1901–2–3--SECOND ARMY CORPS DISTRICT
Salisbury Plain--A cycle ride in the dark--Plan of Tidworth
Barracks--Colonel Grierson--his forecast of Russo-Japanese
War--An enthusiastic Horse Artillery man--The Blackmore
Vale--Netley Hospital--Faulty Administration--A prolific
Dame--Yeomanry characteristics--Tipnor Magazine--Bulford
Camp--Stables, new plan--Shooting 180 years ago--The
Chaplain-General--Surgeon-General Evatt--Improvement in visual
efficiency--The choice of an Aide-de-Camp--The King’s gracious
letter.
On the 1st October I went to stay with friends at Andover, accompanied
by my second son, Captain C. M. Wood, Northumberland Fusiliers, who had
just returned from South America, where he had gone, intending to leave
the Army, but after personal experience declined a well-paid business
engagement. He was better educated than are most Army officers, having
on leaving school studied with Messrs. Wren & Gurney for the India
Civil Service. When about to present himself for Examination, the
entrance age limit was raised from seventeen to nineteen, dating from
April 1st, and his birthday being on the 2nd April, the change would
have obliged him to wait from seventeen till he was twenty years of
age. I hesitated as to the expense involved, and he was unwilling to
wait, so on a few days’ notice he passed into Sandhurst. His experience
in Egypt, China, and in South Africa as Adjutant during the war had
been valuable, and I offered him the post of Assistant Military
Secretary, or Aide-de-Camp, warning him that he must not expect in
the better paid post to hunt as often as I did, and he decided that
hunting with me was better than the extra emoluments. This suited my
convenience, for he not only hired houses and stabling, but managed all
my disbursements, leaving me free to devote my time to my profession,
and to as much amusement as I chose to take.
He and I cycled on the 1st October from Andover to Tidworth, then in
the hands of contractors. I had previously pointed out to the Secretary
of State the great delay which had occurred in commencing to build the
barracks, because no precaution had been taken to arrange with the
Midland Railway Company how much the contractor should pay for the use
of the short line from Ludgershall to Tidworth over the line which
was made for Government by and was still in the hands of the Midland
Railway. This I got arranged, and on the 1st October the contractor’s
son had begun, having about a thousand men at work.
The sites for the barracks had been approved by officers in the War
Office who evidently had not been to the spot with the plans in hands,
for a Barracks to be called “Assaye” looked close into a hill, and
all the Commanding officers’ quarters had been thrown so far forward
in front of the barracks that they could not have walked to Mess, and
as their stables adjoined the quarters, the grooms would have had a
distance varying from 800 to 1100 yards intervening between their rooms
and the horses. I could not alter the position of the barracks, but
I moved the Commanding officers’ quarters back, and personally never
approved of any site which I did not see on the ground.
I found the question of the Tidworth barracks so interesting that we
stayed late, and were benighted while we had still 7 miles to cycle to
Penton Lodge, where we were staying with Mr. and Lady Susan Sutton.
I was in front, followed at some distance by my son, the wheel of
whose cycle catching a big stone turned him over, the somersault being
so complete that a box of matches fell out of his waistcoat pocket.
Walkinshaw, who was a few hundred yards behind, must have passed close
to him, but in the darkness, the lamp having been broken, was unaware
of what had occurred, and I was just starting back, after reaching
Penton Lodge, to look for my son, when he appeared, cut about the face,
but not seriously hurt.
Mr. Sutton mounted us at four o’clock next morning for cub-hunting, and
after another visit to Tidworth I started on a round of inspection of
my extensive District. I knew Dover, Portland, and Milford Haven, and
had been stationed as a sailor at Portsmouth and Plymouth, so had some
knowledge of the 2nd Army Corps District.
As it was necessary to hire a house in Salisbury as an office, I was
obliged to request the Generals to carry on as before for a short
time. My son acted as my Staff officer, besides taking charge of my
domestic concerns, until Colonel Grierson[340] joined me at the end of
October. I had had the pleasure of meeting him before, and renewed his
acquaintance late one evening, when I found him sitting on an empty
packing case of stationery in a fireless, carpetless room, lighted
by a guttering candle fixed in a mound of grease on the mantelpiece.
I named him Mark Tapley, for on that occasion, as in other trying
circumstances, he showed the utmost good-humour, and talked as if he
were sitting in a well-furnished office.
In the two years we worked together I cannot recall we ever had a
difference of opinion, and I found his knowledge of Continental Armies
of great assistance in organising the Army Corps.
Six months before the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Grierson, who knew
both Armies, said to me in reply to a question, “Yes, sir, the Japanese
will win all along the line. Why? Because, they are just as brave, are
better instructed and equipped, and on the battlefield will be more
numerous than the Russians.”
When we got to work I found it was difficult to extract from the War
Office any delegation of authority in spite of the earnest wishes of
the Secretary of State. As an instance in point, I mention the case of
a sergeant of the Army, serving with a Yeomanry Regiment, whose Colonel
thinking badly of him, asked that he might be remanded to his Regiment.
This I recommended, pointing out that although it might be necessary
if his Regiment had been out of the District that I should refer the
point to the War Office, yet as both the Cavalry and Yeomanry regiments
were in my Command, I submitted it was a matter for my decision. This
view was not accepted at the time, although it was later on approved,
after indeed much correspondence. Lord Roberts, to whom I appealed,
saw matters as I did, but it was many months before the schedule of
questions which I suggested should be dealt with locally, was approved.
I asked the Secretary of State and the Commander-in-Chief to cut me off
from the War Office for three months, except in important financial
matters, suggesting that if I had done anything seriously wrong at the
end of that time I should be removed. My intimacy with Mr. St. John
Brodrick helped me considerably, as did his repeated desire that I was
to endeavour to obtain “real Service efficiency as cheaply as possible.”
I was interested when making a surprise inspection of Taunton Barracks
to find a sergeant proceeding to the post-office, about 400 yards from
the Barracks. I had imagined that the reforms I introduced at Aldershot
in 1889–90 had spread, but was mistaken, as indeed I was in believing
I had done away with Sunday cleaning-up work, for when I visited some
Artillery stables after I had been more than a year in command of
the Army Corps, one Sunday morning, I found a general sweep-up being
carried out, and stopped it peremptorily.
When I went to Aldershot in 1867, Sunday was a show day in stables,
which gave rise to a Horse Artillery man’s curious request. A young
soldier going up to his Commanding officer, said, “Please, sir, I want
to change my religion.” “What’s up? What do you want to be?” “I want
to be a Roman Catholic.” “Priest been at you?” “No, sir; no priest.”
“Woman?” “No, sir.” “Well, I shall not allow you to change your
religion.” “Please, sir, any man may be any religion he likes in the
Army.” “Yes, but I have got you noted as being a Church of England man,
and I don’t mean to allow you to change without giving me some reason.”
The man then admitted his real object. “Well, you see, sir, a Roman
Catholic always goes to church at eight o’clock, and I think if I was a
Roman, it would give me a better chance with my ’arness.”
The feeling of pride in the Horse Artillery is great. Grierson had a
very good servant whom he wished to get put on the Married roll. Going
up to London, having a friend in the Office, he got the servant put
on the Married roll in Field Artillery, there being no vacancy in the
Horse, and on coming back, told the man, thinking he would be pleased,
but received for answer, “I am much obliged to you, sir, but I beg
leave to decline, as once ’orse Artillery always ’orse Artillery. I
won’t go into Field, even to be put on the Married roll.”
The day after I arrived at Salisbury, doing inspections without any
Staff officer, I sent my son to Sherborne, where he hired for me a
lodging and stabling, which I used in the winter throughout my three
years’ Command. The north part of the Blackmoor Vale Hunt country is
as near perfection as possible, and a more pleasant set of hunting
gentlemen it would be impossible to imagine. Mr John Hargreaves, a son
of an equally enthusiastic Master of Fox Hounds, whom I had known in
my first days at Aldershot, “carried the horn” himself, and the first
season I hunted with him, 1901–2, accounted for a hundred brace of
foxes.
The first time I was stopped by frost, I went on from Sherborne to
Falmouth, and thence to the Scilly Islands. We were caught in a
gale, and the Admiralty yacht, which by the Admiral’s kindness had
been placed at my disposal, made bad weather, so after enjoying for
a day or two the hospitality of Mr. Dorrien-Smith, whose brother,
Smith-Dorrien, had served with me in the Egyptian Army, I came back by
the passenger steamer to Penzance, and as the frost still held, went
from Exeter to examine a Rifle range about which the Inspector-General
of Fortifications had disagreed with the General officer commanding
the Western District. When we left the train at Lydford, Dartmoor was
coated with ice, and the horses had great difficulty in keeping their
feet. Grierson, however, extolled cheerfully and continuously the
merits of the fine fresh air on the moor, his circulation being, I
imagine, much better than is mine.
Just before Christmas I made a Surprise Inspection of Netley Hospital,
and saw much of which I could not approve. A battalion at Portsmouth
furnished a half company of 53 young soldiers all under a year’s
service, and these men had only done two hours’ drill during the last
three months, being employed in every sort of menial work. At least
twice a week, six of them were supposed to be weeding gardens. If they
did anything at all, they must have made them as bare as the General at
Aldershot did the Long Valley, which he found covered with heather in
1855.
The misuse of soldiers had in this instance one good effect, for
it helped me to abolish the appointment of Commandant just then
vacant, and to let the Doctors manage their Hospital. There were many
objections raised to the company being taken away: the Government
lighter which brought stores from Woolwich would be kept waiting for
men to unload it; there would be no guard to take charge of the Army
Medical Corps men if they got drunk; there would be no one to keep
the patients who were allowed to go outdoors from straying into the
adjoining villages, and there would be no one to keep civilians out
of the Hospital grounds. It took me many months, but eventually I
was allowed to hire two civilian policemen, who with a few military
police did everything that was required, the Army Medical Corps being
told that if some of their men got drunk, others would have to go on
guard; while the window-cleaning and coal-carrying was done by taking
on a few discharged old soldiers. The Infantry can never be adequately
instructed for Service until the Army Council and Generals realise that
Service efficiency must be put before local administration.
It was fortunate that I was at the Railway station when a party of
invalids, discharged from Hospital, and out of the Service, were being
sent off, some of them to travel as far as Edinburgh. They were without
greatcoats or rugs of any description, the thermometer being at 30°.
This was in accordance with existing Regulations. I sent them back, and
had coats issued at once, Mr Brodrick supporting my unauthorised action.
In February some Militia occupied the Bulford hutments. A battalion
of the Lincoln were fairly grown men, but there was another alongside
of it the sight of which indicated we had come to the end of those
who enlist voluntarily even in a war. I asked one lad, who was
about fourteen, his age, and he said seventeen, which was obviously
inaccurate.
I now lost the assistance of General Grierson for some months,
as he was called to London to work in the office of the
Quartermaster-General; but he came down at his own expense every
Saturday afternoon, thus keeping in touch with the work by reading up
on Sunday what had been done during the week. My friend Colonel S.
Lomax, who was Adjutant of the 90th Light Infantry with me in 1878 in
South Africa, joined as Staff officer, and although he had not been on
the Staff, yet being a thoroughly good Regimental officer, was useful.
He had been at the Staff College, so soon acquired the necessary
knowledge of Staff duties.
I had lived in a house belonging to Lord Pembroke on first going to
Salisbury for six months, but on the return of the tenant was persuaded
by my son to go into another, called “The Island.” It was surrounded by
streams, which after rain came up flush with the surface of the ground.
There was obviously no possibility of a cellar, but my son was quite
correct in asserting the house would be dry, for there was not a damp
room in it, and it stood in a charming old-world garden.
There were thirteen Yeomanry regiments in the Command, all of which I
saw yearly. They varied in efficiency, but all Commanding officers had
loyally accepted the new idea that the Yeomanry should use their horses
as a means of locomotion, dismounting to fight.
As a general rule, if an imaginary north and south line is drawn on
a map through Bath, the men of the Regiments to the west of it were
generally farmers or their sons, riding their own horses. The amount
allowed, £3, for the hire of a horse in the west gave ample margin,
while in the east of my District there was considerable difficulty in
obtaining the horses, which mostly came from Livery stable-keepers in
London, or on the south coast of England.
I always inspected Yeomanry in practical work, and in the first two
years I looked at every man individually, finding there was much room
for improvement in the saddlery, and the way in which it was fitted.
Some of my readers will think this is scarcely the duty of a General,
but I did it with an object, for my inspection induced closer attention
by the Squadron commanders, who had evidently in some cases inspected
in a perfunctory manner in previous years.
The Regiments nearly all trained about the same time, and as the
Commanding officers naturally wished to have a week or ten days’ work
before the inspection, I had to use two sets of horses and servants,
and to travel day and night to get from Welshpool or Tenby, to say
Lewes, and Shorncliffe. In my second year of Command I induced two or
more Regiments to train together, and encamped with them a battery of
Artillery.
I received many offers of hospitality, but was too much hurried to
avail myself of them as a rule, but I spent a delightful twenty-four
hours at Badminton, where there is a stately avenue, three miles long,
which runs up to the house through the park, nearly ten miles in
circumference.
The men of the Glamorganshire raised during the War were mainly clerks
and mechanics. The Colonel, Wyndham Quinn, a good officer with a
progressive mind, had taught his town-bred recruits a great deal in a
limited time. The County had behaved liberally in equipping the Corps,
and I found the men encamped in Margam Park, which was generously
placed at their disposal by the owner, Miss Talbot. Immediately
opposite to her dining-room windows there is a steep hill, for the oaks
on which it is said the Admiralty, shortly before the invention of iron
hulls for ships, offered her father £100,000, which he declined.
The most remarkable of the Yeomanry Regiments in the 2nd Army Corps
was the North Devon. It was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Viscount
Ebrington, who if he had not been a Peer of the Realm might have been
a successful man of business, for all his arrangements indicated a
mastery of finance. I stayed with him one or two days on Exmoor,
twelve miles north of South Molton, where he had converted a disused
public-house into a fairly comfortable abode. The table arrangements
were remarkable in that the whole of our dinner came off the estate
on the moor. The soup made from mutton bred on the estate; the
fish--trout--from a stream immediately above the house; while the
joint, poultry, and indeed everything except the sweet, was produced
within a few hundred yards of where we were sitting.
Next morning, when we left my entertainer, he guided me for a dozen
miles over the moor to a cross track, where we were met by the huntsman
of the Devon and Somerset Stag Hounds, who piloted us another ten
miles, until he put us on to a bridle path leading into Minehead, where
the West Somerset were awaiting my inspection. The North Devon is the
only Regiment I know in which, among the officers, were to be found
eleven Masters, or ex-Masters of hounds.
The Montgomeryshire Yeomanry were quite different in appearance from
any others in the Command. Many understood little, and spoke no
English. They performed tactical operations, however, with intuitive
skill. The officers were unusually efficient, and nearly all the men
were small farmers. It was remarkable that while some of the Eastern
Regiments paid 4s. 6d. for their messing, the Welsh were content
to expend only 1s. 6d. or 2s. per diem for their food. Colonel Sir
Watkin Wynne would be a remarkable man anywhere. Possessed of great
determination, he generally had his way, and being a believer in the
theory that horses did not catch cold in the open, he brought into
camp in 1902 eleven of his hunters, which stood in a sea of mud at the
picket post without injury.
* * * * *
Visiting the Military Hospital at Portsmouth, in order to decide a
point between the Sister Services, as the Navy wished to annex a bit of
the Military Hospital grounds, I found I had sufficient time to visit
Tipnor Magazine, a strange out-of-the-world place, reminding one of
Quilp’s counting-house in _The Old Curiosity Shop_.[341] I had just
succeeded in carrying out, after months of importunity, a change of
system which I had inaugurated when I was Adjutant-General. For a month
at a time, an officer, 2 sergeants, and 33 men were stationed at Tipnor
to guard the magazine. There was nothing for the soldiers to do, and
any man confined to a beat, and given a rifle and a bayonet which he
must not use, is as inefficient a watchman as can be readily imagined.
Perhaps some of my readers may remember the picture of the gutter boy
making faces at a handsome Guardsman at Whitehall, who says to the
urchin, “You go along out of that.” The boy replies, “That’s just what
you can’t do.”
I got permission for the Metropolitan Police to take over charge of the
Magazine in 1900, when the number of trained soldiers remaining in the
country made it difficult to find any such guard. I had represented to
the Chief Commissioner, my friend Sir Edward Bradford, it was a most
important charge, and must be carefully watched. A few days afterwards,
I met Sir Charles Howard, one of the Divisional Superintendents, who
lived in the same street as I, and he told me with much amusement
that having gone to Tipnor unannounced he found the officer and two
sergeants were away, and a Lance Corporal was the only person of
authority in the place. To my regret, the soldiers have been ordered to
resume charge of the place, which would have been much more effectually
watched by three or four Civil or Military policemen.
My next visit to Portsmouth was made to decide as to the necessity of
having a sentry over a Magazine. I had taken off all the Divisional
sentries except one over the General’s house, as I did not wish to
deprive him of the honour which he prized, but which I had given up on
assuming command of the Aldershot Division.
The Commanding officer, whose judgment I generally accepted, judged
it to be essential that a guard should be retained, as the Magazine
contained ball ammunition. On visiting it, I found it was fairly
protected by its natural position, and as the total amount of
ammunition in it never exceeded £120 in value, I considered it was bad
economy to employ a guard, which cost at least £300 per annum in pay,
food, and clothing for the men, and removed it, without any unfortunate
result up to the time of my leaving the Command.
Some of the sentries removed have already been replaced. I was sitting
at dinner towards the close of my Command between Lord Roberts
and General Sir Forestier Walker, and mentioned to his Lordship
the previous week I had found a sentry whose primary duty was the
protection of a Regimental pet ram, to ensure its not being teased by
children. “What Regiment?” he asked. I said, “No, my lord; it is one
of my children, and I cannot tell tales out of the family. But you can
be satisfied the ram is being teased now; at all events, the sentry is
not protecting it.” I then told him I had recently seen a sentry at
Plymouth, who, on my asking him his duties, answered, “I am to prevent
anyone landing at the steps below me in plain clothes except Lord
Morley and Lord Mount Edgcumbe.” I said, “Do you know these lords?”
“No,” he said; “I don’t know one lord from another.” Sir Forestier
said, “Why, is that sentry on? I took him off when I was in command.”
I said, “He has been put back, and I am trying to get him removed by
fair words.” Sir Forestier observed, “His orders were much better in
my time; they ran, “I am not to allow anyone to bathe at these steps
improperly dressed, except Lord Mount Edgcumbe.”
In one of my visits to a southern fortress I had been assured £500
should be granted for iron rails for fencing, but on visiting the spot
I found that more than the length of railing already existed, and by a
slight alteration no addition was required. Similarly, £180 for a Drill
Hall having been strongly recommended, I found on visiting the spot
there was already a verandah not required for other purposes, 700 feet
long by 10 feet wide, which fully answered the purpose.
I did not always succeed. For example, after a year’s correspondence, I
got the stabling for the Mounted Infantry at Bulford built in the form
of a hollow square, the parade being in the centre. My object was to
save sentries, and the angles where no stabling existed were closed by
five-feet-high iron railings, with gates which swung on rollers. After
the stables had been in use for six months, I found that my reasons
not having been passed on, the gates were not closed at night, as I
had intended, and the economy of sentries had not up to that time been
effected.
I shocked some of the Army Corps Staff by my practice of inspecting
the unsavoury places at the back of Barracks during my unexpected
visitations. The notice I gave as a rule was to despatch a message
to the Senior officer on arriving at the Barrack gate. I found much
that was undesirable, but never anything to equal that in the Eastern
District in 1886–87, where I found a Commanding officer who had
occupied barracks for six months did not know whether his latrines were
on the dry-earth or water-carriage system, nor where they were situated.
* * * * *
At the close of the hunting season 1901–2 I was staying at Melbury,
Lord Ilchester’s seat, which is remarkable for many objects of beauty,
but in the Fox-hunter’s point of view particularly so, in that there
were twenty-two litters of cubs in the vicinity of the house. His
Lordship, who kept also a pack of Deer Hounds, told me that his best
recorded run was some years ago, in the month of June. After dinner,
most of the party sat down to Bridge, and Lady Helen Stavordale, his
Lordship’s daughter-in-law, knowing my tastes, gave me an old game
book in which the list of game shot at Melbury and its vicinity has
been noted for 150 years. I was reading about A.D. 1726, where the
daily bags of Lords Digby and Ilchester are recorded. It appears they
considered two pheasants was a poor day’s sport, but anything over
eight was held to be satisfactory. There is a curious entry in 1726,
“Lord Digby made a very fine shot, and killed a cock pheasant. This
was difficult, as it was siting (_sic_) on a hedge.” Sportsmen of the
present day should remember that the firearms of their predecessors
were very different from those now in use.
I had several agreeable visitors at Salisbury, one or two belonging to
the Opposition in Parliament, who thought more highly of Mr. Brodrick’s
scheme of the three Army Corps before they left the district, but
perhaps the most pleasant of all was the new Chaplain-General. He kept
me up till past midnight talking, being most earnest and enthusiastic
about religion, but with a remarkably broad mind. He was addressing a
crowded audience in the evening, and was arguing that the Church of
England was like the nave of a wheel, the spokes representing all the
other branches. When the people were dispersing a coachman came up to
him and said, “I liked your address very much, and especially the story
about the wheel, but, excuse me, I am a coachman, and think you might
well have added the tyre is the love of Christ which should bind us
together.” The Bishop said, “Thank you, I will use that next time.”
In all my efforts for decentralisation I was backed by Mr. St. John
Brodrick. He was never wearied of hearing from me, and sympathised with
my efforts, often ineffectual, to relieve the offices in London of
petty details. I pointed out that I was not permitted to authorise a
tenant who rented a piece of beach at Portsmouth which was gravelled,
to have it cemented, without referring it to the Inspector-General of
Royal Engineers. Mr. Brodrick tried to help me also in my efforts to
induce delegation of authority to local Engineer officers. I found
in the Western district stairs leading down into an engine-room, on
which the soldiers had to carry coal trays, with much difficulty owing
to a sharp turn, avoidable if a hole had been cut in the ground, as
you see in every London street; and when I disapproved, I was told
officially that it was a type, and types must be followed. Similarly,
every screen for shutting off a bath is made about 7 feet high, as if
intended for a zenana. Mr. Brodrick endeavoured to assist me in all
such points. After inspecting the new Barracks being erected, he wrote:
“I congratulate you most heartily on the immense progress made on
Salisbury Plain since you assumed command.”
He is one of the few Cabinet Ministers I have met who realise the
importance of having somebody at the head of troops who can be held
responsible for seeing that they are prepared for war. Such an
officer must exist to ensure that the ammunition columns, waggons,
and equipment of every kind is complete; that the harness for the
horses, and the vehicles are all in good order. There are numbers of
officers who have a divided duty in these matters, but there should
be one person to whom the Army Council can look, and who can be held
responsible that the command is ready for War Service.
I was greatly assisted in my endeavours to improve the sanitary state
of the barracks in the 2nd Army Corps district by the persevering
efforts of the principal Medical officer, Surgeon-General G. J. Evatt,
M.D., C.B., than whom I have never had a more enthusiastic sanitary
assistant. He introduced great changes, incurring a certain amount of
ill-will, as all eager reformers do. His visits to the kitchens of
the officers’ messes in the barracks of the district brought to the
notice of the Commanding officers what I had long known, they were the
dirtiest places in barracks, except perhaps the canteens. In few of the
latter was there sufficient accommodation, with the result that the
contractor’s agent was reported in several instances to be “sleeping at
the back of the grocery bar, with his head on a cheese and his feet in
a butter bowl.”
The Surgeon-General helped me to obtain a concession for the soldiers,
for which I had striven many years in vain. Up to the time of my
command at Salisbury the soldier never had more than two shirts; as one
went to wash if he got wet, he had to sleep in it, or sleep naked, at
his choice, but day and night one shirt at the wash, and one shirt on
the man’s body was the custom. With Evatt’s assistance and his graphic
accounts of the state of some Militia regiments, the Secretary of State
gave way, and authorised a third shirt.
I had hoped that Evatt and I might serve on to get the men a sleeping
suit, but the “guns having ceased to shoot,” to paraphrase Mr. Kipling,
there is now less consideration for the private soldier than is felt in
War time.
My indefatigable Sanitary Inspector sympathised greatly with my
desire to reduce the number of sentries, appreciating as a doctor the
unfavourable effect of night duty on the health of the young soldier;
and although I, personally preferring a hard bed, did not sympathise
so thoroughly with a reform he advocated, yet I authorised in the
command the abolition of the boards on which the soldier slept in the
guard-room, which were replaced by bedsteads.
The Surgeon-General found out in one Hospital some reprehensible
customs, such as the officer in charge signing his Diet Sheets for a
week in advance, and this was in a district where the Ward master,
after committing frauds of over £100 on Diet Sheets alone, had just
committed suicide.
Surgeon-General Evatt tried to help me in another Reform, which
may, I hope, be effected by my successors, for when I gave over the
Southern Command in December 1903, my recommendations were “still under
consideration.”
When I was Quartermaster-General, a company of Garrison Artillery
detained for Free Town, Sierra Leone, was quartered half at that
Station, and half at Plymouth, ready to embark if required. My study
of the Health statistics disclosed the fact, that of 16 men, the 1st
Relief of the guns in a battery, at King Tom, situated at the head of a
lagoon, 13 were continuously on the Sick Report. I got this detachment
removed up to hills, whence they could still get to the battery quickly
in case of need. In the nineties a complete Company was stationed at
Sierra Leone for twelve months, and in June 1903, when I was inspecting
a Company at Falmouth, which had returned four months previously, I was
so perturbed by the look of the remains of malarial fever in the men’s
faces, that I demanded a history of their service on the West Coast.
The Company disembarked at Free Town 93 men of unusually fine stature;
lost 5 dead, 5 invalided, 1 sent home, and 1 deserter. Struck by the
fact that no man died, or was invalided within the first six months
of residence, I submitted that irrespective of dictates of humanity,
we should exchange the men every six months, as a more economical
arrangement.
The first year I went to Salisbury I gave a cup, with a view to
improving the shooting of the Rank and File at unknown distances.
Each of the Sub-Districts in the command sent a team of four, who
were presumably the best in the corps, as they were ordered to have
a preliminary Competition. The result was such as would, if known,
encourage soldiers in their first battle. The ground on Salisbury Plain
is certainly difficult, consisting of rolling plains without a tree or
any mark to guide the eye, and consequently it is very difficult to
estimate distances. The first team was composed of three very young
soldiers and one veteran who wore spectacles and could not double 300
yards, which was a condition of the competition. Another team consisted
of soldiers of about four months who had not done the “Trained
Soldier’s course” of musketry. The third, from the Devon Regiment,
which won, had men of seven, eleven, and eighteen years’ service. The
targets were actually 2500, 1400, 800, and 340 yards distant. The
judging, except at 2500 yards, was ludicrously erroneous, and when the
targets jumped up like a “Jack in the box” at 340 yards, all the teams
guessed 500 or 600. These targets were only the size of a man’s chest,
but those 1½ miles off represented a quarter of a Battalion standing in
column, and were a broad and deep mark, but in the result 1100 shots
fired by the three teams gave only five hits. Although this was very
unsatisfactory, it called attention to our faulty training, which I am
glad to believe has since been rectified.
The result of the above competition induced me to consult the
Surgeon-General, whom I told that when the targets jumped up close to
the men, being visible only for forty seconds, many men did not see
them until they were disappearing, and under his advice I initiated a
system of improving the visual efficiency of the soldiers. It was taken
up by Colonel S. Lomax, who was temporarily in command of a brigade,
and the result gave satisfaction to everyone. The doctors tested every
man separately in the first instance, and the company officers then
endeavoured to improve the eyesight of all.
I mentioned the successful result of enabling the Army Service Corps
to do their own work and eliminating the middleman as a forwarding
agent of Stores,[342] but I was able, by bringing to the notice of the
generals under me, to cause them to make considerable saving of public
money; that in one Sub-District amounting to something over £2000 per
annum.
I called for a return of all the boats in the Command belonging to
Government, and also those hired, with a very curious result. It
transpired that in one district a coxswain and crew had been paid,
although from time immemorial no boat had existed. The oldest clerk
in the office had never heard of the boat, nor was there any record
of it, and to render the situation rather more comical moorings had
been for years hired for that boat. This was explained later by the
statement that the moorings were available for all boats, and they
merely happened to be entered to that boat as a matter of account; but
further inquiry whether any of the boats used the moorings, elicited a
negative reply, and a further statement that the hiring of moorings had
been discontinued. I said nothing more on the subject, on ascertaining
that the general concerned made the economies I have stated above. In
another great Naval port there was a similar case, and that was also
terminated.
Perhaps the most interesting part of my duties consisted in
the instruction and practice of Artillery. I took my Senior
Aide-de-camp[343] without ever having seen him, from the recommendation
of one of the best Senior officers of Garrison Artillery in the
district, Colonel W. W. Smith, writing to him: “Will you please
recommend me a Garrison Artillery-Aide-de-camp? He must be able to
ride, and must have a good knowledge of, and be keen about his work.”
He named Major C. Buckle, D.S.O., who found for us the Rhyader Range
after looking over many places in Cardiganshire and the adjoining
counties. There were only two or three small houses on it which was
essential to vacate. The range is quite safe for 12,000 yards, but it
has its disadvantage, as have all such places, that it is isolated, and
there is a steep climb up to the range of mountains.
I saw some of the Garrison Artillery at one of my inspections fire
at a target 3800 yards distant, travelling at 6 miles an hour. The
first five shots were all on the target, and the sixth shot cut the
connecting rope by which the steamer was towing it.
Early in the Spring of 1903 I read at breakfast in the _Times_ that Sir
George White had been made a Field Marshal by His Majesty the King,
who was visiting Gibraltar, and when I got to the office I found the
Army Corps Staff indignant, as Sir George was a colonel when I, as a
Major-General of four years’ standing, had got him brought out to Egypt
for the Khartoum Expedition. I sent him a telegram congratulating him
on his good fortune, and received a reply in a very short time, that
he had heard on the best authority I had received the same honour. In
the afternoon I had a kind private letter from the Secretary of State
announcing His Majesty’s pleasure, to whom I wrote a letter of grateful
thanks the same evening, and received the following gracious reply:--
H.M. ROYAL YACHT _VICTORIA AND ALBERT_,
MALTA, _April 1903_.
MY DEAR SIR EVELYN WOOD,--Many thanks for your kind letter. It has
given me the greatest pleasure and satisfaction to promote you
to the rank of Field Marshal, after the long and distinguished
services you have rendered for the Crown and country.--Believe me,
very sincerely yours,
EDWARD _R._
FOOTNOTES
[1] He was created a baronet in 1837.
[2] Later Queen Victoria.
[3] “Highly cultivated, of a noble presence, of warm heart, of great
social faculty, and of unaffected piety, he was one of the best
specimens of a type of clergymen who were never very common, and are
now fast disappearing--those who combine in their purity the character
of a priest with that of the fine old English country gentleman.”
_Times_, 23rd February 1866.
[4] Croft West, five miles out of Truro, is now (1906) a farmhouse, the
flagged stones of the kennels remaining.
[5] In 1887 my friend Dr. Norman Moore, having been summoned to Algiers
to see a patient, was on his return seated at dinner in an hotel at
Toulouse, and being the only guest, in talking to the waiter asked, “Is
there anyone left of the D’Arragon family?” “Oh no,” he said; “the last
of them, a young lady, eloped with an English officer after the battle,
1814. When you have finished your dinner, if you come to the window,
I will show you the bridge on which they met; and she carried her bag
with some clothes, to show that she met him of her own accord.” Norman
Moore, who knew the story, said, “Yes, but the bag was not much bigger
than a bonbonnière.” He greatly interested the waiter by showing he
knew much about the family.
[6] He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1843.
[7] An account-book, carried by soldiers of all European armies,
showing their service, with statements of pay received, and due.
[8] Doctor Cotton, later Bishop of Calcutta, who came in 1852, reformed
the College, which for many years has been, and is now, one of the best
in the kingdom.
[9] He was killed at my side in the 21-gun battery before Sevastopol,
19th October 1854.
[10] This place was, and is now reserved for Naval and Military
Officers, being close under Government House, while Mutton Cove is the
landing-place for private boats and men-of-war’s liberty men.
[11] Men when suffering corporal punishment were lashed to gratings.
[12] Burgoyne was drowned, with all but eighteen of his command, in
1871, in the Bay of Biscay, when H.M.S. _Captain_, struck by a squall,
“turned turtle,” being overweighted above her water-line. _Eurydice_
capsized, 1878; H.M.S. _Atalanta_ disappeared, 1880.
[13] Probably a record depth.
[14] Van Amberg, in the forties a celebrated wild-beast tamer,
dominated them by breaking their rest.
[15] In my log, 12.8.54, I read: “H.M.S. _Trafalgar_ stood under our
stern last night, and asked for medical assistance.”
[16] I read in my Diary that in seven successive days later I spent
four on duty in the batteries or elsewhere, and three at Balaklava and
Kamiesh.
[17] He commanded the Artillery at Aldershot in 1892.
[18] He was lost with 200 of the crew in February 1863, when H.M.S.
_Orpheus_ was wrecked, being in charge of a pilot, on the Mana Kau
reef, New Zealand.
[19] An attenuated faggot, used for facing, or revetting earthen walls.
[20] Letter from Captain W. Peel, R.N., to the Rev. Sir John Page Wood:
“Your son was only known to me through his gallant behaviour.... He
volunteered to bring up powder through a fire which daunted others.”
[21] The “Col” was the ascent from Balaklava Plain to the Upland.
[22] Later, Admiral Sir W. M. W. Hewett, V.C., K.C.B.
[23] The general officer in charge of the Front at Inkerman had written
a week previous to the battle, “I have only the six hundred men on this
front position.”
[24] Throughout the winter there was always barley for the taking away,
except for ten days, and during that time I fed my pony on biscuits and
bread, bought in the French camp, paying 2s. 6d. for a 2-lb. loaf.
[25] Erected in January 1855.
[26] Commodore Lushington’s Diary shows he saw a soldier coming out of
the trenches towards camp, and ran to help him; but the man fell dead
before he got to him, having struggled on till his heart ceased to act.
[27] Later, Admiral Sir W. M. W. Hewett, V.C.
[28] Captain Hugh Burgoyne, V.C., lost in H.M.S. _Captain_, 1871.
[29] Sir W. Howard Russell, K.C.B.
[30] This consists in stopping with the thumb all currents of air
in the gun, which if allowed to pass up the vent would cause sparks
remaining in the chamber to ignite the fresh cartridge.
[31] We learned later they were awaiting the arrival of the Emperor,
who was then expected.
[32] For the sake of civilian readers, I explain. A mortar-shell
is fired from a short, squat piece, at an angle of 45°, and having
attained its greatest altitude over the spot where it is intended to
fall, it descends vertically to the ground, the range being regulated
by the charge of powder which throws the shell into the air. The
Russians used a wooden fuse to explode the bursting charge; it was
roughly made, and protruded a couple of inches outside the shell, and
thus when the shell, having attained its greatest height, commenced
to descend, the projecting fuse end, caught by the wind with each
revolution, produced a peculiar sound, which gave rise to its name.
If a mortar-shell does not explode until it reaches the ground, as
is intended, the whole force of concussion is upwards, owing to the
resistance of the surface of the earth, and thus men may be close to
the shell and yet incur little danger from its lateral spread, if
they are lying at a lower level, when the only danger is from falling
fragments.
[33] Opening at the rear of the work.
[34] He was anxious that I should be saved from the fire we were about
to encounter. This I only knew afterwards, from a letter written to his
brother the following day, and at the time I was greatly irritated.
[35] An imaginary straight line, bisecting the salient angle.
[36] _i.e._ unfurled, by a jerk of the other lanyard.
[37] Field Marshal Lord Wolseley, K.P., G.C.B., etc. etc.
[38] Lord Raglan, who witnessed the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo and
Badajos, forty years earlier, described in Napier’s _History of the
Peninsular War_, wrote: “I never before witnessed such a continued and
heavy fire of grape and musketry,” and in a private letter observed, “I
never had a conception before of such a shower of grape.”
[39] As we learned afterwards, all the soldier carriers of the first
ladder were shot down by one volley, and the remaining ladders had not
been taken far before all three officers with them fell, the Captain
dangerously, and the two Subalterns severely wounded. Blackett (later
Sir William) remained on the ground until a sergeant lifted him into
the shelter of a trench.
[40] As I rolled down the slope my wounded arm, probably from instinct,
remained uppermost. There was nothing to indicate I was an officer, for
I had thrown away my scabbard when my sword was destroyed; my gold-band
cap was underneath me, and my blue serge jacket was threadbare and
dirty.
[41] Bayoneted.
[42] Extract from a letter from Captain W. Peel to Frederick Peel,
M.P., 20.6.55: “Would you let Sir Page Wood know his gallant son
behaved with extreme intrepidity?”
[43] Later, General Sir Thomas Steele, K.C.B.
[44] Letter from Sir S. Lushington to Captain Michell, R.N.:--
“CAMP BEFORE SEVASTOPOL,
“_18th June_, 10.30 a.m.
“MY DEAR MICHELL,--You will be sorry to hear your young nephew,
Wood, has been wounded by a grape-shot in the arm. The shot struck
the bone obliquely, and was cut out when he got into camp. I saw
him in the trenches, and he bore it like a hero. He was Peel’s
A.D.C., and Peel endeavoured to keep the boy from the murderous
fire into which they plunged with the scaling ladders, but he
would take no refusal, and went out with the rest. Wood will be
at Kazatch to-day in Lord Raglan’s carriage. Will you have a
boat?--Yours, in haste,
“STEPHEN LUSHINGTON,
“_Commanding Naval Brigade_.”
[45] “_June 21st, 1855._ MY DEAR CAPTAIN MICHELL,--I am very glad to
have had an opportunity of being even in the smallest degree useful to
your nephew, whose distinguished career cannot fail to enlist everybody
in his favour. I am rejoiced to hear that he is going on well.--Believe
me, very faithfully yours, RAGLAN.”
[46] My father wrote to the Admiralty for permission for me to resign
my appointment, and received a courteous reply:--
“ADMIRALTY, _7th September 1855_.
“SIR,--In accepting the resignation of your son, Mr. E. Wood, I am
to express their Lordships’ regret that so gallant an officer is
lost to the Naval Service.
“_To the_ Rev. Sir JOHN PAGE WOOD, Bart.”
[47] Extract from the Despatch of Lord Raglan to Lord Panmure:--
“BEFORE SEVASTOPOL, _23rd June 1855_.
“MY LORD,--I must not omit to mention the following officers of the
Royal Navy who particularly distinguished themselves on the 18th
June:--Messrs. Wood (severely wounded) and Daniel, who have been
through the whole siege.--I have, etc.,
RAGLAN.”
[48] Riding trousers.
[49] “Colonel Vivian, who commanded, immediately ordered Major
Brotherton to charge with the 14th Dragoons across the bridge, but
it was an ill-judged order, and the impossibility of succeeding so
manifest that when Brotherton, noted throughout the Army for his
daring, galloped forward, only two men and one Subaltern, Lieutenant
Southwell, passed the narrow bridge with him, and they were all
taken.”--Napier’s _Peninsular War_, vol. vi. p. 391.
[50] My uncle, Vice-Chancellor Sir William Page Wood, bought my
Lieutenancy on the 1st February.
[51] Extract from the speech of Lord Lyons, delivered at the Mansion
House on the 13th February 1856: “All behaved well, but I doubt whether
there is anything in the annals of Chivalry that surpasses the conduct
of Captain Peel’s Aides-de-Camp, Messrs. Daniel and Wood, one of whom
(Mr. Wood), when wounded, placed a scaling ladder against the Redan.”
[52] “I hope all seven recommended will get it, but in any case the
names will stand in sequence.” (Mr. Wood’s name was third.) Eleven
Crosses were given in the Naval Brigade.
[53] Each letter has three forms--initial, medial, final.
[54] Most of our officers gave much higher prices, the two Majors
paying about £200 for a charger.
[55] A noted athlete and swimmer; he had distinguished himself by
jumping into the Hooghly River and saving a woman. He was, for many
years before his death, Professor of Sanskrit and Oriental languages,
at the University of Oxford.
[56] During the Pánjáb campaign a Sikh careering in front of the 16th
Lancers challenged the Regiment. Cornet Morris, a Serre-file, galloped
out, and after an exciting encounter killed his opponent.
[57] He afterwards obtained for me my Brevet Majority, and did his
utmost to get me the Victoria Cross.
[58] Bundelas, a tribe of Rájpúts, inhabitants of Bundelcund.
[59] Wilayati, literally a foreigner; those with Tantia came from the
North-west Frontiers of India.
[60] These towns are situated:
Jhánsi latitude, 25° 20´ N.; longitude, 77° 55´ E.
Ajmír ” 26° 30´ ” ” 74° 20´ ”
Betul ” 21° 40´ ” ” 78° 20´ ”
Asseerghur ” 21° 15´ ” ” 75° 50´ ”
[61] Meer Umjid Ali, a well-born Muhammadan, was a Silidar and Sergeant
in the Contingent. Although the King of Dihlí wrote personally to
him, Umjid Ali refused to be untrue to his salt, and in spite of all
opposition joined the British troops. He served later as an officer in
the Central India Horse, dying an honoured pensioner.
[62] A cut at the head.
[63] Ravine.
[64] Footman.
[65] In the following April I camped at Biora for one night on my way
from Gwáliár to Máu, and rode over to the village. Calling the Mead
man, I narrated what I had seen on the 15th September of the previous
year, and asked whether my surmise that the sufferer was a villager was
correct. The Head man said, “Yes, he is still alive, but a cripple.”
I had the man brought to me, and although a ghastly sight, being
paralysed, and unable to work, with the patient resignation of the
Asiatic, he was thankful to be alive, and was profuse in gratitude for
a small present I gave him.
[66] Ravine.
[67] Body coverings which nearly reach the knees.
[68] Later, Colonel Sir Edward Bradford--Chief Commissioner,
Metropolitan Police, 1890–1903.
[69] Extract from General Orders by H.E. the Viceroy and
Governor-General:--
“_January 16th, 1859._
“16. L---- in separate command during a portion of the day, brings
specially to notice, etc. etc., as does ----, the gallantry of
Lieutenant Wood of the 17th Lancers, who having, from paucity
of officers, volunteered, during the campaign, to serve with
Native Cavalry, on this occasion (action at Sindwaha), almost
single-handed, came up to and attacked a body of the enemy.”
[70] As Risaldar Major Dhokul Singh Bahadur, he was Aide-de-Camp to the
Commander-in-Chief, Bombay, for many years in the eighties.
[71] The light on the horizon about one hour before dawn.
[72] It is said he saved Sir William Gordon’s life at Balaklava by
shooting a Russian officer who attacked Gordon when he was helpless
from wounds.
[73] Herd.
[74] Extracts from a Report by General Somerset, to Assistant
Adjutant-General:--
“CAMP, PUCHORE, _15th April 1859_.
“... my Brigade-Major, Lieutenant Wood, 17th Lancers, with whose
previous services and conspicuous gallantry in action, the
Major-General is already acquainted, ... as my only Staff officer
he has shown the most unvaried zeal, particularly on occasions of
rapid pursuit of the enemy, when his position did not admit of his
taking advantage of the few short hours others had for rest.”
[75] He had got the K.C.B. for his services in Central India.
[76] “Camp fashion Mess” implies that each member brings his own stool,
plates, cutlery, and drinking mug.
[77] Barélí Police.
[78] The calculations are given in sterling, but at that period the
rupee was worth a penny more than its face value.
[79] Some weeks after assuming command, when presiding at a Native
Court Martial, my colleagues gravely sentenced a forger to be
imprisoned for a long period, and to have his nose slit. I had much
difficulty in persuading them to omit the sentence of mutilation.
[80] He commanded a troop, but could not ride without holding on,
having spent his life manufacturing puggarees.
[81] Eighty miles by one hundred.
[82] Prepared opium.
[83] Scott’s _Old Mortality_.
[84] I got cold in my face during the ride, and suffered considerably,
Sylvester warning me on my return to Bersia, that if I shook my head
all the teeth in the left side of my jaw would tumble out. Forty-eight
hours of rest, however, brought me round.
[85] One was the former puggaree manufacturer who owned forty-five
horses.
[86] Before I turned him out of the Lines.
[87] _Vide_ chap. xv. p. 172.
[88] He told Lieutenant, now Sir E. Bradford, a month later, my visit
to the Rajah cleared Narsinghgarh of rebels for a time, and saved
Lakanwas from being looted.
[89] Blue cattle.
[90] He wrote about my resuming command of a Regiment later:--
“Your untiring zeal, great patience and tact are well known to me.
I am not acquainted with any man who has stronger or better claims,
or, with your professional abilities, would do it greater justice.
I consider that you have great qualifications for such a command,
and that you carry with you the respect and goodwill of all, having
maintained strict discipline at the same time.--With best wishes,
believe me, sincerely yours,
JAMES TRAVERS, _Col._,
“_Commanding Central India Horse_.
“_To_ EVELYN WOOD, Esq., 17th Lancers.”
[91] Later, Sir George Edmonstone, K.C.B.
[92] He not only showed me unbounded hospitality, but in my absence on
Foreign Service watched over the interests of my wife and children.
[93] By the Regulations only one officer from a Regiment could be at
the College.
[94] On the 8th November, Captain Wilkes of the _San Jacinto_ seized
the Confederate Commissioners Slidell and Mason on board the British
Mail steamer _Trent_.
[95] The wound in my head prevented my wearing a hat.
[96] In the Saxon Switzerland.
[97] I received at the same time an offer to go abroad with a General
officer whom I had known in India as his Military Secretary, but
declined the offer, feeling sure that we should not find each other’s
society congenial.
[98] Author of Parkes’ _Hygiene_.
[99] Aldershot.
[100] Rent.
[101] Later, Major-General Sir George Colley.
[102] The Aldershot Railway was not then projected.
[103] A local nickname, from an expression often used by the Colonel.
[104] That is, each battalion would have a frontage of one company
composed of two halves of different companies.
[105] The custom was so widely spread, that the “Wait-a-Bits,” an
old-fashioned but one of the steadiest battalions I ever knew at
Aldershot, asked me when I was Brigade-Major to be allowed to give up
their place in line of columns in order to avoid standing next to a
very vituperative though brave Commanding officer.
[106] At Arroyo dos Molinos, in the Peninsular, 1811, the French
34th was captured by the English Regiment of the same number. The
representative bands rushed at each other, with the result that the
baton of the Tambour Major and ten of the French Regiment drums
remained in the hands of our 34th.
[107] _The Crimea in 1854–’94._
[108] General Pennyfather led many charges at Inkerman, where Sir
George Cathcart was killed at the head of two companies, and as
Generals did in war, so did they then in peace.
[109] The Right Hon. F. Wrench, Irish Land Commissioner.
[110] The Right Hon. Arthur Balfour, M.P.
[111] Which pace I was bound not to exceed, neither could we trot
farther than a mile at one time.
[112] Later, Lord Wolverton. I knew him in the sixties, as he rode
brilliantly with the Essex Stag Hounds.
[113] The fort, St. George della Mina, named from the gold mines in
the vicinity, is said to have been built by French merchants in 1383,
though the Portuguese allege that they built the first fort. The Dutch
held it from 1637 to 1872, when England took it over. St. George stands
on a rock close to the sea, just above high water, and St. Iago, a fort
inland, 100 feet higher, commands both St. George and the town built on
either side of the Beyah backwater.
[114] Trade gin.
[115] The English Government took over the Fort in 1872.
[116] Now General Sir Henry Brackenbury, G.C.B.
[117] Son of Lord Elcho--died of fever.
[118] Sir Garnet Wolseley wrote:--
“CAPE COAST CASTLE, 5.38 a.m., _October 15th_.
“What hour did you get back last night? I watched you through a
glass till you got close to the Marines we left on the beach.... I
have to congratulate you on the very able manner in which you did
everything yesterday. I am very much obliged to you. The operations
were well carried out, and all your previous arrangements were
admirable.”
[119] “I have Her Majesty’s commands to convey to you and
Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, who under your general direction was in
immediate command, Her Majesty’s approbation.... I observe with great
satisfaction the terms in which you speak of the services rendered by
Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, V.C.”
[120] Wild pigs.
[121] As every Black man was apparently called Quashi or Quamina, we
knew them only by the numbers suspended from their necks.
[122] General the Right Honourable Sir Redvers Buller, V.C., G.C.B.
[123] So called from the gentleman who proposed in the early seventies
openwork coffins for burial in England.
[124] Now General Sir William Butler, G.C.B.
[125] From Sir Garnet Wolseley to Secretary of State for War:--
“AMOAFUL, _1st February 1871_.
“The Officers commanding the columns performed their difficult task
most excellently.... Lieutenant-Colonel Evelyn Wood, V.C., was
wounded, while at the head of his troops.”
[126] Now Lieutenant-General C. Burnett, C.B.
[127] Later, Sir George Colley.
[128] Died as Admiral Sir W. N. W. Hewett, K.C.B.
[129] Now General Sir George Greaves, K.C.B.
[130] Later, General Sir Thomas Durand Baker.
[131] The only surviving child of a widow.
[132] Later, General Sir Thomas Durand Baker, K.C.B.
[133] Now General Sir Frederick Maurice, K.C.B.
[134] He wore only a small loin-cloth on his gigantic body.
[135] Later, General Woodgate, mortally wounded at Spion Kop, in the
Boer War.
[136] Major-General Sir George Colley, killed in action 1881.
[137] Field-Marshal Lord Wolseley.
[138] General Sir William Butler, G.C.B.
[139] Later he asked to remain on till November 1878, in order to
complete thirty years’ service, and thus get the full pension of 20s.
per diem.
[140] She was rescued by a missionary.
[141] The name given to a little post from the fact that in 1836 a
Colonist of that name with 24 Hottentots had been surprised there by
Gaikas, and after a brave resistance killed without one man escaping.
It was not known for many months what had become of the party, in
spite of a protracted search ordered by Sir Harry Smith. Eventually a
belt worn by Macomo was recognised as having belonged to the deceased
Hottentot leader, and later his Bible was repurchased from the
Gaikas, with a pathetic note on the fly-leaf that the detachment was
surrounded, their ammunition nearly exhausted, and they must soon be
killed.
[142] When the German legion, enlisted towards the conclusion of the
Crimean War, was about to be disbanded, all who cared to go to South
Africa were sent out, to the great advantage of the Colony. They were
industrious, hard-working, and successful gardeners, giving their old
country names to prosperous villages, such as Wiesbaden, Hanover.
[143] I wrote to the Military Secretary of Rupert Lonsdale, in the
following December: “Brave as a lion, agile as a deer, and inflexible
as iron, he is the best leader of Natives I have seen.”
[144] The Colonial papers attributed Brabant’s reverse to Colonel Wood
having for some reason failed to support him. Our Burghers only laughed
at the local papers, but it was republished in the _Times_.
[145] The High Commissioner, writing on the 15th August 1879, after
pointing out the important bearing which the position of the Flying
Column in Zululand had on the safety of Natal and the Transvaal from
January to July, said: “I would beg to call attention to the excellent
Political effects of the dealings of these two officers with the
Colonial forces, and with the Colonists in general. Up to 1878 there
had always been amongst the Colonists something of a dread of the
strict discipline which was, as they thought, likely to be enforced by
a Military officer were they to serve under him, and a great distrust
of Her Majesty’s officers generally to conduct operations against the
Kafirs. This feeling has now, I believe, disappeared amongst all who
served under General Wood and Colonel Buller.”
[146] The growers which hang from and interlace the forest trees.
[147] Now Lieutenant-General Lord Grenfell, G.C.B.
[148] Now Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Warren, K.C.B.
[149] The Gaika was the legitimate Head of his section of the tribe,
but was deposed by General Sir George Cathcart in 1852, and imprisoned
for a time, his younger brother, Siwani, being made Chief.
[150] Bowker was one of eleven children not one of whom was under
6 feet, and three of his brothers were 6 feet 3 inches. Like many
others of those serving with us, he had seen his cattle driven off,
and had known his relations and friends murdered by Kafirs; but he
had a high type of mind, as is indicated by the following story. In
a petty skirmish in 1864 he was fired on by a Basuto, who missed him
but killed his horse. Bowker fired on the Basuto as he ran, and broke
his arm. The man fell, but when Bowker approached stood up stoically
to meet the death he anticipated. Bowker bound up his arm and let him
go, thinking no more of the matter. Many years after, when Bowker was
travelling with his wife in a waggon in Basutoland, buying cattle, he
halted at a kraal at sundown, and as usual the Basutos crowded round
him. He noticed one man who stared at him closely and then disappeared,
but came back within an hour, with all his family, bearing on his head
a bundle of firewood, a sheep, and some milk and vegetables, saying, “I
offer these gifts to the man who broke and mended my arm.” The firewood
could not have been worth less than half a crown, as the country is
treeless, and the only fuel is the manure of cattle.
[151] Now Major-General Laye, C.B.
[152] Now Sir James Sivewright, K.C.M.G. of Tulliallan, N.B.
[153] Now General Lord Grenfell, G.C.B.
[154] Ex-private soldier, 73rd Regiment.
[155] Killed in Ashanti. _Vide_ p. 279.
[156] The place of teaching.
[157] Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, K.C.B., K.C.S.I.
[158] General Woodgate was mortally wounded at Spion Kop, Natal,
January 1900.
[159] This letter refuses the assistance on account of Military risks.
[160] Messrs. T. White & Co., Outfitters, Aldershot.
[161] Rope made of ox hide.
[162] I measured the track next morning, and found I had taken the
wheel to within 5 inches of the scarped outside of the hill.
[163] I had been appointed Political Agent for North Zululand and
Swaziland in October.
[164] Son of my friend, General Sir Daniel Lysons.
[165] A light four-wheeled American carriage.
[166] Extract from a letter from Lord Chelmsford to Colonel Evelyn
Wood:--
“MARITZBURG, _10th December 1878_.
“You have done wonders with the Dutchmen, and I am quite sure the
High Commissioner will be as much obliged to you from a Political
point of view as I am from a Military one.--CHELMSFORD.”
Sir B. Frere to the Secretary of State for the Colonies:--
“MARITZBURG, _23rd December 1878_.
“I have but little doubt but that the firm, conciliatory, and
judicious treatment of these gentlemen by Colonel Evelyn Wood
will have an excellent effect, not only locally, but generally
throughout the South-eastern Transvaal districts.--B. FRERE.”
[167] Coldstream Guards, serving in Frontier Light Horse; he was
Aide-de-Camp to Sir Hope Grant at Aldershot in 1870–1871.
[168] Now Major-General Sir C. Clery, K.C.B.
[169] He wrote: “I was sorry not to see your name in Orders for some
reward, for all your good service, and for the help you have given me,
but it is only deferred. Your loyal and excellent work will not, and
shall not, go unrewarded, if I have anything to say to it.”
[170] Reported as killed in Bambaata’s rebellion, June 1906.
[171] These were fired by Lord Chelmsford’s troops returning from
Sirayo’s district to the wrecked camp. Our Senior officers asked my
opinion, what was the probable cause, and I said guns fired after dark
indicated, I apprehended, an unfavourable situation.
[172] It appeared later I had greatly under-estimated the Zulu force,
imagining it was the Makulusi regiment only, but the High Commissioner
learnt from his agent, and reported to the Secretary of State, not
only was the Makulusi routed and dispersed, but that the Nodwengu and
Udloko regiments shared in their fate. Later, Sir Bartle Frere wrote:
“The Zulus are greatly impressed with the skill with which this force
(Colonel Wood’s) has been handled, and are afraid it may push on to the
Inhlazatze, and threaten the Royal Kraal.”
[173] They were drawn from the Border Zulus I enlisted at Luneberg in
November, and attached to battalions, 6 to each company; their powers
of hearing were extra *ordinary; they could see farther than we could
with field glasses,--their vision was surpassed only by the telescope.
They lived near the battalion cooking fires, and were the cause of
considerable difficulty with respect to their clothing. I could not
buy soldiers’ greatcoats in Africa, but it was the dumping ground of
cast-off full dress uniforms of the British Army, and I obtained from
Maritzburg old Cavalry tunics, those of the Heavy Dragoon Guards being
the only ones into which the Zulus could squeeze their bodies, and in
these it was only the top buttons that would meet.
[174] The nervous Chief who feared I was going to arrest him in
September.
[175] Sir Bartle Frere eulogised my agent, Captain Macleod, and me for
our “temper, judgment, and patience” in getting Uhamu over from his
brother; and a Zulu agent told Bishop Colenso, and Sir Bartle later,
that Cetewayo’s altered tone was due to the defection of Uhamu.
[176] General Woodgate, mortally wounded at Spion Kop.
[177] Both killed in action a fortnight later.
[178] Now Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge.
[179] Lately Colonel Commanding a battalion of the Bedfordshire
Regiment; now on Staff in India.
[180] Horses are linked by a headrope being passed through the head
collar, and then through that of the next horse.
[181] They both received the Victoria Cross.
[182] The death of Piet Uys was a great loss to us, and Lord Chelmsford
supported the earnest representations I made in his favour, as did also
Sir Bartle Frere, who knew a great deal about him. He was intensely
Patriotic, and had done not only good service to No. 4 column, but to
South Africa, for although he had opposed the Annexation, the justice
of which he denied as regards his countrymen, he admitted its necessity
in the interests of the country at large, and he lent all his great
influence, in opposition to many of his oldest and dearest friends, in
pressing on the attention of his countrymen their duty in combatting
our savage foes. He had armed, equipped, mounted, and provisioned his
numerous family at his own expense, bringing all his sons into the
field. He had persistently refused to accept pay for himself, or for
any of his relatives, who, after his death, declined to accept the
arrears of pay which I offered. He constantly acted as Arbitrator in
compensation cases for damage done in the operations to the property
of Dutchmen, and no decision was ever questioned by the sufferers, or
by myself, who had to decide on the claim. When one of his own farms
was accidentally damaged, he would not allow it to be reported. I
asked for 36,000 acres of Government land to be set apart for his nine
children, and was supported in my request by the High Commissioner,
whose last official letter before leaving Natal some months later was
to urge on the Colonial Office the importance of giving effect to my
recommendation; but I doubt if it would ever have been carried into
effect had I not been afforded the opportunity of stating the case
personally to Her Gracious Majesty the Queen, who ensured the provision
being made.
[183] When the latter joined me, not very long before, I had a very
favourable report of him from the Assistant Military Secretary, Colonel
North Crealock, and my experience during the few days in which he
worked under my command fully justified it.
[184] I tell now the manner of Robert Barton’s noble end, although it
was fourteen months later that I obtained the details. He had shown
not only distinguished courage, but in actions great humanity, and in
the previous January nearly lost his life in trying to take a Zulu
prisoner, the man firing his gun so close to Barton as to burn the skin
off his face.
When, on receipt of Colonel Buffer’s warning, he descended the
mountain, he trotted on westward, followed by the men of the Irregular
Squadron who had been with me at the eastern end, and who, before I
returned, had gained the summit without further loss. As they reached
the western base of the mountain, some of the Ngobamakosi regiment
headed them, and they tried to cut their way through, but, after losing
some men, retraced their steps eastwards, and, though many fell, Barton
got safely down over the Ityenteka Nek.
When I was with Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Eugénie, in May 1880,
on the Ityatosi River, I asked Sirayo’s son, Melokazulo,[185] who
was a mounted officer of the Ngobomakosi tribe, if he could tell me
whether any of his men had killed my friend, whose body had never been
found. He said, “No; for I followed you, although you were not aware
of it, and, when failing to overtake you, I turned back, I was too
late to overtake those who were going eastward, and the pursuit was
taken up by mounted men of the Umcityu regiment. I know a man named
Chicheeli, who was a mounted officer of the Umcityu, and I believe
saw what took place.” I said, “Send for him,” to which he replied,
“He won’t come unless you send for him. He will believe Lakuni.”[186]
Chicheeli came, and talked quite frankly, giving me a still higher
opinion of the powers of observation of the savage than I already had.
After describing the coat and other clothes that Barton wore, he said,
“The White man was slightly pitted by smallpox.” Now I had lived at
Aldershot for two years in daily intercourse with Robert Barton, and
at once said, “Then it is not the man I mean.” Chicheeli, however,
declined to be shaken from his statement, and repeated that the marks
on his face were slight, but that there was no doubt that he had had
smallpox. Opening my portmanteau, I took out a cabinet-sized photograph
and a magnifier, and, examining the face closely, I then perceived that
what I had for two years taken to be roughness of skin was really the
marks of smallpox, which Chicheeli had noticed as he stood over the
dead body.
Chicheeli told me that on the Ityenteka Nek he followed several White
men and killed them, one man, as he approached, turning his carbine and
shooting himself. When he, with several others, got down on the plain,
7 miles from the mountain, he overtook Captain Barton, who had taken
Lieutenant Poole up on his horse. He fired at them, and when the horse,
being exhausted, could no longer struggle under the double weight, the
riders dismounted and separated. Chicheeli first shot Lieutenant Poole,
and was going up towards Barton, when the latter pulled the trigger of
his revolver, which did not go off. Chicheeli then put down his gun
and assegai, and made signs to Barton to surrender. I asked, “Did you
really want to spare him?” “Yes,” he replied; “Cetewayo had ordered us
to bring one or two Indunas down to Ulundi, and I had already killed
seven men.” Barton lifted his hat, and the men were close together
when a Zulu fired at him, and he fell mortally wounded; and then, said
Chicheeli, “I could not let anyone else kill him, so I ran up and
assegaied him.” I said, “Do you think you can find the body?” “Yes,
certainly,” he said; “but you must lend me a horse, for it is a day
and a half.”[187] I sent Trooper Brown, V.C., with him next day, and,
with the marvellous instinct of a savage, he rode to within 300 yards
of the spot where fourteen months previously he had killed my friend,
and then said, “Now we can off-saddle, for we are close to the spot,”
and, casting round like a harrier, came in less than five minutes upon
Barton’s body, which had apparently never been disturbed by any beast
or bird of prey. The clothes and boots were rotten and ant-eaten, and
tumbled to pieces on being touched. Brown cut off some buttons from
the breeches, and took a Squadron Pay book from the pocket filled
with Barton’s writing, and then buried the remains, placing over them
a small wooden cross painted black, on which is cut “Robert Barton,
killed in action, 28th March 1879,” and then he and Chicheeli buried
the body of Lieutenant Poole.
[185] Reported as having been killed in Bambaata’s rebellion, 1906.
[186] This was my name among the Zulus. The word describes the hard
wood of which Zulus make their knobkerries, or bludgeons.
[187] Equal to 60 miles.
[188] One of my ponies had carried me 94 miles in fifty-four hours,
without corn, getting only the grass he could find when knee-haltered.
[189] Where Vryheid now stands.
[190] When in December 1878 I was endeavouring to get Dutchmen to
join, some queried my impartiality as Arbitrator in deciding claims
for captured cattle--the South African form of prize money,--and I
rejoined, “I’ll not take any for my personal use.” I gave my share
towards erecting a memorial to Piet Uys in Utrecht, and all the
soldiers of the column contributed.
[191] Gun placed on raised ground, thus firing over the parapet.
[192] Now Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, K.C.B.
[193] General F. Slade, C.B., lately Inspector-General, Royal Artillery.
[194] We paced it afterwards--195 yards.
[195] Now General Laye, C.B.
[196] Zulu Chiefs told me in 1880, when they saw our tents struck at
1.15 p.m., they made certain of victory, believing we were about to
retreat, and they were greatly depressed by our stubborn resistance.
[197] A very light waterproof of the day, advertised: “To be carried in
the pocket.”
[198] Locally called the Upoko.
[199] Lately Commanding a district in the United Kingdom.
[200] Lord Chelmsford to the Secretary of State for War:--
“ENTONJANENI, _7th July 1879_.
“I cannot refrain from bringing again to your special notice the
names of Brigadier-General Evelyn Wood, V.C., C.B.,... whose
service during the advance towards Ulundi from the advanced Base,
and during the recent successful operations near Ulundi, have been
invaluable.
“Brigadier-General Wood, although suffering at times severely
in bodily health, has never spared himself, but has laboured
incessantly night and day to overcome the innumerable difficulties
which have had to be encountered during the advance through a
country possessing no roads.”
[201] My Zulu name.
[202] Much has since been done in this direction. The parents of
soldiers wounded on service are now relieved from painful anxiety by
weekly telegraphic reports.
[203] Lord Penzance’s Royal Commission on Army Promotion. August 1876.
[204] _Military Life of H.R.H. Duke of Cambridge_, by Colonel
Willoughby Verner, page 62: “I intend to send Brigadier Wood, he being
the best Commander of those in South Africa. His name is in every one’s
mouth, from Bugler up through all Ranks, as the man of the War....”
[205] See page 405, and
Despatch from Lieutenant-General Thesiger to the Secretary of State for
War:--
“KING WILLIAM’S TOWN, _June 26th, 1878_.
“I am of opinion that his (Colonel Evelyn Wood) indefatigable
exertions and personal influence have been mainly instrumental in
bringing the war to a speedy close.”
[206] Now Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, K.C.B., K.C.S.I.
[207] Now General Slade, C.B., Royal Artillery.
[208] See page 352.
[209] A cow is equal to £3, and a calf 30s.
[210] Killed at Ulundi, 4th July 1879.
[211] The War Minister, apprehensive of criticism in the House of
Commons, declined to allow me to draw any, even half-pay as a Colonel,
for the six months I was absent from the Command.
[212] They had broken up their laager at Leo Kop that morning.
[213] Rope by which oxen pull a waggon.
[214] _Vide_ p. 294.
[215] I had thought much during the weary hours spent on the post-cart
between Maritzburg and Newcastle of the Military Situation, and of
the Duke of Wellington’s views expressed in his letter to Viscount
Castlereagh, dated the 1st of August 1808. “... You may depend, I shall
not hurry the operations, or commence them one moment sooner than they
may be commenced, in order that I may acquire the credit of success.”
And again, a year later, in a letter written at Badajos to Marshal
Beresford, he insists “above all on a determination in the Superiors
to obey the spirit of the orders they receive, let what will be the
consequences.”
In addressing privately the Secretary of State for War many months
later, referring to this period, and the conduct of Detachments
employed at Majuba, I wrote: “The depressing effect of the Majuba
affair on officers and men at Camp Prospect lasted for some time,
but we should undoubtedly have taken the Nek about the end of March;
and I think such a victory would have been a gain to all, English,
Dutch, Kafirs, and to Humanity generally, and that it would have been
cheaply purchased, even had you lost your generals and a large number
of troops. I confess I am disappointed at some of the criticisms on my
duty in England. It is assumed by many that the generals in command of
troops should disregard the orders of the responsible advisers of the
Crown, if such orders are distasteful to him and the troops.”
Mr. Childers, who always treated me with the greatest consideration
and kindness, in replying on the 21st July, thus expressed his views:
“I do not think you need be in the least way unhappy about Newspaper
criticisms. Everyone knows you are guided by Instructions from home,
which the telegraph makes now more detailed than ever.”
In a letter to my wife, dated the 4th May, endeavouring to console her
for the vexation she felt at the unsparing criticisms on my conduct, I
wrote: “My life has been spent in worrying the Boer leaders about the
murderers of Messrs. Elliott and Barbour. You ask me how much of the
feeling in England was known to me? I reply, I always anticipated a
great outcry, for I have read History, but such outcry will, I hope,
never influence me in Public events. I could not go beyond the clear
words of the Instructions I received. So long as I serve out here I
shall loyally carry out, not only the words, but the spirit of the
orders of the Ministry, if that body is led by Gladstone or Stafford
Northcote. We are all astonished here at the Praise and Blame measured
out to me on the subject. I should utterly despise myself if I allowed
personal feelings to sway me in a matter of Life and Death. I wished to
fight, not because I am willing to purchase reputation by expending our
soldiers’ lives, but because I believed, and believe that by fighting,
the peace of this country could be assured, as it will not be now. I
am as vexed at the Praise as I am at the Blame, which is so freely
accorded to me. Do not distress yourself, Dearest; I value my own sense
of duty much more than the opinion of anyone.”
[216] Telegram from Secretary of State for the Colonies to
Major-General Colley:--
“_16th February 1881._
“Your telegram of the 13th. Inform Kruger that if Boers will
desist from armed opposition we shall be quite ready to appoint
Commissioners with extensive powers, and who may develop scheme
referred to in my telegram to you of 8th inst. Add that if this
proposal is accepted, you are authorised to agree to suspension of
hostilities on our part.”
[217] From Sir Evelyn Wood to the Secretary of State for the Colonies:--
“NEWCASTLE, _13th March_, 9.50 a.m.
“Kruger sending Reuter’s 22nd February message, with Mr.
Gladstone’s statement that steps to avoid bloodshed will be taken,
asks how far my instructions go. I have replied I am still awaiting
your orders, and shall be at Prospect to-day.”
[218] The Boers did not haul down their flags at sunset.
[219] I thought I was the only British officer in Heidelberg, but
Colonel Fortescue, K.R.R. Corps, came in that evening from Lydenburg,
as he mentioned to Mr. Butcher, M.P. for York, and myself when we were
riding in Hyde Park in 1900.
[220] With reference to the Boers’ conduct, I suggested another appeal
to arms.
From Sir Evelyn Wood to the Secretary of State for the Colonies:--
“_19th April._
“I should allow them to reoccupy Nek. We are quite ready. This will
give a decisive military result, and the happiest result for the
country. I guarantee we dislodge them.”
[221] Extract from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Sir
Evelyn Wood:--
“_1st November._
“I am quite satisfied with the result of your visit to Umbandeen,
which will no doubt have been very useful, and I think you have
done all that was possible in the circumstances to settle Zulu
affairs.--KIMBERLEY.”
[222] Mr. Brand told them at the Nek, unknown to me, that if they gave
way he was confident the British Government would not curtail the
Transvaal.
[223] My Dissent was published in _Blue Book, Transvaal Royal
Commission Report_, Part I., C. 3114, pages 34 and 56–66, issued in
1882, but a subsequent edition issued soon afterwards omitted my
Dissent, which I therefore republish.
Sir Evelyn Wood, while concurring generally with the views of
his colleagues, feels bound to record the grounds of his dissent
on certain points, at the end of which Dissent he has signed the
report.
DISSENT.
As regards the question treated in paragraph 16, viz. the trial of
those accused of murder during the late hostilities, Sir Evelyn Wood
desires to place on record, that, in a telegram of the 30th March, he
gave an opinion adverse to the trial of these persons, either by Boers
or by ordinary process, and recommended the creation of a Special
Tribunal: eventually, however, the Commission recommended the course
which was adopted.
2. With reference to the territorial question, Sir Evelyn Wood is
unable to concur with his colleagues in the arguments which led them
to recommend the abandonment of the Scheme of Separation of Territory
agreed to at Lang’s Nek. Paragraphs 44 to 53, of this report, give the
arguments of the Boer Leaders against the separation of any territory
East of the 30th degree of longitude.
These objections must have been just as evident to the Leaders, when
treating with Sir Evelyn Wood at Lang’s Nek, as when treating with
the Commission at Newcastle. At Lang’s Nek, they acquiesced in the
principle of separation of territory; that they did so is, Sir Evelyn
Wood thinks, a proof that they preferred peace, with the proposed
separation, to a continuance of war.
To contend afterwards that the Royal Commission ought not to decide
contrary to the wishes of the Boers, because such decision might not be
accepted, is to deny to the Commission the very power of decision that
it was agreed should be left in its hands.
In paragraphs 53 and 54, the majority of the Commission hold that
sentiment was the mainspring of the late outbreak, and imply that none
of the peace stipulations antagonistic to this feeling can be enforced,
without detriment to the permanent tranquillity of the country. Sir
Evelyn Wood cannot concur with even the premisses of his colleagues,
and he is convinced the approximate cause of the late outbreak was a
general and rooted aversion to taxation.
His colleagues appear to have received the statements of the Leaders
as expressing the feelings of their followers. In Sir Evelyn Wood’s
opinion, the views of the Triumvirate should have been accepted with
reserve; and he could not attach the same value that the majority of
the Commission did, to the Leaders’ account of Boer sentiments. As
it was, his colleagues arrived at their conclusions on this question
in Newcastle, before the Commission had entered the Transvaal, and
practically before they had any opportunity of learning the wishes of
the inhabitants, except through the mouths of the Leaders.
As Sir Evelyn Wood cannot accept the conclusions of his colleagues,
based on the arguments of the Boers, still less can he accept those
they have arrived at in paragraphs 56 and 57, on the aspect of the
Native question. It is argued that by concessions to the Boers on the
Territorial question, the Commission would obtain large powers for the
British Resident, and also gain the consent of the Boers to conditions
not contained in the peace agreement, viz.:--
The creation of a Native Location Commission; the right of Veto on
Native Legislation; and the settlement of the disputed boundary of
the Keate Award territory;--all of which will, the majority of the
Commission think, form the best guarantees for the protection of all
Native interests.
Schedule 2 of the Agreement of the 21st March 1881 left to the
Commission to define, and to the British Government to determine, what
powers should be assigned to the Resident, and what provision should
be made for the protection of Native interests, while Schedule 3 made
complete self-government _subject to Suzerain rights_.
It is not apparent to Sir Evelyn Wood that in the Convention any
powers greater than those justified by the peace agreement have been
so assigned to the Resident: and the creation of a Native Location
Commission: the power of veto on Native Legislation: and the settlement
of the Keate Award question, appear to him to be matters so directly
affecting Native interests, as to be entirely within the scope of the
Agreement of the 21st March: however, be this as it may, he cannot
believe that any power the Government or the Resident may derive from
the Convention will prove as beneficial to the Natives as would the
existence of British Rule Eastward of the 30th degree of longitude.
It is admitted that all the Eastern natives would prefer the retention
of British Rule in this country, and also, that it would benefit them;
it is, however, argued that these are the Natives best able to protect
themselves.
To a certain degree this is correct, but we have recently destroyed the
military power of the Zulu nation, and have disarmed the people.
In the interests of the Transvaal, but at England’s expense, we subdued
Sikukuni, and we have checked the acquisition of firearms by all
Natives.
Sir Evelyn Wood maintains, therefore, that the Eastern tribes are
not so capable of defence as to be independent of our protection;
and while admitting they are not so defenceless as are those on the
Western border of the Transvaal, he submits that the arguments of his
colleagues prove more conclusively the importance of protecting the
Natives on the West, than the desirability of withdrawing protection
from those on the East side of the Transvaal.
Sir Evelyn Wood’s colleagues admit the desirability of retaining the
Eastern territory under British Rule, and the substantial benefit
to the Natives living therein and to the Eastward of it; but they
argue that those in the West, who, by their position are unavoidably
excluded from our protection, would have suffered loss by missing
those favourable conditions which have been secured to them by the
Convention. The value of the said conditions must be a matter of
opinion until tested by time; and the necessity for making concessions
to obtain them is not, Sir Evelyn Wood submits, apparent: but whichever
may be the more accurate view, in summing up numerically the interests
concerned, the question cannot be confined to those named, but should
be considered to extend indirectly to all the natives in South-East
Africa.
Sir Evelyn Wood agrees with his colleagues in thinking that the grounds
for retaining the country East of the Drakensberg, are less cogent than
those for retaining the whole territory East of the 30th degree, and he
admits that the relatively small number of the Transvaal natives, East
of the Drakensberg, does not alone justify the proposed rectification
of boundaries, but he cannot follow his colleagues in the rest of
their argument, and thinks that, while studying how best to balance
the interests of Boers and Natives, they have overlooked, what was to
him, the most important factor in the question, viz.:--the interests
of the English Colonies in South Africa. The proposal for a separation
of territory proceeded from Her Majesty’s Government. In the month of
March, when the negotiations at Lang’s Nek were approaching completion,
Sir Evelyn Wood submitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies,
what he considered would be (for British and Native interests) the most
suitable boundaries for the Transvaal in case we left it.
The Commission being opposed to the retention of the territory lying to
the Eastward of the 30th degree of longitude, Sir Evelyn Wood suggested
as a compromise, the retention of the District which lies to the East
of the Drakensberg: but it was far less in the interests of its native
population that the smaller measure was suggested, than for the sake
of tranquillity in Swaziland, Zululand, and Natal. His colleagues have
balanced the Eastern and Western Native question, by a comparison of
numbers, but a glance at the map will show how very much more important
it is to our Colonies to have quiet on the Eastern than on the Western
borders. Separated as we now shall be by the Transvaal from the Eastern
Natives, it will be impossible for us to exercise over them the
influence for peace due to our paramount position in the country.
It is from this cause, he thinks, trouble to England may arise, and
this is the consideration which has led him to dissent from his
colleagues on the Territorial question.
3. As to the question of belligerency, touched on in paragraphs 107
and 108, it should be borne in mind that although, by the Agreement of
the 23rd March, immunity was granted to both the Leaders and to their
followers, yet this did not apply to those “who had committed, or were
directly responsible for acts contrary to civilised warfare.” This
is apparent from Schedule 4, of the Agreement of the 21st March, in
which the Leaders engaged to co-operate with the British Government in
bringing such persons to justice. Sir Evelyn Wood is therefore unable
to agree that there was any question of amnesty in such cases, though
the attitude of the Boers, no doubt, precluded the possibility of
obtaining evidence.
4. In paragraphs 121 and 122, the question of compensation for damages
due to war is considered, and the liability of the Boers, under the
terms of the peace agreement, is questioned by one member of the
Commission.
Sir Evelyn Wood, who negotiated the agreements of the 21st and 23rd of
March, holds them to mean that the Royal Commission was empowered to
settle questions of compensation for acts which were in its opinion not
justified by the necessities of war, and also questions of compensation
for acts fairly subjects for compensation.
In support of this view he stated that, during the peace negotiations,
he had quoted, as an instance, the case of a Kafir whose crops had
been consumed by the Boer Forces on Lang’s Nek. This act was evidently
justified by the necessities of war, but nevertheless in this case, as
in that of all subjects of the Queen commandeered against their will,
the justice of compensation was alike evident.
5. The next point on which Sir Evelyn Wood desires to touch, is the
question of Sub-residents mentioned in paragraph 139.
While concurring with his colleagues that it was desirable to interfere
as little as possible with the internal affairs of the Transvaal State,
he was, however, of opinion that, in a country as large as France,
it could not be expected any one individual, however active, would
become acquainted with the real state of feeling of the Natives, and
of their treatment by the Boers; and he considered that complaints,
however just, would rarely, if ever, reach Pretoria. As regards the
Natives external to the State, he held it would be impossible for a
British officer resident in Pretoria to ascertain, without aid, their
complaints, wishes, and intentions, or to exercise that peaceful
influence over them so desirable in the interests of South Africa.
6. Lastly, on the question of remitting the expense of the successful
war with Sikukuni, Sir Evelyn Wood dissented from the opinion of his
colleagues. Until Sir Garnet Wolseley subdued Sikukuni, no Government
was able to obtain taxes from his people, and he occasioned the
Boer Government constant trouble and expense; the last expedition,
under President Burgers, having reduced the Republic to the verge of
bankruptcy.
When we last collected taxes in the country, the people were well
disposed and paid cheerfully. Seeing, therefore, that the Boers are
about to reap the benefits, both financial and peaceful, brought about
by the war, it seemed to Sir Evelyn Wood but just that the Transvaal
State should give some return to England for the expense incurred.
EVELYN WOOD, MAJOR-GENERAL.
[224] In justice to Mr. Jorissen, I should mention that he informed
a civilian, attached to the Royal Commission, that the case was, in
his opinion, one of murder. Mr. Kruger’s information as supplied to
me was, moreover, erroneous, for later we heard the Court sentenced
the Boer to a month’s imprisonment for killing the Kafir herd. On the
other hand, the Transvaal High Court ordered a man who seduced a Dutch
girl to pay the parents a solatium of £1000 and £7, 10s. a month for
the maintenance of his child until it was twenty-one years of age.
This statement gives, I think, a fair indication of the mind of the
Transvaal Boer twenty-five years ago.
[225] Now Major-General Sir Thomas Fraser, K.C.B.
[226] Now Major-General Slade, Royal Artillery.
[227] Now Major-General Sir Bruce Hamilton, K.C.B., Aldershot.
[228] Now Sir William Brampton Gurdon, Bart., M.P.
[229] Who was made a Privy Councillor.
[230] Who was made a knight.
[231] It should be remembered that the Boers at this time had no
Artillery.
[232] Sir George Colley’s predecessor had expressed dissatisfaction
with the award which had been given on a disputed land case, but he
was no horseman, and it was difficult to get to the spot on wheels.
Sir George Colley equally doubted the propriety of the decision, and
a quarter of an hour on the ground with a meeting of the contending
parties left no doubt in my mind that the complaint of the Native was
well founded.
[233] Now Sir James and Lady Sivewright.
[234] “Yet surely no greater proof of devoted steadiness was ever given
than that shown by the Natal Carabiniers on the 22nd of January 1879.
Imagine a gentle slope up which is storming a resistless, surging wave
of encircling black bodies, which, though constantly smitten by leaden
hail, breaks but to sweep on again with renewed force. Imagine a crowd
of terrified non-combatants, and friendly Natives, flying through the
already burning camp, and pressing on to the rapidly narrowing outlet
over the fatal Nek.
“Then there comes on the scene a one-armed man, who, having slowly
fallen back before the ever-increasing foe, is now determined to die.
‘Save yourself, as for me I shall remain.’ He thus dismisses the Staff
officer, and H’Lubi’s black soldiers, who vainly urge the great Chief
to retreat with them.
“Recognising his commanding courage, around him gather some 20 similar
spirits, who, nobly disdaining death, resolve to cover the retreat of
the guns, or die with them.
“That melancholy field of Isandwhlana is a Record of what Colonists
did, in Silence and Death, but none the less a living Record now and
for ever. In the place where Durnford fell there was a heap of slain;
the enemy lay thick about him, but your sons were as close, and the
brave hearts of the best of your fighting men ceased to beat, in the
effort to shelter their elected heroic leader. He himself was fully
worthy of their devotion, and history will narrate how the ring of
dead White men that encircled him, formed a halo round his, and their,
renown.”
[235] The Secretary of State for War telegraphed to me, a small
number of soldiers would be sent to strengthen the position in front
of Alexandria, about which the Cabinet was apprehensive, and ended
with the request, I would mention anything in which I desired help,
officially or unofficially; this gave me an opportunity. I replied
to the following effect:--“I am greatly obliged for your letter and
telegram. I believe there is very little chance of the Egyptians
attacking us, but if they do I am confident of defeating them. As a
personal request, could you persuade your Department that I was alive
from the 22nd December last to the 14th February, which has hitherto
been denied, and I have been refused Half-Pay for that period.”
I wrote also fully to a similar effect, adding, “I am ashamed to
trouble you on a personal matter, but I am more ashamed of the War
Office’s interminable delays.” Mr. Childers was prompt, and long before
he got my letter, had a telegram sent to me, “Amount claimed paid to
your account at Cox’s.”
Later, I told Mr. Childers I had addressed his office three times
without any result, and without his help I should never have got it,
unless, perhaps, my refusal to pay some stoppage accruing in January
1882, on the grounds that I could not pay something out of nothing,
brought the case to the notice of a higher placed civilian than he who
at that time generally decided such questions, even in the case of
claims made by Generals.
[236] _Vide_ page 491.
[237] From the Secretary of State for the Home Department to Sir Evelyn
Wood:--
“LONDON, _16th March 1882_.
“SIR,--Though I have not the honour of your personal acquaintance,
the great esteem and admiration which I entertain for the service
rendered by you in the course of recent events in South Africa
induce me to make to you a proposal for which I have received the
sanction of the Commander-in-Chief, and the Secretary of State for
War.
“The post of Governor of the Isle of Man is vacant, and if it were
agreeable to you, I should be happy to submit your name to the
Queen to fill that office. I should not have thought of proposing
to so distinguished a soldier as yourself a civil office if I had
not ascertained from the Military authorities that the temporary
discharge of its duties would form no impediment in the future to
your military career.
“Of course, if any considerable command offered itself to you, you
would be at liberty to accept it, to cancel it, and rejoin the
Government when you pleased.
“(Signed) W. V. HARCOURT.”
[238] Now Lieutenant-General H. L. Smith-Dorrien, commanding the Quetta
District.
[239] I took the opportunity which Mr. Childers had given me of
corresponding with him direct to tell this story, and to urge for an
increased expenditure in the training of Mounted Infantry. I pointed
out also that in spite of my remonstrances, we had only a Brigade
Signaller, and thus when the Divisional Signalling Officer moved off
with the General, the 4th Brigade was left without any signalling
apparatus, as lamps, heliographs, were all taken away. The sailors
put an electric light on the top of a fort on the extreme left of our
position, which lit up at night the most vulnerable portion of the
approach to the city.
[240] Lord Granville to Sir Evelyn Wood:--
“FOREIGN OFFICE, _28th November 1882_.
“It is most important to get the best possible man to be the first
of the English officers in the Egyptian service. Everything depends
upon it. Should you be willing that I should tell Dufferin you
would be available for the post....--Yours sincerely,
GRANVILLE.”
[241] _Vide_ page 483.
[242] Now Major-General Sir Thomas Fraser, K.C.B.
[243] Major-General F. Slade, C.B.
[244] Colonel the Honourable E. Stuart Wortley, D.S.O.
[245] Major-General Sir F. R. Wingate, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.S.O., Sirdar.
[246] General the Right Honourable Lord Grenfell, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.
[247] Major-General Sir H. C. Chermside, G.C.M.G., C.B., Late Governor
of Queensland.
[248] Major-General Sir C. Holled Smith, K.C.M.G., C.B.
[249] Major-General Hallam Parr, C.B.
[250] Lieutenant-General A. Wynne, C.B.
[251] Colonel Duncan, later M.P. for Finsbury.
[252] Lieutenant-General J. H. Wodehouse, C.B., C.M.G.
[253] Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Rundle, K.C.B.
[254] Major-General Sir C. Parsons, K.C.M.G.
[255] General Lord Kitchener, G.C.B., Commander-in-Chief in India,
[256] Lieutenant-General H. S. Smith-Dorrien, C.B., D.S.O.
[257] Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Hunter, K.C.B., D.S.O.
[258] Lord Dufferin to Sir Evelyn Wood:--
“CAIRO, _1st May 1883_.
“Before quitting Egypt I cannot help expressing to you in the
warmest terms I can command my appreciation of the extraordinary
energy you have exhibited in the creation of the Egyptian Army.
“Though not a military man, I am quite capable of understanding
the innumerable difficulties you have had to encounter. I am sure
it will be a satisfaction to you to know that the success of
your efforts is recognised by everyone, by the Khedive, by his
Ministers, and by the Egyptian colony, as well as by Her Majesty’s
Government. The justice, the humanity, and the consideration with
which you have treated your men have already changed the point of
view from which the Native regards Military service, and all your
countrymen are proud to think of the effect your character and
conduct have produced upon all who have come into contact with
you.--Yours sincerely,
DUFFERIN.”
[259] Now Colonel Sir John Rogers, K.C.B.
[260] He had shown remarkable courage at Tokar, Eastern Sudan, and was
drowned later in the Nile.
[261] Extract: Sir E. Malet to Earl Granville:--
“CAIRO, _11th August 1883_.
“I cannot forward Sir Evelyn’s report on the cholera Epidemic among
the Egyptian troops at Cairo, without adding a word to record the
high admiration which the conduct of the English officers towards
their men has elicited. Sir Evelyn Wood and his Staff, and all the
officers, have worked night and day at the measures necessary to
ward off and mitigate the disease, and their efforts have met with
an almost unhoped-for success. Beyond the immediate benefit of
the saving of life which they have obtained, an example has been
given of Self-devotion which may have lasting consequences for
good in the promotion of respect and regard of the men towards the
officers.”
[262] Now Lord Cromer.
[263] _Vide_ page 474.
[264] Telegram--Evelyn Wood to Gordon Pasha, Khartoum:--
“_April 19th, 1884._
(Extract): “Fifthly: I would give anything to be allowed to go up
to Khartoum by river with British and Egyptian troops when the Nile
rises, but I fear I may not be so fortunate as to get the chance,
and, I gather from your telegrams in March, you think Egyptians
are useless. I think that, considering about two-thirds have four
months’ service, and one-third three months only, they would do
fairly well with British troops, or in fighting defensive actions.
I could not recommend they should take the field without British
support.”
The gradual restoration of confidence, coupled with the brilliant
example of the Sudanese Battalions, so encouraged the Fellaheen that
General Sir Herbert Kitchener wrote to me: “Cairo, _17th February
1888_.--I hope my wound will soon be healed up. The Egyptian troops
with me behaved splendidly, and were quite steady under fire, which was
pretty hot at one time. If I had had more of them I could have cleared
out the Dervishes. The Irregulars got quite out of hand.”
Ten years later there were some remarkable instances of the change
effected in the spirit of the Fellaheen.
On the 9th April 1898, Captain Hickman, with two troops of Cavalry,
intercepted, near the Southern end of the Second Cataract (Wadi Haifa),
a raiding party of Dervishes, mostly mounted on horses and camels,
under the command of Emir Wad Rahma, driving off a number of looted
cattle. Hickman charged home in the centre, his men fighting hand to
hand, killing all except two horsemen, who escaped, and eight prisoners
whose lives were spared. The Emir resisted with desperate courage,
until a trooper, dismounting, literally jumped on and slew him.
Half a Battalion 16th Regiment, 300 men (Fellaheen), in September 1898,
in a force under Colonel Parsons, near Gedareff, repeated the manœuvre
for which the 28th Gloucester Regiment wears a double fore and hind
peak to its head-dress, and alone successfully resisted a determined
simultaneous attack in Front and Rear. As the Dervishes came on the
Rear Rank faced about, and both attacks were repulsed.
[265] Now General Grant, C.B.
[266] I heard later, in reply to various inquiries from Pall Mall as
to whether I had not been unduly severe, he replied that he had the
fullest confidence in my sense of justice.
[267] The invariable answer in the East, where nobody does anything
to-day that can be left till to-morrow.
[268] Some officers, seeing little chance of promotion to be gained by
serving in the Egyptian Army, got employment on the British Army Staff.
I offered Colonel Wynne such a post, but he declined, saying: “I have
a definite Command, and feel bound to hold it until the Expedition
returns Northwards.”
[269] Now Admiral Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean.
[270] Now Major-General Sir Holled Smith, K.C.B.
[271] I had purchased every Native cargo vessel working on the Nile,
north of Merowi.
[272] Now Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, G.C.B., Commander-in-Chief of
the Mediterranean Fleet.
[273] Now commanding at Colchester.
[274] Captain Lord Charles Beresford, to chief of Staff, 10th December
1884: “Colonel Wynne’s organisation here is perfect. I suggest he be
made Captain of Cataracts.... Do not see any chance of a block here if
all is left to Wynne.”
[275] Now Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham.
[276] Lord Wolseley to Sir Evelyn Wood: “Remain to see the desert
posts cleared out yourself, an operation requiring wise calculation
and a good military head. I have every confidence in your doing this
difficult job well and quickly.”
[277] I was advised by one of the first surgeons in London, whom I
consulted on my return, that I should never get another nail, but Mr.
Bader, the oculist, who was a warm personal friend of mine, discredited
this opinion, and said if I kept the finger plastered up long enough a
new nail would grow, and he was right.
[278] _Vide_ page 468. The same officer.
[279] We had boots sent out to the desert, but vanity causes the Briton
to wear at home boots a size too small for him, and the men with
swollen feet could not get on those they would have worn in England.
[280] Now Lieutenant-General Sir J. D. French, G.C.V.O., K.C.B.,
K.C.M.G.
[281] Died from the effect of a bite from a panther while in command of
the Madras Army.
[282] He wrote to me, Cairo, 18th March 1885: “You will be able to
carry away the conviction that you did all that mortal man could do to
make an army out of very indifferent material. I shall never forget all
the support and assistance you gave me during a period of very great
difficulty....” And as Lord Cromer, 5th October 1892: “I do not want
to go to India; if, however, I were to go I should prefer you to be
Commander-in-Chief to anyone else.”
[283] Extract from despatch, sent by Lord Wolseley to the Secretary of
State for War:--
“CAIRO, _15th June 1885_.
“Major-General Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C., G.C.M.G., K.C.B., was the
General of Communications, and brought the utmost zeal to bear
upon the arduous and difficult duties of that position. Our line
of communications by rail, river, and desert, from Alexandria
to Gubat, was about 1500 miles in length. The responsibility of
supervising it was great, but, thanks to Sir E. Wood’s ability and
energy, and to the efficient support he received from the large
staff of officers under his command, the army operating in the
front was well fed and provided with all it required. The officers
and men of the Egyptian army, under General Wood’s immediate
orders, worked along this line with indefatigable earnestness, and
with the best possible results to the welfare of the Expedition.
[284] Warren’s _Ten Thousand a Year_.
[285] Each unit taking it in turn for three months.
[286] This discussion lasted from the time Sir Garnet Wolseley joined
the Horse Guards Staff, after the Red River Expedition, till 1904, when
a Chief of the General staff was appointed. The Duke of Cambridge’s
opposition to any change was shared by many of his contemporaries.
General Sir John Michel, who was singularly broad-minded, opposed it.
In the 1872 Manœuvres, from my accident I was unable to ride until
the last few days, so undertook the office work of both branches.
One evening Sir John Michel was arguing the point against his two
Senior Officers, Colonel A. Herbert[287] and Sir Garnet Wolseley,
and as neither disputant would give way, Sir John, to terminate
the discussion, said, “There is no overlapping of work where Staff
officers are properly trained, as I’ll show you.--Here’s Wood who has
done all our writing, we’ll leave it to him. Tell me, Wood, have I
ever in the last three weeks made a single mistake in addressing the
Adjutant-General, when I should have written Quartermaster-General,
or the reverse?” I owed much to Sir John, but had to speak the truth:
“Sir, I cannot recall a single day when you have not made mistakes.”
[287] Later, Sir Arthur Herbert, Quartermaster-General.
[288] Now a General officer on the Staff.
[289] General Sir John Ardagh, K.C.B.
[290] Lord Wolseley, when informing me privately the matter was
settled, wrote: “And I hope you may be as successful in teaching
soldiers at Aldershot as you have been at Colchester.”
[291] Now Major-General Sir Charles Parsons, commanding at Halifax,
Nova Scotia.
[292] Now Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Hildyard, Commanding Troops in
South Africa.
[293] Now General Sir C. Mansfield Clarke, Bart., Governor and
Commander-in-Chief, Malta.
[294] Now Major-General Sir Charles Parsons, K.C.B.
[295] Extract from a private letter to Sir Evelyn Wood from
Brigadier-General Rimington, one of the most successful Light Cavalry
Leaders, who commanded a mounted column in the Boer War, dated
Heilbron, O.R.C., 5.8.01: “Nearly all our work is done at night, and we
have not yet made a night march without a fairly good result.”
[296] This has since been changed.
[297] He died when commanding a Division in India.
[298] The contractor became a Bankrupt.
[299] Lieutenant-General Sir James Yorke Scarlett told me in 1868, that
to a committee in the early 60’s on which he served, it was clearly
shown that on one Station all non-commissioned officers and men on duty
received various sums from the forage contractors, down to the orderly
officer’s batman, who received 1s. 6d. per diem.
[300] Now Lieutenant-General C. J. Burnett, C.B.
[301] The War Office system of centralisation was shown markedly by
a Paymaster’s conduct in this case. I received several telegrams
suggesting I should give way to the contractors’ demands, rather than
risk a failure of supply; and when I declined, I was asked if I was
prepared to accept the full responsibility of feeding the Troops. I
answered in the affirmative. On the 30th May, sending for a Paymaster,
I ordered him to give me a cheque for £1700. He absolutely refused to
do so, without War Office authority. However, when I told him to go
away under arrest for disobedience, and to send me the next senior
Paymaster, he wrote the cheque.
[302] Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Hildyard, K.C.B., Commander-in-Chief
in South Africa.
[303] Now Major-General Sir Edward Hutton, K.C.B.
[304] Sir C. Mansfield Clarke, Bart, G.C.B., now Governor and
Commander-in-Chief at Malta.
[305] Now General Sir John French, K.C.B., commanding at Aldershot.
[306] In discussing a possible successor to the Aldershot Command, he
wrote, 6th October 1889: “It would be a real calamity to the Army that
you should leave it.”
[307] Now Lieutenant-General C. J. Burnett, C.B.
[308] As indeed I have often been, but may say now that its statements,
and awkward questions, have enabled me, since I became a General, to
check many undesirable practices.
[309] Now the General commanding at Aldershot.
[310] On the 2nd October 1891: “No man has in my time effected more
useful Military work than you, and the Army is beginning to realise
this as fully as I do.”
[311] Such rigidity of movement was suitable to the smooth-bore musket,
“Brown Bess,” used in the Peninsular, armed with which our troops
embarked for the East, in 1854, and which the 4th Division still
carried at the Alma, as sufficient Minie rifles had not been issued to
equip it. Unfortunately in the eighties all the Heads of the Army had
not, like Higginson, appreciated the history of the Campaigns of 1866,
1870–71, and the bloody lessons around Plevna in 1877.
[312] Now Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton, K.C.B., Southern Command.
[313] Killed in the Boer War.
[314] He wrote to me from Boston, U.S.: “These two books give
descriptions which are realistic and modern. In my judgment, you are
quite alone in this, and also in giving unbiassed descriptions of
facts.”
[315] Now Major-General and Q.M.G. in India.
[316] Now Brigadier-General H. Lawson, C.B.
[317] Parliamentary Debates--16th March 1896. Supply in Committee--Army
Estimates 1897:--“The Quartermaster-General, Sir Evelyn Wood, has in
the last two years produced an annual saving of £21,000, on a not very
large vote, by systematising transport of stores.” And again, 12th
February 1897:--“Sir Evelyn Wood has succeeded in making arrangements
to send soldiers by the shortest route, and to give the discharged
soldier free conveyance to his selected place of residence.”
[318] “Despite these concessions, by a most careful economy in
conveyance of stores, etc., Sir Evelyn Wood shows a reduction on
the vote apart from special services on the manœuvres. The Vote was
£329,000 in 1895–6, £309,000 in 1896–7, and £281,000 in the present
year. This is, I think, peculiarly satisfactory.”
[319] Supply, 19th February 1897. Mr. Powell Williams, Financial
Secretary, in reply said: “With regard to Land Transport, a
sum of £13,000 had been saved under this head, owing to the
Quartermaster-General having made satisfactory arrangements with the
Railway Companies.”
[320] Extract from Diary: 10.1.96--Up at 4 a.m. Left St. Pancras by 1st
train.
[321] See pp. 16, 17, _Official History of the War in South Africa,
1899–1902_. By Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice, K.C.B.
[322] Major Milton was not only a clever instructor, but a first-class
fighting man, who always carried his troops to the Front. The two
companies under his command at Belmont, on the 10th November 1899,
lost two officers killed and two wounded, and when he fell, showing a
grand example, on the 11th December, the three companies under him,
comprising 13 officers, had lost six killed and six wounded. Captain
E. M. FitzG. Wood being the only surviving Duty officer who had served
with Major Milton throughout the month’s operations.
[323] My eldest son, now Major and D.S.O., Royal Dragoons.
[324] Major-General the Hon. Sir F. Stopford, K.C.M.G., C.B. commanding
the Home District.
[325] The pressure may be gauged by the fact that whereas in other
years I had taken for hunting purposes forty-six of the sixty days’
leave granted to a Staff officer, yet with the same number of horses I
took twelve days only that hunting season.
[326] I had previously, on hearing Redvers Buller had gone to Natal,
telegraphed and written to him my anxiety to serve under and assist
him in any way I could. In reply, he wrote: “Frere Camp, 27th December
1899.--Your telegram offering to come and serve under me was a very
great compliment to me, and also a temptation.... I was twice on the
point of telegraphing from Cape Town to ask that you might come out,
and then I thought it was not fair to ask you to come and undertake a
job that I in my heart thought only doubtfully possible.”
[327] The British army had 2½ guns for 1000 sabres and bayonets. On the
Continent, armies had 4 or 5 guns for 1000 men.
[328] He came under my notice in February 1885 at Gakdul, where he
arrived on a camel from Abu Klea, with an amputated leg, and I have
never forgotten his cheerful demeanour, with the prospect of another
100 miles’ journey to the Nile, which I endeavoured to make as little
painful as possible.
[329] Letter from Major-General Sir George Marshall, K.C.B., general
officer commanding the Artillery:--
“I thank you very sincerely for all the assistance you have given us
in so promptly supplying all our heavy demands in the Artillery, in
men and horses, since we came out. I can assure you that the feeling
of Gunners is one of amazement and admiration at such a large force
of Field Artillery being sent out so efficiently and promptly. We
owe you much for all you did to make us Shoot, and improving our
Tactical efficiency, and now when we succeed we give you the praise and
gratitude.”
[330] I put in 64 hours a week in office, besides what I did at home,
making up the time after an occasional day’s hunting, by working till
after midnight.
[331] Now Brigadier-General.
[332] I had ridden the horse for a year or so, my friend Colonel
Tollner, who is the best judge I ever met, having purchased it for me
at £30 out of the Woolwich Drag Hunt, where it had been ridden by a
succession of Subalterns who desired to qualify for Horse Artillery.
Hounds no sooner broke covert than the little horse, for he was
small, invariably tried to travel faster than I wanted. In a run of
thirty-five minutes he got away with me after every fence, until
exhausted I left hounds, and I never controlled him until I covered
bit and snaffle with gutta-percha, on which he would not close his
teeth. The horse had never before given me a fall, although he had
occasionally been very nearly down, for being unusually sagacious with
all his high courage, he generally contrived to land on his feet. On
one occasion, led by the ex-master of the Essex hounds, Mr. Loftus
Arkwright, we were galloping to the west of Parndon Wood, near Harlow,
and approached a gate which was locked and chained. My companions went
a hundred yards down, and then pressed slowly through a hedge with high
growers. This was impossible for me, without grave risk to my eyes,
and so riding the horse up to the gate, I put his head over it, that
he might see that the field bridge beyond was broken down, and covered
over with faggots, and then taking him back fifty yards I let him go.
The horse’s usual habit at timber was to rise straight up in the air,
but he was so clever that on this occasion, “spreading himself,” he
cleared the broken bridge by two feet.
[333] The best lady “on any horse” to hounds in the Essex Hunt.
[334] “What a magnificent production is the British Infantry soldier.
I thought as he went by, tattered and torn, black and greasy, bearded
and filthy, on the squares of Johannesburg and Pretoria, how much the
British nation owes to him and the officers who made him. I shall never
forget the scene at these two places for the remainder of my lifetime;
it was worth all the hardships of this war to have been privileged to
be present.”
[335] On the following 2nd May I received an order that all officers
attending the Royal Academy dinner were to appear in full dress
uniform, so I duly passed it on to a General who I knew had received an
invitation. Late in the afternoon I received a telegram cancelling the
orders which had been issued to me, not only by the Adjutant-General
but by the private secretary of the Commander-in-Chief. I was unable
to communicate with my General, who was the only person in uniform,
but was much less annoyed than most of us would have been, while I was
amused at the excitement of a court official who highly disapproved of
officers appearing as such at this function.
The dinner was to me very pleasant, as I sat between the Dean of
Westminster and Mr. Ouless, the Royal Academician, who were both
delightful companions. Mr. Ouless capped my story of the corporal
recognising me as an officer by my bad language when I was lying
wounded under the Redan in 1855, by telling us one of an artist,
celebrated as etcher and author, who was walking one winter’s day on
Hampstead Heath, and passing near one of the ponds, which was frozen
over, he saw a crowd collected round it watching a small dog, which
having ventured on the ice, had fallen through into the water. The ice
was just so strong it could not get out, and yet would not support its
weight. The excited owner was shouting, “Half a crown for anyone who
will save my dog.” The artist plunged in, and having rescued the animal
put it down on the edge of the pond and started running at top speed
towards his house at Highgate. He heard a panting man behind him, but
fearing rheumatism ran on to change his clothes, till the man caught
him up, shouting, “Hi, hi,” and as he reached him called out, “Here’s
your money.” Mr. Ouless’ friend being very cold and cross said, “Damn
you! Damn your dog; damn your half-crown.” The man touched his cap and
said, “Beg your pardon, sir. I didn’t know you was a gentleman.”
[336] Copy of letter to the Military Secretary:--
“_1st February 1901._
“MY DEAR GROVE,--I have thought over your query, ‘If Lord Roberts
invited you, would you go out to South Africa and serve under Lord
Kitchener?’ I do not think the fact that Kitchener joined me in
1883 as a Lieutenant, when I was raising the Egyptian Army, should
influence my decision. If it is thought I can serve our Country by
going out, I will willingly go, and serve under Kitchener on the
following assumptions: (_a_) If I am not killed, I come back here
if I so desire, and that my South Africa time is not deducted. This
was done in Lord Wolseley’s case, (_b_) That if Lord Kitchener
becomes a casualty, no one junior to me shall come out to supersede
me.”
[337] Copy of letter to Lord Kitchener:--
“_1st October 1901._
“MY DEAR KITCHENER,--As I am now out of office, I can unburden
my mind on the subject on which I have long desired to write
to you, but I did not feel justified in doing so when I was
Adjutant-General. I saw a very generous telegram from you relative
to the proposition that I should go to South Africa to serve under
your orders. I do not suppose you would ever have thought I was
doing anything to try and inconvenience you in any way, but I
should like you to know from me that the suggestion that I should
go out did not emanate from me in any way, as will be seen by the
answer which I gave to Sir Coleridge Grove when the proposition was
made. Please regard this as confidential between you and--Yours
very sincerely,
“(Signed) EVELYN WOOD.”
[338] Three times mentioned in Despatches.
[339] “It has been most carefully threshed out by the A.G. The proposed
Reports seem to me to be all that can be desired, and I recommend their
immediate adoption.”
[340] Now Major-General J. Grierson, C.B., C.M.G.
[341] By Charles Dickens.
[342] See page 553.
[343] Who was also Assistant Military Secretary.
INDEX
Ababdeh Arabs, 501.
Abatis, 92.
Abbassieh, 479, 485.
Abbaye, 261.
Abbey Field, Colchester, 503.
Abdin Palace, 476.
Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 29.
Aboukir, 29.
Abrakampa, 263, 272.
Abu-Hamed, 42.
Abu Klea, 481, 492, 494, 567.
Abyssinia, 227.
Academy, Royal Military, Woolwich, 395.
Accassi, King, Queen, 274.
Acting Governor, Natal, 466.
Adelphi Hotel, 229.
Aden, camel men, 497, 498.
Adjutant-General, 427, 506, 514, 579.
” appointment, 559.
Administration, Faulty, 582.
Administrator of Transvaal, 391, 432.
Admiral “overboard again,” 523.
Advocate General Judge, 233.
Adye, Sir John, 472.
_Agamemnon_, H.M.S., 27.
Agar, 149.
Agram, 213.
Ahmednagar, 136.
Aide-de-camp, 507, 583.
Airey, Lord, 206.
Ajmír, 127, 158.
Akim, King, 263.
Albert, Prince Consort, 206.
Albuera, 250, 502, 511.
Alcock, 291.
Alcohol, Abuse of, 113.
Aldershot, 221, 224, 229, 231, 232, 233, 236, 289, 290, 355, 356, 385,
410, 512, 513, 525, 529, 535, 540, 541, 544, 545, 550, 561,
572, 585.
Aldershot, General Officer Commanding, 573.
” central gymnasium, 579.
Alexandria, 466, 467, 471, 479.
Algebra, Todhunter’s, 209.
Algiers, 11.
Alhambra, 512, 560.
Ali Jaroor, 161.
Alice Holt, 244.
Alison, Sir Archibald, 511, 512.
All Saints, 242.
Allan, Bridge of, 248.
Allen, Sergt., Death of, 382, 386.
Alleyne, Colonel James, 527, 543.
Allied Fleets, 18, 20.
Alma, “Brown Bess” at, 542.
” River, 31, 543.
Amahwenkwee Regiment, 401.
Amanquatsia, 269.
Amatolas, 327, 329, 348, 405.
Amberg, Van, 24.
Ambiguous telegrams, The Cabinet’s, 434.
Amet, 160.
Ammunition Column, Divisional, 545.
Anatolia Recruits, 586.
Andoo, Quacoe, 263, 264, 285.
Andros, 17.
Annexation, Transvaal, 427, 428, 429, 430.
Annual Army Rifle Meeting, 544, 545.
Antiquated Military Exercises, 571.
Arabi, The Egyptian, 470.
Arabian Nights, 146.
Arabic language, 477.
Arabists, 470.
Árangábád, 124, 166, 167, 168.
Aravalli Range, 158.
Arbitrator in Egypt, 492.
Ardagh, General Sir John, 510, 511, 512, 548.
_Arethusa_, H.M.S., 21, 22.
Arithmetic, 510.
Arkwright, Loftus, M.F.H., 569.
Arlington Manor, 534.
Armistice, 437.
Army Council, 553.
” Discipline, 577.
” Order, 199.
” Service Corps, 553.
Arnau, Marshal, 31.
Arroyo dos Molinos, 237.
Artillery, 153, 516, 530, 566.
” in South Africa, training to shoot with rifle, 573.
Ascension, 406.
Ascot, 225, 290.
Ashanti, 254, 273, 274, 285, 288.
” Expedition, 497.
Ashantiland, 532.
Asia Minor, 18.
“Assaye” Barracks, 583.
Asseerghur, 123, 125, 126, 127.
_Assistance_, H.M.S., 550.
Assuan fortified, 489.
_Atalanta_, H.M.S., 15.
Attorney, Cork, 13.
Attorney-General Holker, 414.
Australia, Commandant-General, 507.
Auxiliary Forces, School of Instruction, 254.
Aveley, Essex, 406.
Ayr, 247.
Ayrshire, 120.
Baba Bhut, 194, 195.
Babington, Captain, A.D.C., 515, 520.
Bacaland, 324, 326.
Bacas, Chief of, 326.
Bacon’s (Lord), recommendation, 528.
Badajos, 31;
visited, 511.
Bader, Mr., 495.
Bailie’s grave, 299, 300, 303, 308, 310, 311, 312, 313.
Baker Pasha, Valentine, 479, 481, 488.
” T. D., Colonel, 278, 280.
Balaklava, 25, 29, 33, 34, 35, 37, 60, 63, 64, 65.
Balfour, Right Hon. Arthur, 547, 554, 563.
” of Burleigh, 180.
Baljic, 26, 28.
Balmoral, Visit to, 409, 481.
Baltazzi, the Misses, 99.
Balte Spruit, 345, 346, 348, 349, 350, 363, 365, 390, 391.
Bansha, 111.
Banswarra, 148.
Baptist persuasion, Lady Wood helps, 539.
Barber, Mr., 305.
Barbour, murder of, 436, 444.
Barcelona visited, 511, 512.
Baréli, Levy, 178.
Baring, Sir Evelyn, 482, 484, 500.
Baroda, 148.
Barode, 152, 153, 154.
Barracks, names of, 513.
Barsad, 194.
Bartolozzi, engraver, 4.
Barton, Captain, 344, 345, 346, 350, 361, 372, 373, 374, 375, 389,
420.
” Robert, 243.
Base in Natal, 396.
Basingstoke (manœuvring ground), 540.
Bassano, Marquis de, 416.
Basset, Mr., 509.
Bastei, 212, 213.
Bastion, Central, 36.
Basuto, 314.
Basutos, 395, 463.
Bath, Order of the, 405.
Bath, Somersetshire, 588.
Battalion Scottish Rifles, 563.
Battery, Black, 50.
Bautzen, 146.
“Bawabbas,” 461.
Bayard, Mr., Ambassador, 548.
Bayuda Desert, 494.
Bazaar, Master, 146.
Beaconsfield, Lord, 294, 410, 411, 412.
_Beagle_, H.M.S., 62.
Beatson’s Horse, 166, 170, 178, 181, 184, 203.
Beaufort, Fort, 295, 296, 298, 313, 314, 315, 431.
Bedford, 3rd Bn., 245.
Beicos Bay, 18.
Belfast, Land League, 415, 502.
Belhus, 228, 408, 554.
Bell, Canon, 509.
_Bellerophon_, H.M.S., 28, 55.
Belmont, Lieutenant Wood, 562.
Bemba’s Kop, 380.
Benson, Colonel, 145, 146.
Berber, 482, 483.
Beresford, Lord Charles, 489, 491.
Berkshire Downs, 531, 534.
Berkshire Regiment, 1st, 469.
Berlin, Schudi Pasha, 477.
Bersia, 135, 168, 169, 180, 185, 187, 190, 191.
Betul, 127.
Betwa, River, 136.
Beumbei, Hotel at, 446, 456, 457.
Beyah, 258.
Bezeidenhout, 426.
Bhopál, 127, 145, 187.
Biden, John, 510.
Biggarsberg, 428, 429, 432, 447.
Bigge, Lieutenant Arthur, 325, 379, 415, 419, 420, 421.
Bikaneer, 158.
Bilko, 176.
Biora, 134, 164, 165.
Bishop’s Stortford, 231.
Bishund Dhutt, 194, 195.
Black Battery, 50.
” Sea, 18, 27.
” Umvolosi, 359.
“Black Watch,” 492.
Blackett, Sir William, 88.
Blackmore Vale, 582, 586.
Blair, Lieutenant, 187.
Blake, Captain, R.M.L.T., 253, 287.
” ” R.N., 261.
Blake Stopper, 19.
Blandford, 104.
Blarney, 224.
Blenheim, 215.
Blewitt, John, 77.
Blood River, 329, 348, 349, 386, 418, 419, 420.
Blumenthal, General, 579.
Boat, My, 12.
Boer flag at Heidelberg, 442.
” leaders, 441.
” Republic, 462.
” War, 554.
Boers, 363, 437, 555.
Bombay, 119, 120, 168.
” Command of, offered, 529.
” Rifles, 159.
Bonny men, 262, 278.
” Prince Charles, 262.
Bonny River, 262.
Booth, Sergeant, 359.
Boots, too small, 497.
Bosphorus, 17, 21, 58, 99.
Bosquet, General, 51.
Bothwell, Sergeant, 180.
Bowker, Mr., 305, 313, 314.
Boxer, Captain, 65.
Boys, brave or cowards, 510.
Brabant, Captain, 297, 299, 304, 306, 308, 309, 310.
Brack, de, Colonel, 120.
Brackenbury, Captain, 259.
” General Sir Hews, 480.
Bradford, E.R.C. Lieutenant, 142, 181, 187, 189, 190, 192, 195, 196,
197.
” Sir Edward, 590.
Bradley, Dean, 510.
Bradshaw, Captain, 365.
Brahman, 125.
Braintree, 4.
Bramshill, 222.
Brand, President, 427, 431, 436, 439, 441, 448.
Brazils, 3.
Brewer for canteen, 505.
Brigade, 4th, Egypt, 469.
” of Cavalry prepared on paper, 555.
” team of Guards, 356.
Bright, Arthur, 346, 382, 386.
Brighton, 221, 232.
Brindisi, 482.
Brindle, Father, 489, 493, 494.
Briscoe, Captain, 482.
_Brisk_, H.M.S., 562.
Britain, Great, 117.
_Britannia_, H.M.S., 25.
British India Steamship Company, 532.
” rations, 42,000 at Dongola, 491.
Brixton, Plymouth, 1.
Brodrick, Mr., M.P., 558, 578, 585, 593, 594.
Brooke, Sir Victor, 241.
“Brown Bess” at Alma, 542.
” General Sir George, 25, 31.
” Trooper, V.C., 373.
” Trumpeter, 151.
Buckingham Palace, medal parade, 577.
Buckle, George, Private, R.M.L.I., 24.
” Major C., 597.
Buffalo Mountains, 302.
” Poort, 300, 311.
” Range, 297, 298, 299, 300.
” River, 296, 300, 339, 348, 349, 463.
Bugler, A brave, 66.
Bugler’s opinion, 413.
Bukra (to-morrow), 487.
Bulford Camp, 587.
Bulganac, 27, 30.
Buller, Redvers, Major, 296, 304, 318, 319, 320.
” ” Colonel, 307.
” ” Sir, 267.
” ” V.C., 322, 344, 346, 247, 350, 351, 361, 366, 367,
368, 369, 371, 372, 374, 379, 380, 383, 388,
390, 392, 394, 396, 400, 403, 404, 405, 419,
440, 450, 463, 464, 473, 494, 495, 518, 546,
557, 561, 564.
” Sir Edward, 415.
Bundelas, 127.
Burgers, troop of forty, 351.
Burgesses, 465.
Burgoyne, Sir John Fox, Field Marshal, 13, 253.
” Hugh, 13, 62.
Burial service under fire, 371.
Burke, Sergeant-Major, 42.
Burmadeen Singh, 172, 180, 184, 186, 193, 198.
Burnett, Captain C., 277.
” Colonel, 526, 527, 531.
” General, 506.
Burns Hill, 312, 315.
Burrups, Natal, 463.