladstone, and he himself was so eager in telling me about the
derivations of various words that he overlooked his dinner.
I was shooting with Redvers Buller at Castle Rising on the 29th
November, when I had a flattering letter from Lord Granville,[240]
saying that Mr. Gladstone wished me to go out and recreate the Egyptian
Army. This was the more complimentary on his part, as I had disagreed
with him strongly about his Irish policy.
I went to London, and after a discussion by telegraph with Lord
Dufferin, who wished to give me only half the salary I was willing to
accept, went out on my own terms. When I reached Cairo, Lord Dufferin
told me that although he had used the name of the Egyptian Government,
it was he who had tried to get me at a small salary, and three months
later he was good enough to say I was cheap at any price.
Chinese Gordon wrote on the 8th of December, when sending me a present
of a gold-laced coat which the late Khedive gave to him, “I am _so
truly glad_ you are going out. For go you will. Remember you are
creating there a British contingent.” In a P.S. he urged I should be
very careful in my choice of a Native writer, about which I will later
narrate something which happened in 1884.[241]
Just before Christmas I was back again in Cairo, and taking steps to
raise the Egyptian Army, which had been disbanded after Tel-el-Kebir.