[Illustration: Cover]
[Frontispiece: Major-General Sir William Gatacre, K.C.B., D.S.O.]
GENERAL GATACRE
THE STORY OF THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF
SIR WILLIAM FORBES GATACRE, K.C.B., D.S.O.
1843-1906
BY BEATRIX GATACRE
WITH PORTRAITS, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
What I aspired to be
And was not, comforts me.
R. B.
LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1910
PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
TWO FRIENDS
WITHOUT WHOSE SYMPATHY AND ASSISTANCE
IT WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN WRITTEN
{vii}
Assured of worthiness, we do not dread
Competitors; we rather give them hail
And greeting in the lists where we may fail:
Must, if we bear an aim beyond the head!
My betters are my masters; purely fed
By their sustainment I likewise shall scale
Some rocky steps between the mount and vale;
Meanwhile the mark I have, and I will wed.
So that I draw the breath of finer air,
Station is naught, nor footways laurel-strewn,
Nor rivals tightly belted for the race.
God-speed to them! My place is here or there;
My pride is that among them I have place:
And thus I keep the instrument in tune.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
{ix}
PREFACE
The main object in laying this book before the public is to provide an
authentic narrative of Sir William Gatacre's work in South Africa. At
the time of his recall no despatch giving the reason for this step was
published, but a letter dealing with this matter has since appeared as
an Appendix in the _Official History_ of the war; it is with reluctance
that I have been persuaded to reprint this letter at the end of this
volume. It seemed, however, that Sir William's previous career was
such a large factor in determining any opinion regarding his later work
that some account of the man and his surroundings from the beginning
would not be without interest.
In preparing the first half of this story I have been entirely
dependent on the recollections of others, and have studiously avoided
any attempt to eke out the material with an imaginary amplification; in
the latter half my own personal knowledge of himself and his affairs
has enabled {x} me to seek my information from numerous sources, and to
draw the portrait in richer colours on a more suggestive background.
I wish to acknowledge in full the loyal assistance afforded me by my
husband's friends. In every case I have received the most cordial
response and co-operation. I am sincerely grateful both to those who
have asked me to refrain from naming them and to those who have given
me the support of their names. Through the courtesy of these officers
and others, I am able to say that every word has been read by one who
has personal knowledge of the incidents recorded. In this way I trust
that this narrative will have acquired an unimpeachable accuracy.
I am also deeply indebted to the _Official History of the War in South
Africa_. Indeed, before the publication of this authoritative
statement my task would have been impossible.
To the facts therein recorded I have added extracts from officers'
reports, and from Sir William's own letters, and also the words of
certain important telegrams which I had found amongst his papers, and
for the reproduction of which official permission has been graciously
accorded.
{xi}
I beg the indulgence of the reader for faults of literary inexperience,
and trust that he will recognise my honest endeavour to handle the
facts fairly and dispassionately.
BEATRIX GATACRE.
_April_ 8, 1910.
{xiii}
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
GATACRE . . . 1
CHAPTER II
TO INDIA AND BACK . . . 13
CHAPTER III
RANGOON . . . 38
CHAPTER IV
SECUNDERABAD . . . 52
CHAPTER V
BLACK MOUNTAIN EXPEDITION . . . 63
CHAPTER VI
MANDALAY . . . 82
CHAPTER VII
POONA . . . 98
CHAPTER VIII
BOMBAY . . . 110
CHAPTER IX
CHITBAL . . . 127
{xiv}
CHAPTER X
QUETTA . . . 145
CHAPTER XI
THE PLAGUE . . . 161
CHAPTER XII
FROM ALDERSHOT TO BERBER . . . 184
CHAPTER XIII
ATBARA AND OMDURMAN . . . 198
CHAPTER XIV
COLCHESTER . . . 214
CHAPTER XV
CAPE COLONY . . . 221
CHAPTER XVI
ORANGE FREE STATE . . . 239
CHAPTER XVII
BACK TO COLCHESTER . . . 261
CHAPTER XVIII
ABYSSINIA . . . 273
DESPATCH, APRIL 16, 1900 . . . 286
INDEX . . . 289
{xv}
ILLUSTRATIONS
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM GATACRE, K.C.B., D.S.O.
(_Photogravure_) . . . _Frontispiece_
COLONEL W. F. GATACRE, D.S.O., 1888 . . . 74
KACHIN BRIDGE, OVER WHICH 500 MEN CROSSED IN ONE DAY . . . 90
GOORKHAS CROSSING THE LOWARI PASS . . . 134
ON THE ROAD TO CHITRAL . . . 138
GENERAL GATACRE AND HIS FAVOURITE PONY . . . 142
BELUCHI MURDERERS . . . 158
HINDU BURNING-GHAT . . . 162
HOUSE-TO-HOUSE VISITATION . . . 172
INVASION OF CAPE COLONY: THE BOERS MARCHING SOUTH OVER
THE ORANGE RIVER AT ALIWAL NORTH . . . 224
MAPS
_At the end_
MAP I. INDIA [Transcriber's note: this map was omitted, being too large
to scan.]
MAP II. EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN
MAP III. EASTERN CAPE COLONY AND PART OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE
MAP IV. ABYSSINIA
{1}
GENERAL GATACRE
1843-1906
CHAPTER I
1843-1862
GATACRE
According to a venerable Shropshire antiquarian, that county "has ever
been inhabited by a race of men characteristic for uniformity of
principle and energy of action."[1] Mr. Eyton goes on to tell of
various places mentioned in the Domesday Book, and among these of the
Manor of Claverley, which included a very large tract of country, and
is described as an "ancient demesne of the Crown." The Manor of
Claverley was broken up into various townships, to three of which he
accords special notice, "in regard that the King's Tenants thereof were
of a rank superior to that of the average class of Freeholders in Royal
Manors. These Townships were Broughton, Beobridge, and Gatacre."[2]
[1] _Antiquities of Shropshire_, by R. W. Eyton, 1854, preface.
[2] _Ibid._, vol. iii. p. 77.
{2}
[Sidenote: Ancestors]
There is a well-authenticated tradition that the family established at
Gatacre at the time of the Conquest held their lands by tenure of
military service, under a grant from Edward the Confessor. Eyton
speaks of them as "a family of knightly rank, which, having early
feoffment in Gatacre, took its name from the place. The period of such
feoffment it is vain to conjecture, as being beyond all record of such
matters."[3]
[3] Eyton's _Antiquities of Shropshire_, vol. iii. p. 86.
In the reign of Henry II., Sir William de Gatacre had a suit with one
Walter, about half a hide of land in Great Lye: this was subject to a
Wager of Battle, and apparently Gatacre proved himself the better man,
for Great Lye is even now held by his descendant. This same William
appears in another record as one of the four "Visors," who in July 1194
had to report to the Courts of Westminster on the validity of the
"essoign of Cecilia de Cantreyn, a litigant. Gatacre's associates in
this duty--to which knights only were usually appointed--were Henry
Christian, Philip Fitz Holegod, and William de Rudge, all his
neighbours and of equal rank with himself."[4]
[4] _Ibid._
He was succeeded by Sir Robert, his son; who sat on a Jury of Grand
Assizes in April 1200, to try a question of right in relation to lands
at Nordley Regis, at the "Iter of the King's Justices."[5]
[5] _Ibid._
The tenure of the estates was in great jeopardy {3} in the life of
Thomas de Gatacre; for it is told how a certain Philip de Lutley, the
King's Escheator, did "seize the estates of Gatacre, Sutton, and Great
Lye into the King's hand, on the ground that Thomas de Gatacre had
entered upon these estates without doing homage and fealty to the
Crown, and without paying his relief, so that he had occupied the same
unjustly for twenty-two years and more."[6] At this unfortunate moment
Thomas died, leaving Alice, his widow, to fight for herself and their
son Thomas. She appealed to the King (Edward III.) in Chancery, in the
Michaelmas Term 1368. There was a trial by twenty-four jurors, being
knights and others in the visnage of Sutton not being kin to Alice.
She herself appeared in person at Westminster, and won her cause, for a
"King's writ of the same year commits to the same Alice, widow of
Thomas de Gatacre, custody of the Manor of Gatacre and the hamlet of
Sutton with their appurtenances."
[6] See Eyton's _Antiquities_, vol. iii. pp. 90, 91,
The grandson of the younger Thomas was called John; he flourished in
the reigns of Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., and was High Sheriff
of Shropshire in 1409. In a contemporary stained-glass window now in
the hall at Gatacre there is a portrait of the same John, who is
described as "Groom of the body to Henry VIth." He was succeeded by
his son John, who was Member of Parliament for Bridgnorth in the
twelfth year of Edward IV.
{4}
[Sidenote: The ancient house]
The house at Gatacre stands in the parish of Claverley, and is about
two miles distant from this village. Inside the church--a red
sandstone building full of interest to the archæologist--are many
monuments, of which the most ancient are two incised marble slabs
inlaid in the eastern wall; these are about six feet high. On one is
shown a man in armour, elaborate and perfect in all its detail,
commemorating William Gatacre, who died in 1577, and his wife and
eleven children; and on the other his successor Francis, 1599, is
depicted in civilian dress with his wife at his side.
Close by is a very fine alabaster tomb on which lie three full-length
recumbent figures, being the effigies of Robert Brooke of Madeley
Court, who is described as "Recorder of London, Speaker of P'lyament,
and Chiefe Justice of Com'on Pleace," and his two wives, one of whom
was a daughter of Gatacre.[7]
[7] See _Shropshire_, by A. C. Hare, p. 319.
Thomas, brother to Francis named above, was destined by his parents for
the law; but he "diverted his mind from the most profitable to the most
necessary study, from law to divinity," and, much to the grief of his
parents, who were of the old persuasion, embraced the Reformed Faith,
and became Rector of St. Edmond's, Lombard Street. He died in 1593;
but his son and grandson followed the same profession. The former,
Thomas (1574-1654), was a friend of Archbishop Ussher, and a member of
the Westminster Assembly of Divines. {5} He took part in preparing the
annotations to the English Bible, and published a work on Marcus
Aurelius; in 1648 he subscribed the Remonstrance against the trial of
Charles I. His son, Charles, was Chaplain to Lucius Gary, Viscount
Falkland, and was also the author of many books.[8] This younger
branch of the family settled at Mildenhall, in Suffolk, and has always
spelt the name Gataker. Though there has never failed a male heir to
the senior line, this is the only cadet branch that has survived.
[8] See quotation by A. C. Hare, from Thomas Fuller, 1662.
The house inhabited by this ancient family was a unique survival of
very early times.[9] Where we should now use iron girders our ancestors
used oak-trees; they erected them upside-down, so that the roots made
arches on which to lay the roof. Large stones were hewn to fill in the
walls, and in this particular building the outer surface of the stones
was incrusted with a transparent green glaze, very similar to what is
now seen on rough pottery. This curious specimen of domestic
architecture survived in a habitable condition till the early part of
the eighteenth century, when it was wantonly destroyed, and replaced by
a brick mansion of the dark and uninteresting type of the early
Georges. Portions of the glazed stones are still preserved in the
house amongst many other relics of more obvious value.
[9] See _The Severn Valley_, by John Randall, 1882, and _Archæologia_,
iii. 112, quoted by him.
{6}
Colonel Edward Gatacre and his only son, born in 1806 (who figures as
the Squire in this narrative), were specimens of the best type of
country gentleman of their day. The former was twentieth in direct
descent from Sir William de Gatacre of the twelfth century, and was
grandfather to Sir William, the hero of this story. The pedigree shows
that through the centuries the family had maintained their status as
gentle-folk, and had allied themselves with other families of the same
standing in the neighbouring counties. Both were men of remarkable
activity and considerable cultivation. With the advent of railways
came the facility for travel, of which the younger man was quick to
avail himself. He visited London every year, and among other men of
renown knew Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A., and persuaded him to come and
paint the portrait of his father that still hangs at Gatacre--a
beautiful picture. He also went abroad, and made a pilgrimage to Rome
in the old days when people travelled in their own carriages, making a
long stay at many places of interest in Switzerland and Italy.
[Sidenote: Forbes]
At the age of eighty-one the Colonel died, sincerely mourned throughout
the county; and thus in 1849 the young Squire came into his
inheritance. About ten years earlier he had married Jessie, second
daughter of William Forbes of Callendar, in the county of Stirling.
Mr. Forbes, who sprang from a cadet branch of the family of that name,
started his career in a shipping office; by his enterprise and
inventions {7} he built up a considerable fortune, with which he bought
the Callendar estate. His elder son, William Forbes, who succeeded
him, represented Stirlingshire in Parliament for many years; and his
younger son became Colonel John Forbes of the Coldstream Guards. Their
sister Jessie must always have been a beautiful woman, rather Scottish,
perhaps, in the vigorous outline of her face, with a depth about her
blue eyes and a symmetry of feature that reappeared in her third son; a
look of "all-comprehensive tenderness" is the dominant note of the
portrait. Indeed, we are told that while Mrs. Gatacre was a very able
woman, she had a singular gentleness of manner.
The family already numbered two sons and a daughter when in 1843 Mrs.
Gatacre went on a visit to her widowed mother, who was then living at
Herbertshire Castle, near Stirling: and so it came about that when a
little boy was born on December 3, he was given the names of his uncle
and godfather, William Forbes.
Perhaps it is to his Scottish descent that we may trace some of the
qualities that became most marked when the child, grown to perfect
manhood, had evolved that balance of innumerable strains that go to
make the individual--had, as it were, tuned the manifold strings of his
lineage to a chord of his own finding. Did he draw his habit of
concentration on the matter in hand, his painstaking attention to
detail, from the inventor-engineer of Aberdeen? Did he draw his
fervent notions of duty {8} and his stern disregard of personal
considerations from the blood of the Covenanters that ran in his veins?
My own father was heard to say that this son-in-law of his was born out
of due time, that his right place would have been at the head of
Cromwell's Ironsides.
In course of time another son, Stephen, completed the family. The
children were a great source of pride and pleasure to their parents,
and had the benefit of all that loving early training could do for
them. In this wholesome atmosphere of parental affection and brotherly
competition the four boys grew up straight and strong. They vied with
one another in childish feats and manly sports, but in all these Willie
was the keenest and the most daring.
Even in these latter days the house at Gatacre seems difficult of
access, for the nearest railway station (unless you cross the Severn in
a ferry) is at Bridgnorth, six miles away; but sixty years ago there
was no railway nearer than Wolverhampton, a good ten miles' drive. The
eldest son well remembers his father driving his coach-and-four to and
fro. The Squire was a famous whip, and maintained this practice far
into the sixties. But as the boys grew older they thought nothing of
doing this journey on foot at any hour of the day or night; perhaps it
was the remoteness of the country in which they were nurtured that had
endowed this family for generations back with powers of physical
endurance and enterprise beyond the common.
{9}
[Sidenote: At school]
The elder brothers Edward and John[10] were sent to Mr. Hopkirk's
school at Eltham, in Kent; and both were still there when Willie joined
them a year or two later. Some of Willie's letters from school are
still to be seen; and if handwriting is any sign of character, he must
have been an exemplary boy at his lessons, for his letters are so
exquisitely written that were it not for the dates duly recorded one
could scarcely believe them to be the work of a high-spirited boy of
thirteen. Writing to his mother in March 1857, he says: "Did you see
in the papers that peace had been made with Persia?"
[10] Now Major-General Sir John Gatacre, K.C.B.
The interest in Persia had been aroused by the approaching departure of
his brother John to India, where he was to join a regiment that was at
that moment fighting in Persia. Though loth to part from one who was
said to be his father's favourite son, the Squire had thought the offer
of a commission in the East India Company's army too good an opening to
refuse. In May 1857 he accompanied the boy, who was then only sixteen
and a half, as far as Marseilles, and did not see him again for nearly
twelve years.
At Gatacre there was a famous kennel of setters, and also some good
retrievers. A puppy of the latter breed was given to Willie for his
own, and he broke and trained it so skilfully, when only fifteen, that
the dog was sold for fifteen guineas, and eventually became celebrated
in the canine world.
{10}
[Sidenote: In the holidays]
There are many excellent fox-holding coverts in that part of the
country; the Albrighton Hounds still draw them regularly. Such visits
were great events to the boys; and we can well believe that Willie
would always be out, mounted on whatever he could get, big or small,
old or young. One day he was riding a mare who was known to be
twenty-two years old, and had all her life been used for harness work;
but nothing stopped Willie. When a fox was found close to the house,
away he went, and it is still told how Rushlight led the field for
miles. Willie seems to have shared more intimately than any of his
brothers the Squire's love for horses. He had a vivid recollection of
journeys to Birmingham with his father, when he visited the big stables
there to search for horses, either for himself or a friend; the elder
man taught his son what points to look for and what to avoid. Willie
thus acquired a certain confident genius for judging a horse, and all
his life took a pleasure in exercising this quality; like his father
before him, he was never afraid to buy horses at their request for
friends who had more confidence in his judgment than in their own.
One summer holiday the boy found for himself a new recreation. In a
letter to Stephen, dated from Gatacre, July 20, 1860, we find the
following passage:
"Did you know that there was an Alderney bull come? I have begun to
work him every {11} day, but he does not like it, and he fights with me
a great deal. But I find a good stick the best remedy; sometimes I
have to bate him a good deal."
The brothers and sister clearly recall seeing Willie ride this animal
day after day in the park.
It is evident that Number Three must often have been a source of
anxiety to his parents. One evening in February he gave his mother a
most horrible fright. The boys had arranged to go out after
wood-pigeons in the spinneys round the house; as there was snow on the
ground they slipped a night-shirt over their clothes to make themselves
less visible. The three guns posted themselves in three coverts some
distance apart, and then lay in wait for the birds as they came in to
roost. Willie, who was then sixteen or seventeen, was in a lucky
corner: he shot so many that he was at a loss how to bring the birds
in. Slipping off his white covering, he made a bag of it and gathered
up his spoils. By the time he reached the house he presented such an
alarming appearance that his mother naturally imagined him the victim
of some terrible accident. With great pride the boy counted out
forty-two birds.
In 1856 the Squire was pricked for High Sheriff. There is an ancient
custom by which all the sons of Gatacre are enrolled as Freemen of the
Borough of Bridgnorth; and on June 25, 1860, William Forbes was duly
sworn and inscribed on the rolls.
{12}
In the same year, on August 1, he was admitted to the Royal Military
College; he was then only sixteen and a half, and measured five feet
seven and a quarter inches in height. Ultimately he reached five feet
eleven inches in his socks.
Except in the riding-school he does not seem to have made much mark at
Sandhurst, but when he left in December 1861 he had earned the college
"Recommendation," and on February 18 following was gazetted an ensign
in the 77th Foot, now the 2nd Battalion (Duke of Cambridge's Own)
Middlesex Regiment.
{13}