Robert Hamilton Vetch

“ The report of Havelock's earlier victories had been received with a burst of enthusiasm in England as the first gleam of light after the darkness of revolt and massacre, and his hitherto almost unknown name was on every tongue. As success followed success he became the popular hero, and the knowledge of his earnest religious character deepened the effect upon the public. ”

“ Considering his line of defence to be too extended for the diminished garrison, Chard constructed an inner entrenchment of biscuit tins, and had just completed a wall two boxes high when the enemy were seen advancing at a run.
The Zulus were met with a well-sustained fire, but, taking advantage of the cover afforded by the cookhouse and accessories outside the defence, replied with heavy musketry volleys, while a large number ran round the hospital and made a rush upon the mealie-bag breastwork. After a short but desperate struggle they were driven off with heavy loss. ”

“ In June 1882, after serving a year as commandant of the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, Clarke was appointed by Mr. Childers, then secretary of state for war, to be inspector-general of fortifications. Being only a colonel, he was given the temporary rank of major-general. The pending Egyptian campaign at once occupied him. He organised a railway corps, showing admirable discretion in the choice of men [see Wallace, William Arthur James, Suppl. II] . For the general work of his office he secured both naval and artillery advisers, and welcomed every proposal of promise. ”

“ Lawrence and the great lakes of Canada, 'If ever man deserved to be immortalised in this utilitarian age,' says Sir Richard Bonnycastle in 'The Canadas in 1841,' 'it was Colonel John By,' In an unexplored part of the country, where the only mode of progress was the frail Indian canoe, with a department to be organised, workmen to be instructed, and many difficulties to be overcome, he constructed a remarkable work — the Rideau canal. ”

“ Fearing that protracted resistance might cause the Bhoteas to rally, General Tombs called upon a body of Sikh soldiers to swarm up the wall. The men, who had been fighting in a broiling sun on very difficult ground for upwards of three hours, hesitated until Major W. S. Trevor and Dundas of the Royal Engineers volunteered to show the way. They had to climb a wall fourteen feet high, and then to enter a house occupied by some two hundred desperate men, head foremost, through an opening not more than two feet wide. ”

“ In 1877 Strachey was sent to India to arrange with the Indian government the terms for the purchase of the East Indian railway, the first of the guaranteed railways to be taken over by the government on the termination of the original thirty years' lease, and he initiated the policy of and drew up the contract for the continued working of the railway by the company under government control. While in India he presided with great ability over a commission to inquire into the causes of the terrible famine and to suggest possible remedies. ”

“ Western Australia had not so far been a successful colony, and as the government undertook to send out as many free emigrants as convicts the increased supply of labour was welcomed. At the same time a new development of the convict system was to be tried. The prisoners were to be selected with reference to their fitness for colonial life, and, after passing a certain time in a public works prison, were to be sent out to private employment under police supervision, or else employed in public works in various parts of the colony. ”

“ In Egypt his perfect knowledge of Arabic and of Eastern people proved most useful. He was present at the action of Kassassin, the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, and the advance to Cairo, but then, seized with typhoid fever, he was invalided home. For his services he received the war medal with clasp for Tel-el-Kebir, the Khedive's bronze star and the fourth class of the Order of the Medjidie. On recovering his health, Captain Conder devoted himself to plotting the survey and preparing the Memoir of Eastern Palestine. ”

“ Jones may be ranked among the first military engineers of his day. He possessed talents of the highest order; great mathematical knowledge, coupled with sound judgment and deep reflection. He was present at six sieges, and at five of them acted as brigade-major, and his intimate knowledge of the details of these operations gives great value to his published works on them. His reputation as a military engineer was not confined to his own country. ”

“ He arranged for its distribution in Persia by the telegraph staff, and had the satisfaction of finding it very well done. His sound judgment and unfailing tact, together with a power of expressing his views clearly and concisely, enabled him to render important service at the periodical international telegraph conferences as the representative of the Indian government. Special questions frequently arose the settlement of which took him to many of the European capitals, and in the ordinary course of his duties he made repeated visits to India, Turkey, Persia, and the Persian Gulf. ”

“ In following the course of the Zambesi Livingstone discovered the Victoria Falls, where a water-channel a mile wide is suddenly contracted to thirty yards, with a drop of 320 feet, and continues for some thirty miles the bed of a roaring torrent. On 20 Nov. Sekeletu bade farewell to Livingstone at the falls, leaving him a company of 114 men to escort him to the coast. Passing through the Batoka country and the southern borders of the land inhabited by the Bashukulombwe, he managed with his usual tact to appease the suspicions of these people, who had not seen a white man before. ”

“ His appointment took him to Calcutta, where he made the acquaintance of the governor-general, Lord Canning. Canning was so much impressed with his abilities and with a memorandum by him on the relations of India with Persia and with Afghanistan, that he selected him in the spring of 1857 to succeed Sir R. Hamilton in one of the most important political posts in India, the Central India agency. This was the turning-point in Durand's career.
It was well that so strong a man was at the court of Holkar at Indore when the Indian mutiny broke out. ”

“ On the following day, as soon as the city of Delhi was completely captured, the difficult task was allotted to him of ensuring the safety of the gateways. He cleared the city of murderers and incendiaries, and made all the military posts secure from attack. 'On all occasions,' wrote another Delhi hero, 'the exertions of this noble officer were indefatigable. He was always to be found where his presence was most required, and the example he set to his officers and men was beyond all praise. ”

“ The wise policy of Lawrence in at once redressing grievances on assuming the government became now of great importance. With one exception none of the chiefs or of the peasantry attempted to do harm to the fugitives, while most were helpful. The mass of the people in Lucknow itself and the entire Hindoo population held wholly aloof from the outbreak, and, with one single exception, every talookdar, to whom the chance offered itself, aided more or less actively in the protection of Europeans. ”

“ He left Wellington, New Zealand, on the completion of his term of government on 18 March 1889, 'the best and most popular governor that New Zealand has ever had.'
In 1890 Jervois served on Edward Stanhope's consultative committee on coast defence duties. He had strongly advocated, on his return home, both in the press and by lectures, that the defence of naval bases at home and abroad should be in the hands of the navy. The navy, however, consistently adhered to the fundamental principle that its duty is to fight the enemy's ships, and declined to be hampered by any such charge. ”

“ On 27 June the government of Bombay expressed their great satisfaction at the successful termination of the expedition. During his residence in Khandesh, Outram was always ready for dangerous sport, and many a tiger fell to his gun. By his fearless bearing in the presence of danger, and his general prowess in the chase, he won the affection and admiration of the wild men among whom his lot was cast. ”

“ He strongly urged before a committee of the education department that special classes in elementary schools should be provided for the benefit of children of defective intellect, and he advocated the removal of such children, when subject to unhealthy or evil surroundings, to ‘homes’ in order to give them, by family life, an opportunity of development, believing that the proper care of such children would eventually reduce crime and add to the strength and wealth of the nation. ”

“ He presided over Cardwell's 'Localisation Committee' in that year, one of the most important which have ever sat at the war office, whose report, generally adopted, proposed by the fusion of the regular, reserve, and auxiliary forces under the generals commanding districts, to form one army for defence under the Commander-in-chief and by the institution of linked battalions, to have always one at home and one abroad, with depot centres for enlisting and training recruits. ”