1893–6--QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL
Prime Warden, Fishmongers’ Company--Archbishop Vaughan--Mr. John
Ropes--Visit to Gibraltar--An economy of £2300 per annum--Visit
to the Crimea--Reform for soldiers travelling to their homes--I
make large saving of public monies--Mr. Arthur Balfour’s good
temper.
I became Quartermaster-General to the Forces on the 9th October 1893,
and two months later the Commander-in-Chief offered me the appointment
of Governor of Malta, which I respectfully declined.
The years 1893–4 were fully occupied, for I undertook a certain amount
of literature, which I got through by rising before daylight; and in
June I became Prime Warden of the Fishmongers’ Company, which I had
joined as a Liveryman in 874. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
was graciously pleased to dine with the Company, in recognition of my
assuming office. The Prime Warden is by custom and practice allowed
to select guests at one of the annual dinners, and I chose a company
of fox-hunters. Thirty-five masters of hounds, headed by the Duke
of Beaufort, and upwards of 200 sportsmen, the oldest being Mr. J.
Crozier, who hunted the Blencathra foxhounds for sixty-four years,
dined with the Company.
* * * * *
Archbishop Vaughan, with whom I was on friendly terms, invited me to
join a committee for the management of an establishment for preparing
Catholic young gentlemen for the army, as neither the Catholic clergy
nor the parents were satisfied with the liberty accorded, in most of
the establishments in and about London, to a young man just emancipated
from school. I declined at first, pointing out that although the
Cardinal and my friends knew my views were liberal about religion,
earnest Catholics might object to arrangements made by a Protestant.
He retorted, however, that that was his concern, and urged me to
help him. This I did, although I predicted that the scheme could not
answer financially, as there were an insufficient number of Catholic
candidates for the army, and my forecast proved later on to be
accurate. With the exception of one, Lord Edmund Talbot, the Cardinal
asked me to nominate the Committee, and I suggested Sir Arthur Herbert,
who afforded the Cardinal much assistance, and generally agreed with my
views as against those of the Religious, who were inclined to attempt
inculcation of Religion, with more restriction on liberty than young
men were willing to accept.
I made the acquaintance of Mr. Ropes, the historian, in July, and, in
asking him to give me the pleasure of his company at dinner at the Army
and Navy Club, I mentioned a somewhat remarkable circumstance. In the
previous month I had gone with three friends--Dr. Norman Moore, of St.
Bartholomew’s; Mr. Witham, head of the firm of Witham, Roskell & Co.,
Solicitors; and Major May, Royal Artillery--over the field of Waterloo,
and on leaving Brussels it transpired that each one of us had a copy of
“Ropes’ _Waterloo_.”
Mr. Ropes dined with me, and must have enjoyed his evening, for I,
liking early hours, excused myself at 12.30 a.m. the following morning,
asking General Sir Frederick Maurice, who was a member of the Club, to
take my place as host, and I learnt next day the two authors were still
discussing Grouchy’s proceedings after the battle of Ligny at 2 a.m.
when the Club closed.
I had much correspondence in 1896[314] with Mr. Ropes, when I published
books entitled _Cavalry at Waterloo_, and _Cavalry Achievements_.
In August Sir John Pender invited Lords Wolseley, Portsmouth, and
Kelvin, Sir John Mowbray, Sir John Ardagh, Mr. Bayard, the American
Ambassador, and me to join him in a visit to the Crimea,--I at Lord
Wolseley’s request acting as guide to the party over the battlefields.
I described the trip, however, in _The Crimea, 1854–94_, and say
nothing more about it, except that the Governor of Sevastopol and all
the officers received us with the greatest courtesy.
Our Consul, Captain Murray, gave us a curious piece of
information,--that the Artillery horses during the winter in the Crimea
never left their stables even for exercise. I was back again at work in
Pall Mall within a month, and early in November visited Gibraltar on
duty.
* * * * *
The expenditure of hired transport on the Rock was greater than
appeared essential, and finding no satisfactory result was obtainable
from correspondence with the Governor, I went to consult him on the
spot, taking out with me Colonel Grattan, who had done so much to help
me in initiating reforms at Aldershot. On arrival I explained to His
Excellency that I was confident he did not know what was going on,
and asked him if he would like the assistance of Colonel Grattan as
President of a committee of investigation. After some consideration he
accepted my offer, and I enjoyed a very pleasant week as his guest,
seeing the fortifications of the Rock, the country in its vicinity, and
the Calpe hounds. The result of Colonel Grattan’s researches was that a
saving of £2300 a year was effected.
After my return from the Crimea I published some reminiscences in
the _Fortnightly Review_, afterwards expanded into the book entitled
_The Crimea, 1854–94_. I described my first fighting Chief, Captain
(afterwards Sir) William Peel, and one of my friends, who was staying
in a house in which Lord Peel was visiting, wrote on the 12th October:
“The Speaker says the portrait of his brother, which you have given in
the article (_Fortnightly_), is the best thing he has ever read; the
description of his face and figure is lifelike.”
All through 1894–5 I began work at daylight, doing most of my writing
before breakfast, and visiting that year every barrack in the United
Kingdom; and I made several journeys in search of Artillery practice
grounds, visiting Church Stretton, in Shropshire, and many other places.
I was inspecting a Rifle Range, near Bundoran, on the 17th August 1895,
and spent the Sunday in a comfortable hotel, standing on the sandy
promontory which juts out into Donegal Bay. There were few visitors
in the quiet place, and my coming induced the following conversation
between two elderly ladies in the drawing-room, which was overheard
by my travelling companion, Lieutenant-Colonel H. Sclater.[315] “Sir
Evelyn Wood’s come, dear!” “Well, what of that?” “Oh, nothing, but I
thought you might like to know.” “Why should I?” said the other lady,
with some acerbity. “Who is he? I never heard of him.” “Well, dear,
there was no harm in my mentioning he had come?” “No, not at all; but
his coming doesn’t interest me--you seem to know all about him. Who
is he? What’s he ever done? Pray tell me.” After a painful silence,
the abashed lady replied: “He’s the celebrated Admiral who bombarded
Sevastopol.”
* * * * *
There had been much trouble with the drainage of the Portsmouth
Barracks, which are just on high-water level causing an acrimonious
correspondence with the Municipal Authorities, which resulted
in the War Office arranging with the Treasury to withhold the
voluntary Treasury contribution paid in lieu of Rates. At the same
time the Admiralty was pressing the War Office to surrender, for a
consideration, the site of Anglesey Barracks, and a part of the ground
on which the Military Hospital stood.
Money for a new Hospital, though allotted, had not been expended,
on account of drainage difficulties; for although the Army Medical
Department had accepted a site adjoining Hilsea Barracks, there is but
little fall from the site, which is practically on the same level as
Southsea Common. I pointed out this difficulty, and suggested the new
Hospital should be built on the lower slopes of Portsdown Hill, a site
which, so far as I know, is now universally approved. Although at first
the Medical officers objected to my suggestion, that the site was too
far from the Barracks, on my pointing out that an electric tram service
passes the site many times daily it was agreed that the additional
distance was of no importance.
At the end of 1894 I began work on a reform fraught with great
advantages to soldiers, besides saving the country £10,000 or £12,000 a
year.
Eight “long-voyage troopships,” and H.M.S. _Assistance_ used between
the Home Ports, were paid off in 1894, and the question arose whether
she should be replaced by another Man-of-war. This doubt enabled us to
reconsider the method of conveying the troops throughout the United
Kingdom. We had contracts with twenty-one lines of Coasting steamers,
and parties both large and small were sent by sea and by land even
where it was possible to make the entire journey by rail, if the mixed
journey was any cheaper than the direct route; thus soldiers were sent
from York by rail to Hull, then thence by sea to London, and by rail to
Aldershot.
There was covering authority that in very inclement weather soldiers
might travel direct, but as weather at sea cannot be forecasted at an
inland station, troops practically always travelled by the cheapest
route. Moreover, delays ensued from steamers failing to keep time, and
as a rule, there being only deck accommodation, the discomfort involved
was so great that £4000 annually was paid by soldiers sent home from
the Discharge Depôt at Gosport in order to travel direct. The whole
sum paid by soldiers averaged, according to the Accountant-General,
£15,000 a year, and this argument he adduced later as a reason against
approving of my proposition.
Major Lawson,[316] one of my assistants, at my request worked up the
subject, my primary object being to help the soldiers, and in 1895 I
obtained permission to endeavour to arrange terms with the Railway
Companies of Great Britain. The existing Statutory rates had never
been revised since the Act of Parliament was passed in the inception
of railways, and on the 11th of March I opened negotiations with Sir
Charles Scotter, of the London and South-Western, and Mr. Harrison,
of the London and North-Western Companies, which carried most of
the military traffic. I undertook, if the Railway companies reduced
their rates to what I thought fair, the War Office would abandon the
Coast-wise routes, and send troops direct by Rail; and that if special
rates were given for the movement of Mounted troops we would, when
convenient, use Railways for them.
The managers received my representations favourably, and after
obtaining certain statistics from our records, which I got placed at
their disposal, I met a deputation of Railway gentlemen on the 14th
January 1896. At this meeting I stated I had regarded the matter not
as one for making a hard bargain, but as one of friendly arrangement,
and that I would make no proposition which I could not as a Director
acting for shareholders accept. A schedule of rates prepared by Major
Lawson, R.E., was handed to the managers for consideration, and after
Examination was practically accepted.
We had many meetings, all the preparation for which, with the necessary
calculations, were made by Lawson, who instructed me, as a solicitor
does Counsel, before going into court. There was a great advantage
in talking to business men with acute minds, for after they saw my
proposals would help them as well as the soldiers no difficulty arose.
The Secretary for State backed me thoroughly, and the new procedure
came into operation on the 1st July. We got concessions of rates for
small numbers to the value of 11 per centum, and for numbers over 25,
50 per centum. When troops over that number were temporarily moved from
a permanent station to a Camp of exercise and back within three months,
the charge was to be a single fare for the double journey. Mounted
troops were carried at a rate which brought the cost somewhat cheaper
than the billeting money of troops marching, saving the wear and tear
of horse flesh. There was also an incidental gain, lessening Billeting,
a custom disliked by soldiers as it is by publicans.
I was, however, more anxious to lessen the hardships of the soldier
than to save money for the State. On discharge, or transfer to the
Reserve, he could only get the fare to his selected place of residence
if it was no farther than the place where he had been enlisted,
having to pay any excess. Moreover, this question constantly entailed
irritating queries; for as a soldier went away after serving between
five and seven years as a general rule, the Adjutant had in every case
been changed, and small mistakes involving only a question of 2s. and
less caused correspondence extending over months. The difficulty of
estimating the soldier’s journey home was accentuated by the fact that
it had to be calculated by the cheapest routes. With the new Rates we
send a soldier free by rail to his selected place of residence. This
put £15,000 per annum into the pockets of the soldiers, and saves an
appreciable sum in salaries of clerks for correspondence.
I asked Lord Lansdowne to obtain from the Treasury £3000 per annum,
undertaking to save £12,000 per annum in perpetuity, but the Financial
representative on the Council, after I had completed my arrangements,
suggested that the boon to the soldiers should not be granted until the
£12,000 had been brought into account. To this Lord Lansdowne did not
assent, and I had the satisfaction of saving on the rates alone £14,000
the first year, and I believe there is still an annual saving of over
£10,000, in addition to the saving to the Navy Estimates in doing away
with the Home Port Troopship.
I failed in the same matter in Ireland, being handicapped by the fact
that the “Cheap Rates Act” does not apply to that country, nor do the
conditions of military life in Ireland lend themselves to the use of
Coastwise journeys.
It is strange that while we made the life of the soldier wretched
by sending him by the cheapest and most uncomfortable route, for on
board the steamer he had to provide his own provisions, his Rifle
from Weedon, his coat from Pimlico were sent by rail, the Army
Ordnance Department, being allowed to send their stores as they liked,
while the expense was debited to the Department administered by the
Quarter-master-General. When I ascertained this fact, in spite of
considerable opposition which lasted many months, I got the system
reversed, undertaking the stores should be in time, and making the
Army Service Corps responsible for all duties formerly carried out
by carriers.[317] We thus saved £8000 per annum in commissions, and
succeeded in reducing freightage charges from £82,515 in 1893–4, about
£10,000 annually till 1896–7, when I vacated the appointment, when they
stood at £63,873.[318]
This was not, however, the limit of the economies effected, for the
new Railway rates enabled us to save in land transport for manœuvres
alone about £13,000 in 1896.[319]
While I tried to save money on estimates, I pressed for some
Expenditure which I considered essential. Many writers on the
Recruiting problem have dwelt on the deterrent effect, on Recruits
of the better class, by the faulty arrangements for Night urinals in
Barracks, which after “lights out” were in Cimmerian darkness. The
Accountant-General opposed my proposal for Night lights, showing the
initial outlay in the United Kingdom alone would amount to £3000,
and the annual cost to £2000. When, however, at an Army Council, I
described from personal experience with Naturalistic accuracy the state
of a corner tub in a Barrack room or passage, in the early morning,
Lord Lansdowne’s sympathetic feeling for soldiers induced him to side
with me, against his Financial advisers, and one great improvement was
effected.
He backed my views also against two of my colleagues on the Army
Board, who argued that my scheme for issuing Government horses to
mounted officers was not required; both my colleagues were rich, and
had not the power of putting themselves in sympathy into the position
of poor officers. The concession was made for Cavalry at once; but
as the Commander-in-Chief, on the advice of the Inspector-General of
Cavalry, made it optional, the boon was, as I officially predicted,
never accepted by a subaltern. For several years the only horses, taken
over at the annual payment of £10, were issued to Captains, who could
disregard Regimental feeling. The Boer War has since made us more
sensible in many ways.
To Lord Lansdowne’s appreciation of the requirements of land for
training soldiers, the purchase of a block 15 by 5½ miles, on Salisbury
Plain, is due. When he sent me to report on it, a ride of five hours
in a blizzard which froze my moustache made me realise the accuracy of
those who describe it as the coldest place in England.
Although I was working hard, I do not wish it to be understood that
I was having no amusement.[320] I took my sixty-one days’ leave in
the hunting field, or shooting, keeping my horses at Ongar, in Essex,
about twenty-five miles from London; and my brother-in-law, Sir Thomas
Lennard, for whom I was still supervising the management of an estate
in Ireland, kept up the shooting of his Belhus estate for my pleasure.
It is worthy of remark that on the 28th November the beaters put out of
an osier bed, only eighteen miles from the General Post Office, a buck,
a fox, many pheasants, a covey of partridges, and some wild duck.
* * * * *
It was often alleged during the South African War that the Army Staff
had made no provision for it, and had given little or no thought to the
subject prior to the outbreak of war. I give therefore an extract from
my journal: “2nd January 1896.--Worked in the office all day; nothing
but work. Prepared a Division and a Brigade of Cavalry on paper.” In
the Autumn of 1896 I induced the General Officer commanding in South
Africa, by private correspondence, to propose a form of contract for
providing Army Transport, and got one of a Firm of contractors to come
to the War Office, where we discussed a scheme, the acceptance of which
I recommended. The Financial side of the office made many and various
objections. I, however, so persistently urged the matter that the
Secretary of State consulted the Secretary of State for the Colonies,
but I was told no action need be taken. One of the reasons alleged
against doing anything to provide for the emergency which arose three
years later was that the Boers might hear what we were doing, to which
I replied: “That would certainly make for Peace.”
When I failed to get a transport contract, being apprehensive of the
immobility of the garrison at Ladysmith, I recommended, in 1897, that
a reserve of two months’ food should be maintained constantly at that
Station. This was also refused.[321]
* * * * *
On the 17th of April 1897 I begged the Commander-in-Chief to press
for Regimental transport being provided for all units in South Africa,
equal to carriage of ammunition, tents, baggage, and two days’ rations,
and again urged that the contract I had suggested should be made at
once.
At the same time, foreseeing there must be delay in providing
horse fittings for transports, about which I had been in constant
communication with the Director of Transports, going on several
occasions to Liverpool and other ports to look at different vessels, I
urged but in vain an immediate expenditure of £25,000 to obviate the
delay which, as I foresaw, occurred two years later. Lord Wolseley
warmly supported these suggestions for outlay at the present time, in
order to save larger sums in the future.
I wrote at the time to the Secretary of State: “No doubt we must fight
the Boers unless they become more reasonable.” I asked for £36,000
to replace horses we handed over to the Chartered Company, and for
Mounted Infantry, and urged that one company should be mounted in each
Battalion in South Africa. I pointed out that we should require six
mules for every seven men in the Field.
* * * * *
I learnt to cycle, which added greatly to my recreation, for after I
was fairly proficient I cycled down to Aldershot or into Essex, about
the same distance, on Saturday afternoons, returning for an eight
o’clock breakfast on the Monday morning. Before I left London in 1901,
I had cycled over 2000 miles in twelve months; but did not attain this
facility without some adventures. The first, when I was learning,
occurred from a collision with a hansom cab-horse, which was moving
just out of a trot on the Edgeware Road at eight o’clock on a Sunday
morning. Without any warning the driver turned his horse suddenly as I
passed him at a short distance, and the horse’s head struck my arm so
violently, as I put it up to save my face, that the arm was marked by
the animal’s teeth, and I was thrown from the centre of the road to the
far curbstone, leaving the cycle under the horse’s feet, in the wheel
of which they remained imprisoned until we got a blacksmith to cut the
spokes away. The driver was greatly relieved when I told him he had
better complete the job by driving me home, for, as he admitted, “I
thought I had killed you.”
When I was still in the learning stage, going past the Mansion House
I collided with the shoulder of an omnibus horse, and the impact sent
me under the fore-feet of another, for the busses were moving in two
lines; the driver pulled up very smartly, and I escaped without even
damaging a new cyclometer, my anxiety for which caused me to pick it up
ere I scrambled from my perilous position.
This accident was my own fault, but the following curious one was not
contributed to by me in any way. I was going eastwards one evening from
Hyde Park Corner, intending to turn up Hamilton Place. The traffic
being stopped, I was just moving the pedals, close in to a four-wheeled
cab, when a driver of a hansom coming down fast looked over my head;
the hansom’s off-wheel, grazing my knee, took the cycle away from
underneath me, carrying it seventy yards before the driver could pull
up. Strange as it may seem, whereas on being touched I was facing
eastwards, the result was to land me on my feet in the road facing
westwards. The cabman admitted to the Commissioner of Police it was
entirely his fault, and that he, not looking down, failed to see me.
* * * * *
On the 8th May I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Arthur Balfour for
the first time, at a Newspaper and Press Fund dinner, and was struck
with the good humour in which he accepted a quick reply I gave him. I
was speaking: “It is a common expression, gentlemen, that the Press
has improved in the last fifty years, but we are all more tolerant. I
recall the time when the leading club in London ceased to take in the
leading newspaper because it disapproved of the letters of its War
correspondent in the Crimea, who, by describing our untold miseries,
saved the remnant of our army.”
I hear acutely when there is a noise, and my speech being favourably
received, my ears were unduly sensitive, so I heard Mr. Balfour say
in a low, quiet inquiring voice: “Dear me, I wonder which club?”
Putting up my hand so that all the room should not hear it, I replied,
“Carlton,” which name was received by a burst of laughter by those
near, in which Mr. Balfour joined, but with a gesture to the shorthand
writers I prevented it being reported.
I had the pleasure on the 26th June of seeing my youngest son win the
Riding prize at Sandhurst. The second son won it in 1892, and I had
hoped that the eldest one would have succeeded in carrying it off in
1890, but unfortunately he had a riding accident three months before
the competition.
In the Spring of the year Sir Redvers Buller, the Adjutant-General,
came into my office, which was nearly opposite his room, and, for him
an unusual custom, told a story, in the course of which he said: “And
then they all became silent and listened attentively.” I interrupted
him by the line--
“Conticuere omnes, intentique ora tenebant.
And he capped it at once by repeating--
“Inde toro pater Aeneas sic orsus ab alto
Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem.”
I observed: “You don’t know what you are quoting.” “Yes, I do; you
quoted the first line of the second book of the _Æneid_, and I the
second and third lines; and in the Virgil we used at Eton it is on the
right-hand side of the page when you open the book.”
This proof of memory is more remarkable than my own, as I had re-read
Virgil in 1857 for pleasure, and in 1869 before being entered as a
student for the Bar.
All through 1896–7 I was urging on my Political Masters the importance,
for the solution of our Recruiting difficulty, of reserving for
discharged sailors and soldiers, fully qualified educationally and by
character, the first claim on all vacant appointments in the Public
service.
Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Brodrick warmly supported my representations.
The Post Office met our views to some extent, and other Departments to
about half the vacancies.