MEN WHO HAVETWICEWON COMMISSIONS FROM THE RANKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2412, 24 May 1900, Page 60

MEN WHO HA VETW ICEWO N COMMISSIONS FROM THE RANKS.

If it i? in effect little more than a jjleasant fiction that a Field-marshal's baton is within i the reach of any British private, there are at least many instances to prove that it is possible for " Tommy Atkins 1 " to ihridge the gulf which divides the rank and ifile from the ranks of colonels and generals. It is true that only one man in the British Army has succeeded in climbing from the very lowest rung in the ladder of promotion to the rank, of a full general ; and to discover him we have to go-back* to the caraway days of the Georges. Sir John Elley, who began his> soldiering as a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, won almost every honour, with one exception, that the army had to give. He became a full general, the trusted friend and adviser of the Duke of Wellington, was thanked by Parliament, and ikriigbted by George 111.- and in his days of retirement sat in Parliament for the Royal t 'Borough, of .Windsor. ' A contemporary and fellow General of Sir John, though of lower rank, was General Anderson, who survived Waterloo by seven years. Anderson, who was born in 1746, was "the, son of. poor parents; and on iiis father's death his mother was so destitute and homeless that she was glad to cradle her child in. a stone 'basin in the a-uined 'Cathedral of Elgin. When the boy grew to manhood he entered the East India Company's service as a private, and displayed such zeal and abi"lity that he was ultimately promoted to the rank of general. His name is still associated with Elgin, where he was so strangely cradled, in connection with a charity for the relief of the poor. When young Anderson and his mother were living among the ruins of Elgin Cathedral, Joseph Brome was a drummer jn the Royal Regiment of Artillery, then stationed at Minorca. He was a lad of singular smartness, and developed soldierly qualities so rapidly that he was given a commission before he was 30. He ultimately rose to*" the rank of lieutenant-general, and transmitted his gifts to a son and grandson, who became generals in turn. The Gordon Highlanders have perhaps produced more men who have risen from the " ranks than any other ' British regiment. It is pot many years since Colonel Stacpoole, whose skill in superintending the embarking of our troops at Southampton has evoked so much admiration, joined the Gordons as a private. When lie received his commission he was transferred to the Royal Irifh JTusiliei?, aad has since dene much excellent work in the Aimy Seivice Corps. It was also as a Gordon that General Hector MacdonH I d, the Inverness draper's ■apprentice, won the choice between the Victoria Cross and a ccramission, and was farseeing enough to chooie the latter. Another " gallant Gordon " enjoyed the almost unique distinction of twice passing from the non-commissioned to the com-

missioned rank.?. In the 3rd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment Man&ell Fenwick rose to the rank of captain, only to resign his commission and v enlist as a jtfivate in the Gordons, in which -he quickly secured- a restoration to. commissioned rank. Perhaps the only other example of a double promotion was in the case of John Shipp, a poor- orphan boy of Saxmundhain, in Suffolk, who enlisted in tho 22nd Regiment of Foot more than a century ago. He fought with conspicuous valour " in South xl'friea and India, and ~wa's> twice commissioned before he was 30.

Major-general Luke O'Connor, who won the Victoria Cross at Alma 45 years ago, was a private soldier at iB and an ensign five years later, when he fought so bravely in the Crimea. He is happily still with us, and with Hector lYlacdonald is a striking example of the possibilities of the private soldier.

Another major-general of our day who has risen from the ranks is Major-general Sexton, m the retired list of the Indian Army; while Colonel Eyre, who disci fighting bravely in the Battle of ' Dulka 15 years ago, also proved that if a " ranker " may not touch the marshal's baton, he can at least make a long journey in its direction.