LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR E. HAMLEY, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7318, 30 July 1885, Page 4

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR E. HAMLEY, X.C.8., K.C.M.G.

(St. Stephen's lieview.') No war iii which England has been engaged was so prolific of deeds of daring, both by sea; and land, as the war of the Revolution and the Empire, which raged,- with two brief interruptions,' from the year 1793 to 1815 Amongst the naval officers who distinguished themselves during those years was Admiral W i ham Hamley. The youngest son of this distinguished sailor,. Edward Hamlev was born in 1824, at Bodmin.Tn Cornwall It was natural, at that period, when the army and navy of England had but recently emerged from a war which had raised the country to a supreme place in the councils of Europe, Edward Hamley should have yearned for the profession of arms. He was "entered then, as a cadet, in due course; at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich; stayed there for two years; and received his commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery ig 1843: Alter A years Service in Ireland,then much disturbed, Edward Hamley joined; as first lieutenant, ti battery in Canada, and served four years in that country. He returned to England in 1848, and was quartered for two years, first at Tynemonth and then at Carlisle Castle, i Thence, on promotion to the rank of captain, he was transferred, in 1850, to Gibraltar, and served there till 1853. On the out-; break of the Crimean, War in that year' Colonel (now General Sir Richards) Dacres; who was appointed to command a division oE the artillery of the army ordered to proceed to the Bosiphorus,-. selected Edward Hamley to accompany him as his adjutant. In that capacity he served—in the first division of the army commanded by 11. R.H. the Duke of Cambridge— at the landing in the Crimea, at the action on Hie Bulganak, at the battle of the Alma (where his- horse was wounded under him' by a cannon-shot), at the action of Mackenzie's •Farm, at the battle of Balaclava, and at the battle of Inkerman. In his last battle Edward Hamley had a curious experience. His horse was first wounded; by a musket ball and the killed by a cannon-shot, which passed through him and threw him on the rider. A sergeant who. was extficltiiig Hamley had his leg paitied off iii the act; a second cannon-shot then passed through the horse on the ground. Unscathed himself, Hamley proceeded then, on foot, though lame from' a recent accident, along what Kinglake calls in his History the " Kitspuiv" a ridge thrown out, from the British position towards the enemy. Suddenly he found himself almost surrounded by a large Russian force, before which the English, posted in the sandbag battery, whose ammunition was exhausted, were retreating. Hamley almost gave himself up for lost. He endeavoured, however, in junction with the late Lord Balgonie, of the Guards^ but in vain,- to rally the retreating men; but he succeeded, though with great difficulty,- in getting past the - enemy and in regaining the British position. Subsequently he caught li succession two masterless French horses, both of which, however, werewoundedinthecourse ol the battle. In the brevet given for Inkerman, Edward Hamley was promoted to the rank of major. It was on his~return from Canada, in 1847, that Hamley made his first plunge in literature, publishing in "Fraser's Magazine" a paper called "Snow Pictures," describing an expedition made1 with some Indian hunters "from Quebec into' the woods of Maine in the winter. He followed this up with a novel called " The Peace Campaign of Ensign Fauhce." Eiufihg his stay of nearly four years at Gibraltar he began 'that connection with .^Blackwood" which has never terminated.- On leaving the Staff College, Hahiiej'j some time previously promoted to the rank of brevetcolonel, joined the 13th Brigade K.A. at Dover Castle. At this time lie embodied the information he had gained, and the conclusions he had drawn during his professorship in a large work entitled " The Operations of War." In 1882, Sir Edward being then a lieutenant-general, he was appointed to command one of the two army corps which were to be employed in the autumn manoeuvres. The expedition to Egypt came to supersede these manoeuvres, and of that expedition Sir E. Hamley was selected to command the 2nd Division. On joining that expedition, near Alexandria* he found it qnite insufficiently protected against any. attack which it might please Arabi to make. * Hamley at once set to work with'his engineers to throw up strong defences at Ramleh, covering Alexandria; whilst at the same time he detained Arabi in his position' by demonstrations, so as to allow the rest of the army under Sir Garneb Wolseley to- land' at ; Isinaitta; This having been accomplished, Hamley, under instructions from Sir Garnet, and with the concurrence, obtained by the exercise of great tact, of Sir E. Malet, who wa3 naturally unwilling to lessen the number of the defenders of Alexandria, took the Highland Brigade of his division to Ismailia, arrived there September 1, and on the 9th commenced the movement towards the front through the desert which was to terminate in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. On the morning of September 11 he reached Kassassin and joined the headquarters camp there. Qn the 12th, at nightfall, Sir Edward;- with his brigade strnck camp and moved to a rendezvous in the desert, ~where he was joined by a brigade, formed for the occasion, of the 3rd Battalion Royal JtiHes and the 46th Regiment, which thus became his second brigade. Half-an-liour after midnight Sir Edward gave instructions as.to how to follow in support to the commander' of that brigade, and rode forward to the Higland Brigade, which he then directed in its advance upon the enemy's position. - After marching four hours, and at the rery moment of dawn, Sir Edward came upon the highest and strongest part of the enemy's position, consisting of two strong works, armed with artillery and riflemen, about half-a-mile apart, connected by an entrenchment. From this whole front the enemy opened at once a heavy and wellsustained fire.' The Highlanders, nevertheless, attacked it immediately with the bayonet, and, after a fight of nearly half-an-hour, established themselves, with the regiments of the supporting brigade, within the works. This was effected by the 2nd Division entirely single-handed, no other troops being anywhere near during the conflict. Leaving his second brigade still engaged round the strongest fort, Sir Edward led the most advanced Highland troops against the.interior line of the enemy's works, and captured the whole, with many batteries of cannon, and finally seized the Egyptian camp and the railway-station with its trains. Throughout these operations no other British troops were oven visible to the 2nd Division. Nevertheless, in Sir G. Wolseley's official account of the battle, the part in it taken by that division was as much as possible ignored ; the particular circumstances which marked their successful advance were suppressed; whilst their whole action was merged into a general account of the movements of the army. All official recognition of the splendid deeds of that division having been denied to them, Sir Edward considered it as a duty he owed to his troops :md to himslf to write a plain account of their achievements in the Nineteenth Century for December ISS2. Sir Edward by this action made the leading men of the country, at all events, acquainted with facts which the Government and the Press generally had combined with the Com-mander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expedition to conceal. Besides the decorations of X.C.8,, received in November ISB2, and K.C.M.G., Sir Edward ha« received that of Grand Officer of the Medjidie from the Sultan in 1880, and that of Grand Officer of the Osmanie from the Khedive in 1882.