LORD CHARLES BERESFORD.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9812, 23 August 1897, Page 3

LORD CHARLES BERESFORD.

Fossil. The crowd acclaimed • • Charlie ! " in the familiar way that crowds have in London. Lord " Charlie " in his ride had to go bareheaded in the hot sun from the beginning to the end of the " Record " procession. No hardship that, however, to a man who had marched through the desert to Gak-dul, been knocked over in the rush of FuzzyWuzzy into the big square at Abu-Klea, fought at Metemneh like an ancient Trojan or a fin-de-cilcle Irishman, engaged au Arab battery for a whole day with a steamer at anchor with a round shot through her boiler, put the fear of Allah and the Giaour generally into the whole of the Mahdist forces in the very hour of their victory, actually in the delirious moment of fulfilled prediction, and all in the broad glare of a sun in comparison with which the sun shining on St. Paul's on the 22nd day of June, 1897, was like a painted fire. Lord " Charlie " is sure to have found his hatless condition under the shade of popular applause very much better. But this is not the reason why I have brought this hero up out of the vasty deep which is tbe fishing grouud for the journalist. That would have been without any relevancy. The fact is that Lord Charles Beresford has just said the best thing during the discussion on the main facts of Imperial and colonial defence. He has, moreover, done it just in his particular way, without effort, with much vigour, and at the very best moment—what the scientific people and the novelists call the " psychological moment."

He has always been true to that moment. For example, once upon a time he was weary with a long day after wild goose. For twelve hours he had tramped and shot, and there he was on the deck of his ship, H.M.S. Galatea, Duke of Edinburgh captain, wet, hungry, thoroughly done up, eagerly inhaling the pleasant steam of dinner, one eye on "bitters," the other on the brilliant light shooting up through the hatchway—one of the very best psychological moments, surely. And so it was, but not that way. " Man overboard !" The water was black and icy—it was at the Falkland Islands, and the depth of winter at that—aud there was ice floating all about, making ugly music against the big ship's burnished sides. Lord Charles, a great swimmer, a subscriber to " noblesse oblige," the noblesse in this case of swimming perfection, accepted the psychological moment. Without stopping to take off coat (its pocket- bulging with cartridges) or boots, he just seized a coil of rope with one hand and went overboard from the gangway by which he had just entered. The sentry had gone over from there, rifle, greatcoat, and all, and the only chance was to grip him before he reached the surface. So over went Lord " Charlie," and down be went—down, down, down, until he began to think, as he described it, that the other end of the rope wasn't fastened to anything. But he kept fast hold, as all true sailors do—your sailor never lets go anything when in trouble—and presently overtook his man, grabbed him with the other hand, and in due course arrived in his company at tho surface among the ice. "The ship's Corporal helped us out," says he, in telling the story, " and there an end." The story is typical. It tells of a clear eye for duty of the highest standard, of the courage to do it in spite of difficulties most repellent, of the modesty which makes light of great thing;, done. There was not much difficulty about the psychological moment of the other day. It was simply the moment for saying the right thing about the colonies when everybody not colonial seemed inclined to say wrong things. " You attend to the bases," said Lord Charles, addressing the colonies generally, " and you will do your duty well. We will manage the shipping part of the business, and that is our duty" As a naval officer and ex-Lord of the Admiralty, and a man of vigorous common sense, he could have said nothing better. The colonies agree with them as their defence works show, and they will not forget him. But he always spoke his mind wherever he was p.nd whoever he might be be with. Irrepressible he was always ; it was his chief characteristic, from the first. In Honolulu he beguiled the time by hauling down the American flag flying over the Consul's house; in Holyhead he brought down half the signs in the street; in Portsmouth he had seyeral routids with a "cabby" ; wherever he was he was always in some scrape. In his middle-age it is the same as in his hot youth. He cares for no proprieties —he is bound by no conventionalities. Of the Na\ y and its state, and its ships, and its men he speaks the best that is in him. Whether what he says cuts the hearts of mv Lords of the Admiralty, it is all one to him, he says it. In his young days my Lords ordered his commanding officers to send in monthly reports of the troublesome officer's doings; in his middleage they shiver at his frankness, they delay his promotion, they deprive him of his proper periods of service But he is the most popular officer in the service. There is no one who can fight like him, no one with such splendid daring, no one who lives so systematically up to the old traditions. Neither is there any other who can show such a record of Parliamentary work, undertaken, not for ambition's sake, but for the sake of the service. He knew the ways of the owls in the crow's nest, and he went into Parliament because it stands over that eminence. That he gave a good account of himself there no one;, except my Lords, who are ready to faint when they see uncompromising vigour, for a moment doubts.

By the way, talking of his irrepressibility, few, I dare say, remember a striking example of it in Sydney during the stay of the Galatea. The big dock on Cockatoo Island, which had not long been finished, was remarkable for strange noises at night, for which no one could account. What more natural or more true to historic precedent than a general idea that the place was haunted ? History repeats itself continually. Every thine unknown is given a spiritual source. The popular imagination accordingly evolved grim nightly processions of departed prisoners and tyrannous officials, ghostly orgies, the dance of death, and great was the superstition terror. Lord Charles Beresford undertook to lay the ghost whatever it might be, and succeeded, though by an amusing fluke. Ho spent a night in the dock with the old boatswain of the Galatea, and they spent it in running up and down trying to locate the usual noises, which went merrily on quite regardless of their presence. The irrepressible gave it up at last, but even then he could not be repressed. As he was leaving the dock he emphasised his disappointment as young fellows, will do by lashing out sullenly at a dirty old plank lying across a rugged ledge of rock; and not improbably said a naughty word or so. Over went the plank, and out came two big frogs out of a hole, and lo ! the ghost was found. Lord Charles was on this occasion the irrepressible malgr€ lvi.

On all other occasions he has enacted the role with his full and well-planned concurrence. For instance, driving through Alexandria on the day of the epoch-making massacre with a friend he found the mob closings up around killing right and left, and detected sympathy with the mob in the eyes and dilatoriness of the scoundrel cabby. To make one spring on to the box, take the reins, and drive ahead at full gallop was to Charlie Beresford the most natural thing in the world. On their side the mob found it the most natural thing in the world to fall back on either hand and let the mad thing pass. How close a shave it was, subsequently was seen when seventy-three bodies of Europeans beaten to death were taken out of that same street

The Condor episode that followed is not yet forgotten. " Well done, Condor," the Admiral signalled, acd the whole fleet applauded the little vessel, which handled with the greatest skill and daring, had dodged the gre«t shot for hours, and pounded its big enemy handsomely to boot. The reason why Beresford particularly enjoyed the feat was that it was against orders. He had not been ordered to attack 15 guns with three, the three small, and the rest divided into two 8-ton, two 12-ton, two lOin, two 9in, two 32-pouaders and five mortars. But he attacked, and he managed to silence the fort. It was better than "fluttering about to render assistance and carry messages." After that he waa energetic in the restoring of order, bnt failed to <*et to the front for Tel-el-Kebir, though he tried hard. It was the only suppression of his career.

In 1884 he saw war on land in earnest, getting his first whiff of Arab smoke at Abuklea. He was with Stewart's column as it marched out of camp in square and came in presenceof the enemy. Halting at 400 yds to •tMkig-tca up the -oramttoa, they saw the

enemy spring to their feet under their long lines of waving banners. Drawn up they were in a dense phalanx, with three cones projecting in front each headed by an Emir with a banner. They came on with a swift, quick step—with the steadiness of regular troops on parade. The Mounted Infantry and the Guards faced them ; on the left flank and rear corner were the " Heavies," serving as infantry ; on the rear the Naval Brigade, under Lord Charles Beresford, with the Sussex Regiment making up the left flank, the camels and baggage in the centre. On came the Arabs, swift and springy as panthers, steady as veteran soldiers, in spite of the deadly roll of musketry poured into their thick masses by the Mounted Infantry and the Guards. The dead and wounded falling gave the advancing column the appearance of a labouring ship with great masses of broken water falling away from her bows and sides. " I pitied them from my heart," wrote General Wilson, in his chronicle of the battle, as he testified to their sublime gallantry. " 1 never thought an}' troops could live for 400 yards through such a fire," he added.

When the column got within eighty yards it suddenly moved off to its right, with the precision * and steadiness of a parade manoeuvre, and before anyone knew what was happening it wheeled" suddenly to its right, struck the Heavies and the Navala, and its leaders were among the camels in the centre of the square. The Arabs swept over the Heavies in a whirl, and over the Navals on their right at the saim; moment. Bur* naby bad fallen in front of bis men ; cartridges were jamming in the Martinis in »H directions. Wilson saw the men throwing their rifles from them with curses as the Arabs rushed on them; and there was terrible confusion.

The " Gardner " jammed at this moment in the hands of the Navals. The captain of that gun and Lord Charles were busy trying to free the cartridge when tbe enemy burst upon them. The captain of the gun was killed, Lord Charles was knocked down, and every other officer in the brigade lost his life.

The Arabs lost time among the camels. The rear ranks of the Guards and Mounted Infantry, taking advantage of the delay, faced about and poured in a withering fire, killing camels, officers, Arabs—everything within range. The Heavies and sailors did the same, and the square was restored, not one Arab escaping out of the square they had so gamely broken. Lord Charles did great work that day. His next exploit was the most brilliant of the war. He was lying ill in his brat after the fight at Metemneh, when word was brought to him that Wilson, who had taken two steamers up to Khartoum on that famous expedition of his, was shipwrecked and cut off. In a moment he was out of bed, on board the only available steamer—a thing " rotten with age and caulked with rags " —and going full speed to the rescue. On the way he engaged a big fort mounting two heavy guns, and during the fight his boiler was disabled. All day he fought, and while he fought he drew the fires and got ready for repairing the damage. The necessary boiler-plates he owed to his own forethought. In ten hours the boilerwas mended and during those ten hours Beresford's men had kept down the fire- o£ the Arab artillery. The enemy might have sunlr> him if they had thought of the simple expedient of taking a gun out of their fort and opening fire at a point further down, bufc they did not think of it. In the morninjg the little vessel puffed out in triumph arid saved Wilson and his party. So great was the moral effect of this fight that the enemy refrained from molesting the retreat of the expedition to Korti. But why go on with the story of a brave man, whose story is in many respects the story of the navy of his time ? Th_.tr he will one day be at the head of his profession no one doubts. That he may be the greatest admiral of our time, most men are assured who know the skill that he possesses, who understand his daring character and his fearless independence, and realise his capacity for taking pains, as witness the incident of the boiler-plates of the Safieh. May he one day command in the waters of those countries whose position he understands so well.