GREAT SOLDIER

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 250, 18 July 1933, Page 9

GREAT SOLDIER

Centenary of Wolseley WORK FOR ARMY REFORM One hundred years ago last month Garnet Joseph Wolseley was born—on June 4, 1833. His term as commander-in-chief of the British Army expired In November, 1900, and he died °n March 26, 1913, just a year before the great struggle for which he had prepared the British Army. In every sense he was a born soldier, says the military correspondent of the London “Observer.” He had a passion for military history, delighted in mathematics, had a real aptitude for drawing, and was a keen sportsman withal. His father, one of fourteen children, died in straitened circumstances, and young Garnet and his brothers were sent to a day school In Dublin. In his nineteenth year he received, without purchase, and in recognition of his father’s services, an ensign 'commission in the 80th Foot. In the Crimea.

lij the eight ‘years which followed the career of young Wolseley was a stirring one, for in that time he saw active service in four campaigns. In March, 1853, he was seriously wounded while leading an attack upon a Burmese stronghold. Transferred to the 90th, he landed in the Crimea, just after the battles of Balaclava and Inkerman, and did valuable work as an engineer in the trenches before Sebastopol, where a shell wound deprived him permanently of the use of his right y jt was in the trenches that Wolseley met a young engineer officer whose “clear blue ej-es searched your inner soul.” This was Charles Gordon, to be associated, 30 years later, with Wolseley’s career.' In the Mutiny Wolseley distinguished himself with his regiment ah the second relief of Lucknow, and later served as a staff officer under Sir Hope Grant. After the Mutiny Sir Hope Grant was ordered to China with 11,000 men to operate with a French force against Peking. On the conclusion of this campaign Wolseley was a lieutenantcolonel at 26 years of age, with service in four campaigns. But it was in the Western Hemisphere that Wolseley’s real chance came. Sent out there in 1861 in consequence of the “Trent” affair, lie remained in Canada in connection with the reorganisation of the Canadian militia. The command of an expedition in 1870 to suppress a small rebellion at Fort Garry was entrusted to him. The Red River Expedition involved an inland water “march” of 600 miles through a wilderness, over a watershed 800 feet up. It was a job which required the mosti perfect, organisation and “staff work” amounting to genius. Wolseley carried it through without mishap, and without the loss of a single life. It was a triumph of bandobast. Army Reform.

With such-a great reputation Wolseley’s views on military affairs could not be ignored. The Franco-German War startled the world. There was in England a clear case for Army reform. Wolseley showed himself an out-and-out radical for the cause. He strongly supported the abolition of purchase and the introduction of the short-service system, two measures which were adopted. At this time Wolseley was probably one of the most unpopular officers in the Army, but no one could impugn his motives or deny his experiences.

A very difficult, but decisively successful campaign in Ashanti in 1873 enhanced Wolseley’s reputation as a commander in the field; and after the disaster at Isandhlwanha, in Zululand, in 1879, he was hurried out to relieve Lord Chelmsford. The victory of Ulundi had, however, been won before he arrived. Then came the inevitable review of the Army system, made necessary by the campaigns in Zululand and Afghanistan. Wolseley advocated and carried through the localisation and linking of battalions of infantry by which mobilisation and drafting were immensely facilitated. At the end of 1881 he became, as Adjutant-General, what was then virtually the bead of the Army. Egypt in 1882. with the lightning stroke of Tel-el-Keblr, and the hurrying, forward of the cavalry to seize Cairo, confirmed the popular verdict of Wolseley as “England’s only general,” and made “Alt Sir Garnet” a catchword for efficiency and precision. But, two and a half years later, came the great disappointment of his life, when, by the procrastination of the Government, the expedition under Wolseley to rescue Gordon in Khartum arrived just too late, and he returned to England smarting under the sense of failure, though the fault was not his own. Some of the most valuable work of his life was, however, yet to follow. After the terms of command.in Ireland, he succeeded the Duke of Cambridge as commander-in-chief, a post he held for five .wars from 1895 to 1900. Practical. intellectual, widely-read, devoted to his profession, and a man of the loftiest ideals, it was to Wolseley that the efficiency of the Old Contemptibles Army of 1914 was largely due.