THE MOMENT OF FOLLY

Evening Star, Issue 18925, 27 April 1925, Page 5

THE MOMENT OF FOLLY

BRILLIANT OFFICER RUINED CHIVALRY IN DOCK AND HEROIC RETRIEVAL [By 'Horace Windham, in the ‘Sunday Chronicle.’] In August, 3875, the occupant of a high staff appointment at Aldershot, who was also the colonel of a crack cavalry regiment and a soldier with a distinguished record, stood in the dock at Croydon Assizes to answer a particularly shameful charge reflecting upon his character ns an officer and a gentleman. After only a Quarter of an hour’s deliberation the jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to undergo twelve months’ imprisonment and to pay a fine of £SOO. As an inevitable result he was also dismissed the Army, “ Her Majesty,” so the London ‘Gazette’ announced, “having no further occasion for his services.” He had endeavored to avoid this crowning disgrace by voluntarily resigning his commission. H is resignation, however, had not been accepted, the authorities deciding to “cashier ” him instead. PUBLIC SYMPATHY. The unhappy man who thus at one fell swoop lost his military rauk and 1 is position m society, and whose name became a byword, was Valentine Baker, excolonel of the 10th Hussars, and assistant-quartermaster-general at Aldershot. The charge alleged against Colonel Baker, and which brought about his ruin, was that of committing an assault on a lady travelling with him in a railway carriage. The affair attracted tremendous interest not only throughout the Army, but also in the leading clubs and society generally. Public sympathy was undoubtedly with the accused, and' it was felt that the case would collapse and resolve itself into one of hallucination on the part of the accuser. But this was not to he. There was no mii-token identity, no overwrought imagination or hysteria. What there was instead was a remarkable and, in the circumstances, shocking story. TRAIN ENCOUNTER.

The hare outlines as unfolded from the brief of counsel for the prosecution ran as follow

On the afternoon of June 17 a young and attractive Indy of good family, Miss Rebecca Kate Dickenson, was travelling alone in a fust class railway carriage from Midhurat to London. At Liphook a gentleman, whom she identified as tho prisoner. entered the compartment He talked to her in a cultured fashion on various subjects, and, discovering that they had some common interests, she responded. On leaving Woking, however, lie suddenly suggested point blank that she should correspond with him. When she indignantly refused Ins manner changed. Crossing over to the scat next her he nut his arm round her waist and kissed her repeatedly. This conduct, so terrified her that she screamed for help, and attempted to jump out of the carriage. The passengers in the adjoining compartment, hearing her cries and seeing her standing on the footboard, stopped the train. REEUSED TO EXPLAIN. As the guard arrived to learn what had occurred tho unknown stranger endeavored to reassure her. “ Don t say anything, he begged; “if you do yon don’t know what trouble you will get me into. Just tell him you were frightened.” The guard, however, was no fool, lie had eves in Ins head, and acted with commendable promptitude. _ Under his direct ion the young lady, in a stale of collapse, was attended to by the Dev. James Brown, a clergyman, who happened to he among the passengers, and the stranger was locked up in another carriage." On reaching Waterloo he was escorted to tho superintendent’s oflicc, where he gave his name as Colonel Valentino Baker, 10th Hussars, and his address as the Army and Navy Club, Pall Mall. He refused,‘however, any explanation of his conduct, beyond declaring that Miss Dickenson “ had reported: tho case incorrectly.” These were the links in the chain that led to his appearance at Guildford Police Court that summer morning on June 18, 1875. £4,000 BAIL. On the conclusion of the first day's 1 hearing the defendant was remanded on hail of £SOO. This being granted, the next hearing took place on June 24. Mr Poland then appeared for the prosecution, and Mr Henry Hawkins, Q.O. (afterwards Lord Brampton), was Driefed by Colonel Baker. Only formal evidence was given, and the accused was fully, committed. He was, however, granted bail in his own recognisances in £2,000, and two sureties in £I,OOO each. Those, substantial sureties were at once furnished by his brother, Sir Samuel Baker, ami Viscount Valontia, a. captain in the 10th H ussars. MR HAWKINS’S PROBLEM. Tho first witness at tho Assize trial in August was Miss Dickenson, and the evidence of tho assault to which she had been subjected was corroborated by the guard and other passengers. As no witnesses wore called for tho defence the task entrusted to Mr Hawkins was a very difficult one. All he could 1 do for his client, who hud pleaded not guilty, was to suggest that the gravity of tho (barge had been exaggerated. He had to light against unsurmountable odds. This was because Colonel Baker, from a rare sense of chivalry, had absolutely refused to allow him to cross-examine Miss Dickenson. “ I was debarred,” he wrote afterwards, “by his express instructions from putting a single question.” Referring to the case in later years, tho distinguished advocate observed : 1 say to his honor that, as a gentleman and a British officer, lie preferred to take; to himself tho ruin: of Jus own character, the forfeiture of his commission in the Army, the loss of his social status, and all that would make life worth having, to easting even a, doubt on the lady’s veracity in the witness box . • tho manliness of his defence showed him naturally to ho_n man of honor, who, having been guilty of serious misconduct, did ail he could to amend tho wrong ho had done; and so ho won my sympathy in his sad mis-

fortune an d misery. Generous words, but not entirely unmerited. DISTINGUISHED RECORD. The accused’s record was fully described. It was a distinguished one, and showed that Valentine Baker, manned, -aged 48, was a man of good family. With his elder brother, Sir Samuel Baker, tho famous African explorer, he had gone as a young man to Ceylon, where, having a taste for soldiering, 'ho joined the Ceylon Rifle,-.. In 1852, however, ho exchanged into tho 12th Lancers, and served with them in the Kaffir War, and afterwards in tho Crimea, being present at Sebastopol. On becoming a major, ho was transferred to the 10th Hussars, which ho brought to such a high stale of efficiency that lie. soon lose to the command. This position ho held for thirteen years, and while he occupied it King hldward, then Prince of Wales, served under him at tho Curragn. He had also written important books on military tactics and travel. Tho ’ judge’s summing up was severe. Yet, considering the unchallenged evidence that ha.d been submitted, there could only he one verdict. In a breathless hush of expectancy the dread word “Guilty’ was pronounced by tho foreman ot the jury. Thereupon His Lm-dship turned to the oecupant of the -dock, who stood erect and soldier-like before him. SENTENCED.

" You have attained,” he said, in measured, cutting tones, “ a high rank and reputation. I cannot forget that for your distinguished services in the past your country is indebted to you. , , , I hope that some future day you may be allowed, by some brilliant service of which, you are so well capable, to wipe out the injury you have done to yourself and the dishonor you have done to your country. Yct-i # same-esaL'efles.ritapu

you, and that sentence is that you ho im») prisoned for twelve mouths in the common.! gaol, that you pay a fine of £SOO, and, that you also pay all the costs of this; prosecution, and he further imprisoned! for three.months until they are paid.” j A tap on the shoulder from an attend-) ant warder, a last despairing look round] the crowded court, and the ex-colonel ot\ Hussars .steps into the shadows. _ \ HOW HE “MADE GOOD, H A Stripped thus of his rank tmdeommi*-j sion, Ins name removed from his clubs, [ and the doors of society, closed upon him, ■ the average man would have disappeared j or sunk into utter obscurity, if not worse. * But Valentine Baker was not au average ’•* man. He was a good deal more. With rare grit arid courage, the moment he emerged from prison ho left England and. wont to Constantinople. At the outsat luck favored him. The Russo-Turkish War was in progress, and the Sultan accepted his services and appointed him to the gendarmerie. He was next advanced to the command of a division. This waa a job after his own heart, and by a superb _ display of tactics he succeeded in routing j an immensely superior force led by* 1 , Gourko. As a reward he was loaded with honors, and nude a lieutenant-general in t the Turkish army. From triumph to triumph Balter Pasha,ns ho had now become, was next invited to command the newly-established Egyptian array. Ou reaching Cairo, however, i a disappointment was in store, and the-} promised military position was altered tot that of Chief of Police. Making the best! of a bad job, he threw himself into the] work with characteristic vigor, and did it so well that he was soon transferred to a force of gendarmerie acting in .conjunction with tho native troops. In FebrnV ary, 1884, he led this body to the relief of;. Tokar. ’When, however, they met the i! enemy at El-Teb they disgraced themselveiJ by running away. PLEA FORv REINSTATEMENT.

Thereupon Sir Gerald Graham took him l on his own staff, and, as an intelligence!* officer, he guided the British troops across* the desert to tho second battle of EhTeb/ which,* occurring three weeks later, W suited in a victory. A proud moment, this, for Valentino Baker to find himself serving once more with officers and men of the 10th Hussars from which he had been cashiered nine years earlier. _ , In recognition of Ins personal gallantry at El-Teb, where he was wounded, strong' efforts were made by Valentino BakerV friends to reinstate 'him in tho British-* Army. , j Tho Prince of Wales, the Duko of Cam-: bridge* Lord' Wolseley, a,nd Lord Cromer! (then Sir Evelyn Baring) supported tbs-' proposal. Queen Victoria, however, was' adamant. As rg result, the ex-colonel of Hussar* - went back to the command of tho Egyptian police. This post he held until his 3 death, which, due to heart _ disease, COcurred in ISIJ7 at Tel-El-Ivehir,