The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford

Before taking over the command of the Channel Fleet, to which I was appointed on 4th March, 1907, on my return from the Mediterranean, I proceeded on leave, family affairs calli...

On the 25th of March, 1861, I was appointed naval cadet in the _Marlborough_. As I climbed up her side by the hand-rungs, while my chest was being hoisted in over all, I perceiv...

On my way up to Pekin, I visited Hong Kong, arriving there on 30th September. The island of Hong Kong, being British territory, is a city of refuge; to which sanctuary, just bef...

In January, 1884, General Gordon was entrusted by the British and Egyptian Governments with the impossible task of evacuating the Soudan and of organising its future internal ad...

I shall never forget my first impressions, when, in 1874, I entered Parliament. There was a discussion upon a matter of Local Government. I listened to the speeches made on both...

"You are a Beresford, an Irishman, and a sailor, and if you can't ride, who can? You shall ride my horse in the next race. He is a hard puller, and if only you stick on he will...

Upon the day after the rescue of Sir Charles Wilson's party, a court of inquiry, under my presidency, was held to investigate the conduct of the captains of the two wrecked stea...

The three years succeeding the termination of my appointment at Chatham were mainly occupied with questions of naval reform. The task was of my own choosing; and if, in comparis...

It was invented by the first lieutenant, William Stokes Rees (now Vice-Admiral W. S. Rees, C.B.), who was one of the best gunnery officers I have known. I was appointed to the c...

There is nothing quite so dead as dead politics; therefore I do not intend to dwell upon my political experiences, except in so far as they relate to the purpose for which I ent...

"And while lying near Metemmeh He went--many a time you know-- Up the river in his steamer, Dealing havoc on the foe; And each gallant tar and Jollie That was with him, fighting...

In January, 1887, my routine work at the Admiralty was varied by a trip in the new submarine _Nautilus_ to the bottom of Tilbury Dock, which was very nearly the last voyage of t...

"Comrades, who with us side by side, Did in the brunt of battle stand, Are absent now, their manly forms Lie mouldering in the desert sand." _Songs of the Camel Corps_ (Sergeant...

The story of the Egyptian war may conveniently begin with an account of the affair of the 9th September, 1881, when Tewfik, Khedive of Egypt, met Arabi Pasha face to face in the...

In September, 1875, I was appointed A.D.C. to the Prince of Wales (our late King) to accompany his Royal Highness upon his visit to India. The complete list of the suite was as...

Captain Lord Gillford, afterwards Lord Clamwilliam, was one of the finest seamen, and his ship was one of the smartest ships, in the Service. The _Tribune_ was what we used to c...

"We had beat the foe at Abu Klea, and now had marched all night, Parching with thirst, each longed to see the first faint streak of light, For all expected with the dawn to see...

H.M.S. _Majestic_, first-class battleship, completed in 1895, sister ship to the _Magnificent_ (which was built at Chatham during my time at that port as captain of the Steam Re...

The enthusiasm which I have always felt for the noble sport of rowing induced me, while in command of the _Undaunted_, to publish some notes on the subject of men-of-war pulling...

I wish I could convey to my readers something of the pride and delight which a sailor feels in his ship. But who that has never had the luck to be a deep-water sailor, can under...

The bombardment took place on the 11th July. On the 12th, as I have narrated, the Egyptian soldiery fired the city, looted it, and evacuated the defences. On the same day the Kh...

"When years ago I 'listed, lads, To serve our Gracious Queen, The sergeant made me understand I was a 'Royal Marine.' He said we sometimes served in ships, And sometimes on the...

In 1871, I was appointed flag-lieutenant to Admiral (afterwards Admiral of the Fleet) the Hon. Sir Henry Keppel, commander-in-chief at Plymouth. His flag was flown in the _Royal...

The political situation in Ireland at the time when I entered politics was characteristically exemplified in the Kerry election of 1872, in which I took part. It was fought enti...

Forty-four years had elapsed since I was a midshipman in H.M.S. _Marlborough_, flagship in the Mediterranean, when I hoisted my flag in H.M.S. _Bulwark_ as commander-in-chief up...

A year before the British forces restored order in Egypt, trouble was beginning in the Soudan. One Mahomet Ahmed, who was the son of a boat-builder, and who had the peculiar con...

When I was at Vancouver as a midshipman, I went out after deer upon a pouring wet day. I fired at a deer; the gun, a muzzle-loader, missed fire; I set the stock on the ground in...

I did not like the _Defence_. I thought her a dreadful ship. After the immaculate decks, the glittering perfection, the spirit and fire and pride of the _Marlborough_, the "flag...

When Lord Charles Beresford visited Nippon (from the Chinese Jih Pun, the place or rising of the sun, changed by English pronunciation to Japan), it was the old Japan that he sa...

From Japan we proceeded to China, touching at Chefoo, Shanghai and Hongkong. Nothing could exceed the princely hospitality of the great British mercantile firms in China. It was...

After a brief spell in the royal yacht, I was promoted out of her to lieutenant, and was appointed to the _Galatea_, Captain H.R.H. Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, K.G....

When the men who had gone out to South Africa to take part in the Jameson Raid were passing through the Suez Canal on their way back again, I saw and heard the people in the Bri...

In the days of the sailing Navy, when an accident occurred, the captain knew every method by which it could be repaired, and gave directions exactly how the work was to be done....

When I was relieved, on 1st August (1882), of the post of provost-marshal and chief of police, the _Condor_ was ordered to keep the Mex lines and citadel, which defended the sou...

"England well may speak with wonder Of the small heroic band, Fearlessly, though parched and weary, Toiling 'cross the desert sand; How they met the foeman's onslaught, Firm, un...

Having adopted the practice of asking the officers in the Fleet under my command to write essays upon subjects connected with the Service, I once received a disquisition in whic...

"To Assiout, in a cloud of dust We came, and it made us smile, To see each other's features, till We washed them in the Nile. From there, by boat, to Assouan We came, and every...

In August, 1898, I received from the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Great Britain, whose President was Sir Stafford Northcote, an invitation to proceed on their behalf to Ch...

Shortly after the expiration of my appointment as second in command in the Mediterranean, I was back again in the House of Commons, this time as member for Woolwich, having been...

The _Undaunted_, lying at Alexandria in 1891, was being rigged up for a ball; when a telegram arrived ordering her to go to the rescue of the French cruiser _Seignelay_, which h...

It is easier to take the helm than to be on the con. I have always been on the con. To drop the metaphor, I have looked ahead in matters of naval defence and have pointed out wh...

As the significance of Lord Charles Beresford's doings in China cannot be appreciated save in the light of the knowledge of the international situation in 1898, a brief analysis...

I was sent to sea for the somewhat vague reasons which so often determine a boy's future. There was a belief that I was of a delicate constitution, and an impression--perhaps ju...

My appointment to H.M.S. _Condor_ was dated 31st December, 1881. The _Condor_ was a single-screw composite sloop gun-vessel of 780 tons and 770 h.p., carrying one 4½-ton gun ami...

They came to me first in the _Galatea_, so that their story may fitly be related in this place. Tom Fat the China boy came to me at Kowloon. He was brought to me by his uncle, w...

The Government of Mr. Gladstone, returned to power in 1868, began to disintegrate in 1873. The proximate cause was the Irish University Education Bill, announced in the Speech f...

The proximate result of the fight of the _Safieh_ was of course the fulfilment of its immediate object, the rescue of Sir Charles Wilson's gallant detachment. But, years afterwa...

When, as a youngster, I was sea-fishing at Ascension, my boat made fast to a buoy, I had used all my bait without getting a fish, when a booby gull kindly came and sat on the bu...

By the end of December, 1884, the whole of the expedition was in process of concentrating at Korti. At Korti the Nile fetches a wide arc north-eastward. The chord of the arc, ru...

For the first few weeks after the return of the Desert Column to Korti, we all believed that there would be an autumn campaign, and we looked forward to the taking of Khartoum....

Having received invitations to visit Japan from the Chambers of Commerce and from prominent persons interested in the China trade, I stayed for a short time in that country on m...

The many invitations sent to me while I was in China from the United States determined me to visit that country on the way home; in order to explain to the American nation the s...

I saw the Navy for the first time in the year 1858, when I was twelve years old. The Channel Squadron came into the Downs; the admiral, who was a friend of my father, invited me...

We arrived at Tahiti in June, 1869. Here is the most lovely climate in the world. The inhabitants never seemed to do any work, with the single exception of carrying bananas. In...

At the beginning of the year 1883 I was on my way out to India with Lady Charles in the P. and O. s.s. _Malwa_. Proceeding into Ismailia Lake, the _Malwa_ was rammed by another...

The _Galatea_ arrived at Yokohama on the 29th August 1869. The Duke with his suite, including myself, went up to Tokio (the old Yedo) and took up his quarters at Hama-go-ten, wh...