CHAPTER XLVI

1891–2–3--TRAINING OF TROOPS ON PRIVATE LANDS

Death of Lady Wood--Manœuvres in Hampshire--Public Schools’ Camps at Aldershot--Improvement in War Training--Ian Hamilton--Lord Roberts--Sealed patterns, Army Stores.

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 most loving and tender of women, endowed with the highest principles of morality, her companionship raised the standard of thought of even an ordinary man, increasing his respect for womankind, while her infinite compassion rendered her a hopeful and encouraging beacon to the weakest of her sex. She was to me not only an affectionate wife, but also adviser and confidential secretary. My greatest abiding regret is that devotion to the Army gave me so little time with her, and with our children; in seven successive years, employment on Foreign Service allowed me only 14½ months at home.

I had no suspicion of her being ill until one afternoon walking in the grounds of Government House she told me she felt an unpleasant fluttering in her heart; but we had suspected so little her dangerous state, that I had allowed her to walk up a steep hill in the previous June, when I particularly asked Lady Pender, whose face I was watching, to go up in the carriage.

In the month of November Lady Wood complained of eczema, and was in bed for a week; but she made so little of her ailments that I went almost daily to London to sit on a Drill Committee, engaged in revising a new book, and when I was not in London I spent the day in office with Sir Mansfield Clarke and Colonel Hildyard, on the same duty. Ten days later my wife was sufficiently recovered to go about and look at houses, as it became necessary for us to turn out of Government House, which required repairs.

Early in the year Her Majesty the Empress Eugénie, whose kindness to us had been unceasing, since the journey in 1880 to Zululand, took Lady Wood and my eldest daughter to St. Remo for a change of air, I remaining ignorant of her precarious state of health until I received a note, written by the direction of the Empress, calling me to the Riviera.

The doctor at St. Remo told me frankly he thought very badly of Lady Wood’s state, and advised me to take her back to England. I telegraphed for Surgeon-Major Finlay, who knew my wife’s constitution, and he kindly hurried to St. Remo, meeting us, however, only at Paris, as we had left the Riviera before he arrived. The journey was exceptionally painful to me; I had not ventured to tell my young daughter what I feared, and the doctor had warned me that if my wife died in the carriage, which was possible, I should conceal the fact until we reached Paris to avoid removal from the train. After a week’s rest in Paris we got back to Aldershot. Ten days before Lady Wood died I offered to telegraph for our eldest son, who was with his Battalion, Devon Regiment, in Egypt. She replied, “Certainly not, I will not be so selfish; let him come home later, and escape the hot weather.”

Nothing could be more touching than the gracious solicitude of Her Majesty the Queen, who offered to come to Aldershot to see Lady Wood before she died, and the sympathy of my comrades of all Ranks. Her Majesty sent me a beautifully expressed letter of compassion; in thanking her I wrote it was the more acceptable as to her might appropriately be applied the line, “Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco.”

Friends in both Churches, the Catholic Bishop of Westminster, the Dean of Westminster, and soldiers’ wives sent condolences to me. Forty-six non-commissioned officers and privates, living in different parts of Scotland, wrote to me in memory of our service together in South Africa in 1878–9.

Lady Wood had indeed done much for her poorer brothers and sisters. She was ever engaged in works of Charity, irrespective of the religion of those she succoured; indeed, when at Colchester, she gave effective assistance to a lady of the Baptist persuasion, who managed a Soldiers’ Home. My wife and daughter organised a series of weekly concerts in the Cambridge Hospital for convalescents, collecting sufficient money, mainly through our friend Lord Wantage, to buy a second-hand Grand piano, and they made a practice of spending one afternoon every week in the Hospital, inducing other ladies to do the same, so that every ward where there were female nurses, was visited by one or more ladies weekly. Lady and Miss Wood, with the aid of friends, supplied the Cambridge Hospital with invalid chairs, and many other such articles, not issued in those days by Government.

It was fortunate for me that at this particular time I was if possible more than usually engaged on Military duties. I was unable to sleep consecutively at night, and never after four in the morning, at which time, after leaving her for only an hour, I had been called to my wife’s bedside to say good-bye. The day after the funeral, I supervised the training of an Infantry Brigade, and on the day following, the Cavalry, working consecutively eleven hours on the Drill book after my return to Government House. When I was not in London, and there were no troops training, after clearing my office table, I remained on horseback till sunset.

* * * * *

Throughout the Autumn of 1890, and during the Winter of 1890–91, I was looking for ground for manœuvres in North Hampshire, assisted by Captain Rycroft, 7th Dragoon Guards, with whose uncle I had been shipmate on H.M.S. _Queen_, and I had every assistance possible from the Rycroft family, and Mr. Portal, who not only gave me free use of his land, but assented to my using the meadows on his dairy farm for encampments. The Earl of Carnarvon was also most generous, allowing me to select as a camp for 6000 men, a field within 200 yards of where most of his pheasants were to be raised.

With landowners I had but little difficulty, but much of the land was let to shooting tenants who were non-resident in the county, and the objections of two I found it was impossible to overcome. Both gentlemen were courteous in the extreme; one, the Head of a firm of prosperous drapers in Knightsbridge, told me frankly that he worked hard for ten months in the year, and that no compensation for disturbance of game would make up to him for less sport; and eventually I had to give up my scheme, trying then for ground between Basingstoke and Alresford, and when unsuccessful there, looking over more lands between Stockbridge and Winchester. In both areas, however, there was considerable trouble in finding camping-places anywhere except on arable land, and the scarcity of water was a well-nigh insuperable difficulty; eventually I had to come back to a tract which I had looked at in 1890, about 7 miles from east to west, and 5 from north to south, lying between Butser Hill, Droxford, and West Meon, Hambledon. The clergy in the district were at first much opposed to the idea of seeing soldiers in their parishes, but eventually they all withdrew their objections, and after the manœuvres wrote to me in enthusiastic terms of the good conduct of our men. A week before Lady Wood died she rallied so remarkably as to enable me to go down to West Meon for a day, and fix the sites for the camps which we occupied in August. The Force employed consisted of two complete Infantry divisions; that is, each had a brigade of Artillery and a Squadron of Cavalry.

The men carried thirty-eight pounds weight besides the clothes they wore, and learnt a good deal marching down, some regiments more than others; as may be gained from the fact that with equivalent numbers 73 men fell out in one Battalion, and two in another. We learned also a good deal as regards the kits of soldiers, which can be tested only on Service or Manœuvres. The harvest was late, but I did not venture to delay the concentration about West Meon and Butser Hill, for fear of the weather breaking, and so we had the unusual spectacle of troops which had been engaged in tactical operations in the forenoon, reaping and stooking corn in the evening.

Eight days before we intended to return to Aldershot the weather broke, and after persevering for four days, the last forty-eight hours in incessant and heavy rain, we abandoned our scheme, and marched home, the men retaining the utmost good-humour in spite of their having lived for two days in camps which were ankle-deep in mud. At the conclusion of the manœuvres I reported, “In tactical skill officers of all Ranks have improved in a very great degree; but the improvement in military spirit, in eagerness to learn, and to submit cheerfully to great physical discomfort, is even more remarkable, and this spirit reacts naturally on the lower ranks.”

* * * * *

Although I did not propose to use private land for purposes of instruction in 1892, I spent the previous autumn in looking round for fresh ground, but came reluctantly to the conclusion, which I put officially on record, that in counties where the sporting rights are leased to non-residents, manœuvres are in the present state of Public feeling in the United Kingdom impossible without an Act of Parliament.

Although the tactical training of infantry in 1892 was confined to Flying Columns moving on the Government grounds in the vicinity of Aldershot, and to the exercise of a Cavalry Division, yet the opportunity of gaining instruction was eagerly taken advantage of by the Auxiliary Forces. A Division composed of the 13th and 14th Militia Brigades, each of five Battalions, came out for a month’s training in July, and in August 16,000 Volunteers came into camp. There had been, I gathered, some disinclination in previous years to join us, but the written expression of gratitude I received from officers commanding for the instruction afforded, indicated that the efforts of the Staff had been appreciated.

In 1889 the Public School Volunteer Cadet Companies came out for a week in Berkshire, with a total strength of about 200. The following year the numbers dropped to 160; but in 1891 we encamped about 440 at Bourley, 3 miles west of Aldershot town. Some masters had demurred to allowing their pupils to come, until I wrote a circular letter to the effect that having two sons in school Volunteer Corps, I should have no objection to their attending under arrangements I contemplated, when the difficulty was waived; and in 1892 we encamped about 600 in the grounds of Government House, Aldershot. My friend Colonel Davis, commanding 3rd Royal West Surrey Regiment, lending me large marquees, each capable of seating about 360 persons.

I did not anticipate that every schoolboy who joined a Cadet Corps would become professional soldiers, but I urged all should fit themselves early in life for the command of Volunteers; and my hopes have been thoroughly justified at Aldershot, for the movement under my successors’ fostering care has continued to increase in popularity.

In 1890 I lost in Pall Mall the strenuous support of the Adjutant-General, Lord Wolseley, who had taken over the Irish Command, where he was eagerly practising what he had preached from the War Office. He wrote frequently to me: “Send me copies of your Military Training: how you carry it out, and indeed everything new you have introduced.”[310]--And again: “I want to carry out your Night Manœuvres: have sent to me the orders you are giving this year.” Lord Wolseley was succeeded as Adjutant-General by Redvers Buller, a friend of many years’ standing, whom I personally recommended for the Victoria Cross in Zululand, and he also supported my views; thus my difficulties were practically at an end.

Moreover, the spirit of the troops at Aldershot had changed materially since 1889. The younger officers of the Brigade of Guards were always open to consider new ideas. One of its greatest enthusiasts for war training was Colonel Lord Methuen, who on the 21st August wrote to me: “You have given us the best five weeks’ soldiering we ever had, and your work must do us permanent good. To-morrow night we have Night operations.”

The march of opinion, however, is still more remarkably shown in a letter from General Sir George Higginson,[311] who as a guest had spent a week in camp with the Guards Brigade to the south of Aldershot. He wrote to me on the 5th September: “My recent opportunity of seeing your work has convinced me that the changes you and your colleagues have made, are not only justified, but imperatively called for, by the altered circumstances of modern warfare.” This open-minded admission is the more remarkable, that Higginson was Adjutant of his battalion when, shoulder to shoulder, it took part in the brilliant and successful attack on the hill above the Alma River, and ever since had lived amongst men who inculcated and eulogised drill, which would enable battalions to “wheel like a wall and swing like a gate.”

His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught was also a warm supporter of modern ideas, and while serving on our drill committee, strenuously advocated more space in the ranks, and the delegation of control to section commanders.

Prior to the commencement of each drill season I recapitulated the most common mistakes made in the previous year, and thus to some extent avoided their repetition. At the end of the season, 1892, I drew up a paper relating to Artillery; it was my own compilation, but the technical part of it came either from Colonel James Alleyne, who was admittedly one of the best Field Artillery men in the Service, or from Colonel N. Walford, employed in the War Office, who was the most scientific Gunner I ever knew, and whose knowledge of the Arm was remarkable. From him I had the advantage of a frank criticism on every Artillery decision which I gave at Aldershot, for he paid me the compliment of differing from me whenever he thought I was in error.

I was corresponding with Colonel Ian Hamilton,[312] then in India, on Musketry questions, and I sent him my paper on Artillery, dated 24th September 1892, with the result that Lord Roberts circulated it to the Artillery in India, Ian Hamilton writing: “I don’t think he has before received a paper on this subject which has so absolutely carried him along with it.” Five years later, when I was Adjutant-General, I got Ian Hamilton home, to take over the School of Musketry at Hythe, from the conviction that to his effort was due the great improvement of our soldiers’ rifle shooting in India.

I took advantage of a rest day in the Cavalry manœuvres of 1890 to ride over the Down land between Swindon and the River Kennet, and in the winter of 1892–93 I revisited the ground, and got permission from the Earl of Craven to address all his tenants, and he gave me the free access to his estate, much of which was in his personal occupation. I obtained the use of 11 miles from east to west, with a mean of 5½ from north to south, on which some useful work was done. One day we practised a frontal attack, having 15,000 troops on the ground.

It is interesting to record that the Rector of Liddington, unsolicited by anyone, wrote that “in spite of his Rectory being practically surrounded by camps, neither he nor his family experienced even a shadow of inconvenience.”

I reported that the mistakes made by the officers were fewer, and were more readily acknowledged at the discussions on the conclusion of each tactical exercise. I added, “These conferences have been very useful in the improvement of our battle training. These, however, are by no means the only advantages obtained for the Army; such manœuvres induce officers to study their profession more keenly than they otherwise would do, and the inhabitants of the districts visited have now, I am confident, an increased respect for the Army as a Training school for the nation.” The cost of the manœuvres was £7200.

When returning to Aldershot I received a telegram from Lady Jeune, at Arlington Manor, “Bring all Staff for weekend,” and replied, “Too many: 11 officers, 2 women, 12 servants, 23 horses.” She answered, “Pray come, the more the merrier,” and we went.

I had known Lady Jeune for years, but my close friendship with her gifted husband, terminated only by his death, had begun from a visit he paid to me at Aldershot, in 1892. Besides unbounded hospitality, he greatly assisted me later as Judge Advocate-General, for to an intense desire for justice he added a disregard for technicalities.

In the Spring I was asked to choose a course for the Divisional Point to Point races, and Captain Norton Legge,[313] on a somewhat indifferent horse, won the Light-weight race from his attention to the instructions, which I printed, and handed round to every rider, besides the verbal explanation. Mr. Harris of Westcourt, Finchampstead, who had always provided foxes for us in his covert near Hook Station, gave me the use of his land. I pointed out to the riders a church in the distance, telling them they had to pass east and by north to the west of the church, on rounding which they would see a balloon in the air, and if they rode straight for the church going out, and the balloon coming home, I would be answerable there would be no wire or unjumpable fences in the line. Legge, an excellent officer, rode absolutely straight, and consequently won.

* * * * *

The new Ranges at Aldershot enabled us to hold the Army Rifle meeting there, causing a great increase in Regimental Rifle clubs. At the Annual meeting there were 2000 individual entries, and a large number of teams.

Besides the tactical exercises carried out against the Field columns, which as in 1889 marched round Aldershot using Government ground or commons, we had a useful practice for the first time in mobilising a Divisional ammunition column, which was made up to war strength by borrowing men and horses from Batteries. We learnt a great deal in the packing arrangements of the boxes, and in so marking them as to be recognisable at night, when on service much of the replenishing of ammunition columns has necessarily to be effected. All the Artillery officers showed great interest in this practice, which so far as I know had not been previously attempted.

In the last few months of my Command the Administrative Staff had a lesson from my ingrained habit of looking into details. A new form of lamp chimney had been for some time under trial, and all the reports were unanimous in its favour. A letter to this effect was put before me for signature by an officer, whom I asked, “Have you personally tried the chimnies?” “No, but the Reports are unanimous in its favour.” “Well, I’ll wait a day or two.” “Please, sir, we’ve had one reminder already, and the Director of Contracts is anxious for a Report.” I declined to be hurried, but invited the Staff officer to dine that evening. After dinner I said, “Come for a stroll,” and we walked over to the nearest barracks, and asked some men sitting at the tables: “How do you like those lamp chimnies?” “Very well; we don’t pay much for them.” “Pay, to whom do you pay?” “To Messrs. T. White & Co.” “What, for the hire?--where is the Government new pattern?” “Oh, sir, locked up in the Quartermaster’s store; we can’t use them, as so many break.”

In my first year of command Mr. Garth’s hounds drew all the Government woods blank. I sent for the Warders and informed them that if it occurred again they would all be changed round;--that is, those on the East would go to the West, and those in the North would go to the South of Aldershot. Lord Cork was kind enough to send me some cubs from his estate, and I kept them in a large enclosure with an artificial earth until they were old enough to work their way out. We seldom found less than a leash, but in my time never succeeded in killing one.

The days the cubs were delivered Major Burn Murdoch, Royal Dragoons, calling to see me about five o’clock, asked if he might speak to me. “Yes, you can talk to me while I am engaged in a sporting operation, and as you are also very fond of it, here you are, snip this one’s ears.” He said with much adroitness: “Certainly, General, if you hold him!” The Master, Mr. Garth of Haines Hill, who hunted the hounds for nearly half a century, wrote to me on my departure in the autumn from Aldershot: “I thank you for all you have done, which is a very great deal, while at Aldershot for the Fox hounds.”

I left Aldershot for Pall Mall in October, having satisfied my two friends, Sir Redvers Buller and Viscount Wolseley, to whose advocacy I owed my appointment; Redvers Buller told me at the time, and repeated his pleasant remark when he went to command at Aldershot in 1897. Lord Wolseley wrote to me as follows: “You have not only taught men a great deal, but have managed to popularise the acquisition of military knowledge.”

I wrote to the Adjutant-General in my final Report that “The success obtained was due to the excellent spirit prevailing in all Ranks, and to the careful and unceasing labours of the Staff of the Aldershot Division. These officers, by their knowledge, energy, and loyal assistance, have relieved me of all details of work, and have thus enabled me to devote my attention to the Field training and Tactical instruction of the troops”; and in a farewell order I recorded my thorough appreciation of the sustained zeal with which soldiers of all Ranks had seconded my efforts in preparing the Division for the duties of active Field Service.