From Midshipman to Field Marshal

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 Va...

British and Dutch Volunteers--Brabant--Bowker, a Colonial Staff Officer--Gaika woman sells her child for a shin bone of beef--Volunteers return home--The Tutu Bush--Saltmarshe k...

A gloomy forest--Two brave Company leaders--Major Home--Wood’s Regiment become carriers--Major Butler invades Ashanti with 20 Native Police--Amoaful--I am wounded--A forced marc...

Sporting Essex farmers--An eccentric groom--Drunk and incapable in the street--Ill-health induces me to think of joining the Bar--A fine example on parade--Sir James Yorke Scarl...

The Allied Armies re-embarking from Varna, land in the Crimea--The Alma as seen from the masthead of H.M.S. _Queen_--Selecting a Naval Brigade--Balaklava Harbour--The Upland--Th...

I meet my future wife--Reading for Staff College--Death of the Prince Consort--The Military Secretary--The Canada war scare--Life at Camberley--Charles Kingsley--Viscount Southw...

Civic hospitality--Garrison instruction--E. R. P. Woodgate--I decline to be permanent Examiner for Promotion--Thomas White invites me to join him in business--Am offered the Com...

A long ride with insufficient sleep induces sunstroke--Disguised as Rebels we are well received--The death of Lieutenant Jennings--The Rajah of Narsinghgarh has a pain--I resign...

The abatis and its defenders--Hit for the second time, I collapse, but am revived by a well-drilled Corporal--Lord Raglan’s remarkable kindness--I regain my pony at Constantinop...

We mounted at 3.30 a.m., and moving slowly forward, reached the river at dawn. The ford was difficult, and if we had attacked the previous day not more than one horseman could h...

Mist delays the advance of 23,000 Zulus--Piet Uys having fallen, Burghers leave us--The position under the Ngaba-ka-Hawane--Bigge--Nicholson--Slade--Buller teases Zulu Right Win...

A woman the ultimate cause of the Zulu War--Preparations for a campaign--Christmas Day--Forming an advanced base--A disappointing Honours gazette--Conference with Lord Chelmsfor...

On the 26th June, my new Command, the Natal Column, consisting of 4 guns, 5 companies 90th Light Infantry (in which I was still a supernumerary Major), and a company Mounted Inf...

Narrow escape of Lord Raglan--Michael Hardy’s dauntless courage--Death of Lieutenant Douglas--Selections for the Victoria Cross--Stephen Welch’s Divine-like act of self-sacrific...

At the end of December I was sitting at dinner with the Adjutant and the Doctor, when a letter was brought from Sindhara stating that a band of Rebels was in the neighbourhood,...

We made a fair passage of forty-two days to Cape Town, where our spirits fell on hearing Dihlí had fallen, and the confident predictions that the Mutiny would be suppressed befo...

Her Majesty Queen Victoria with a steam fleet defeats a squadron of sailing line-of-battle ships--Rough weather in the Channel--Ship nearly wrecked in Grecian Archipelago--My fi...

At the end of the year an order was received for two Cornets to proceed to the Crimea, and I was one of those nominated. When we left the Barracks on the 1st January, we were ac...

On the 22nd May, when accompanying General Napier, who was inspecting a battalion at Mullingar, my eye rested on an officer whose face I recognised, and when the parade was over...

I receive £200,000 to create an Army--First Ceremonial Parade in ten weeks--Lord Dufferin’s recognition of work--Cholera--Three Britons administer Egypt--Devotion to duty shown...

In the middle of August I followed the Egyptian troops up the Nile, where most of them had been since February, the balance of trained soldiers being at Suakin. At that place th...

Indescribable sufferings of the old soldier--Contrast of naval with military system--Commodore Lushington’s work--Lunch with Lord Raglan--_Times_ correspondent saves remnant of...

The steamer in which Sir Garnet and his Staff left Liverpool on the 12th had been newly painted, which added to our discomfort. She rolled so heavily as to throw a watch out of...

Tantia Topi executed--I rejoin 17th Lancers and am sent to Poona to train recruits--Sir John Michel at Máu--Am sent to Beatson’s Horse at Árangábád--Novel cure for scorpion bite...

A bibulous officer--The disaster on the Intombe River--Uhamu joins me--We go to his district and bring in his 300 wives and families, 1100 in all--Piet Uys and his sons--Redvers...

Although I had some horses and sufficient furniture for the house hired by Government for the General of the Eastern District at Colchester, yet I had to borrow £3000 to instal...

Prime Warden, Fishmongers’ Company--Archbishop Vaughan--Mr. John Ropes--Visit to Gibraltar--An economy of £2300 per annum--Visit to the Crimea--Reform for soldiers travelling to...

The day I joined at Aldershot I saw the Generals, Commanding officers, and all the Staff officers in succession. I was struck by one face and voice, Colonel Grattan of the Army...

The General having desired me to go to Wesselstroom, and ascertain whether it was possible to get any Dutchmen to come out in that district, in the event of a Zulu War, I went u...

The Duke of Connaught’s generous letter--A Dargai Piper at a Music Hall--Consecration of the Colours of Catholic battalions--Lord Chesham’s Yeomanry--Major Milton--Influence of...

I reached London on the 19th of June, lighter in body than I had been for many years, and I did not recover entirely from intestinal troubles till late in the year. I was no soo...

At Christmas 1871 I joined my new battalion, the 90th Light Infantry, as Junior Major, assuming command of three companies at Stirling Castle. I had seen the Germans man the wal...

Misunderstanding of Military matters--Forecast of change of Staff by a Charwoman--Antiquated Military Exercises abandoned--A change in Inspections at Sandhurst--Funeral of Her M...

The Military situation compels inaction--Ambiguous telegrams from the Cabinet--Piet Joubert asks me to meet him--Lord Kimberley approves of my doing so--His instructions--I urge...

We halted till the 4th January at Barode, and then moved in a north-westerly direction to Chuppra, where our baggage column rejoined us on the 9th, to our great comfort; for we...

On the 11th May I lost my wife, with whom I had enjoyed uninterrupted happiness since our marriage, and who for twenty-four years, next to God, had given me all her life. The mo...

Throughout the week of the 10th-17th of June, in common with many of my comrades in the Naval Brigade, I suffered from low fever and severe intestinal complaints, and although I...

Captain Peel’s heroic conduct--My only two pocket-handkerchiefs-- Dr. William Howard Russell’s eulogy of the sailors--Horse Artillery going into action--Battle of Inkerman--Sail...

Charles Dickens’ story of the Fleet Prison paralleled--I ask permission to leave Royal Commission, but am refused--Gallop after wild ostrich--A jail delivery in Pretoria--Visit...

I attended on the 20th of September the sale of Sir Thomas Lennard’s hunters at Belhus, then an annual event of much interest in the County, and it having been stated in the pap...

Five companies of the 80th Regiment now joined my column from Luneberg; and, the evening before they marched in, Buller came to me and asked if a protecting certificate might be...

A woman in a basket--“Wait for the waggon”--Zulu attacks on our square feeble, and isolated--Rundle’s guns always outside square--Lord Wolseley arrives--I return to England--Tri...

South Africa, sometimes named “The land of Misfortune,” may be more aptly termed “The land of Misunderstandings.” The problem of ensuring good government in a vast country inhab...

Hospital Nurses--War Office denying my existence between December and February declines to issue even Half-Pay--Offered the Governorship of the Isle of Man--Cardinal Manning--Al...

Drill aloft--A daring but unpopular Captain defies a riotous crew, but is removed--Captain F. T. Michell succeeds him--Disappoints a Patronage Secretary--Officers of H.M.S. _Que...

While we were at Cape Town I paid Cetewayo two visits, and sat with him for some time. He expressed great pleasure, and, unless he was a good actor, felt such at seeing me. He w...

Advice as to entertaining--Bishop Colenso--The opening of the Legislative Council--Preparations in the event of Boers declining to ratify the Convention--A long ride to the Drak...

The ride to Death--Buller surmounts the mountain--Fate of two heroic Coldstream Officers--Campbell and Barton--Major Leet, V.C.--Chicheeli’s description of Barton’s death--Bulle...

The Woods, from whom I am descended, were for hundreds of years owners of Hareston Manor, Brixton, a small village near Plymouth. There is a record of a John a’ Wood living ther...

We halted on the 20th October, uncertain in which direction the main body of the rebels had gone after we had driven them across the Jamni River. We afterwards learned that the...

We moved on 16 miles to Khilchipur, and with rests of twenty minutes to feed the horses, marched 40 miles continuously till the evening of the 31st, closing on the rebels, now o...

but on the morning of the 14th there befell the troops a great misfortune. It was blowing heavily in gusts at 4 a.m. when the battery Relief marched off, and sheets of rain beat...