ARCHIBALD FORBES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2413, 31 May 1900, Page 55

ARCHIBALD FORBES.

(By David Christie Murray.)

The world is the poorer since a late hou? on Thursday night by the loss of a right? valiant and gifted man. No one of hig old comrades in the field will grudge him his well-earned repute as the greatest of war correspondents. Sir William Russell, the father of us all, who is now in the eighties, and made his reputation early in the second half of the century, and old colleagues and rivals like George Augustus Henty and Charles Williams have never failed to recognise the brilliance, the energy, tlie courage and resource which' characterised Forbes's work from the beginning of Ms career. It was never my good fortune to ba Avith him in the field of war, though we lay pretty near cash other at the siege of Plevna, Avh^n I was one of the imprisoned and Forbes was with, the Russian leaguer, but I knew him well enough to owe him many kindnesses in the beginning of, my journalistic pilgrimage in London. With people who knew him superficially he passed as being something of a Tartar. He was brusque to the verge of insolence and tyranny — I have known him pass the verge— but I have never known a man of riper nattire when the crust of manner was once broken through. He liked to domineer, but he liked verymuch better to encounter a man who would not submit to his, domination. Personally I Avon his friendship by telling him in our first encounter chat if he fulfilled his threat of throwing me out of the windoAv I Avould take^especially good care that he came with me. I haA r e told the story elsewhere and long ago, bub it is so characteristic that at this time 'I may venture to repeat it. It was at tne time of the Pelsall Hall Colliery disaster, and Forbes and I arrived in the village -on the fame afremoon, he from London, I from Birmingham. There Avas but one decent house in the wholeplace, and from the houseAvife I secured rights of occupation over a bedroom at a> rate of half-a-erown per day. Forbes had, as it turned out, made a similar arrangement with the master of the house. We met, and he stated his claim. I* stated mine. He threatened \iolence, and 1 promised self-defence. The episode ended in a burst of laughter. -and we spun a coin for choice betAreen bed and sofa. I forget who Avon, for there jvas little enough ,of sleep for either of us until he went away. In. this first combat with him in the journalistic lists I Ava& the winner, becpaxse I happened to speak the local dialect, and Forbes did not. I accompanied the first rescue party into the drowned-out mine, found the first dead body, came through a moment of giwe danger Avhen a breach in a .stable Avail let in a deadly choke damp which extinguished our candles and went near to extinguishing our liA-es, mounted a horse I had secretly stabled behind a beer-house earlier in the day, rode into Birmingham, stopped tho press for lavo columns of descriptive matter written at headlong haste, and presented iny&elf at the breakfast table next morning. There my great riA r al read my story, and without a "word, good, bad, or indifferent, walked away, -packed his belongings, and departed. I said to myself that I had made an enemy, but a year later, Avhen'Fate threw me on the streets of London, he took me to the manager of the Daily News, iioav Sir John Robinson, took me to poof dear Edmund Yates, -the kindliest and most generous editor I ever worked under, and generally shepherded me into safe plains. There was no room for small jealousies in Forbes, and my passport to his most helpful friendship was that I once had the luck to beat him, AA'hen the cards of the game happened to fall to niy haud. He wrote on any theme he handled Avith force and vigour, but he was more at home on the battlefield than elseAvhere, and he had the eye of a born strategist for the disposition of an army. I haA r e always

thought that he would have made an -ideal leader of irregular cavalry, and at the time of the Penjdeh scare lie asked for and obtained a promise of such a position. It cams to nothing, but I have no doubt at all that if the opportunity had been afforded him he would have justified himself splendidly. His experience of war was very nearly unique. Perhaps Sennet Burleigh may have seen as much of it 'by now, but % am not quite certain. Henry Pearse, E. ' F. Knight and Frank Scudamore may come t piest, but unless Burleigh' s experiences >since Forbes retired from active service have him up to the latter's record, he Jiad no rival in the extent of his practical knowledge of warfare. He began with the iFrauco-German campaign, he saw the finish •of the Commune, he was with the Carlists, ,±he Republicans, and the. Alf onsits in turn an the civil wars of Spain, he was through .the whole Servian war, and ihe followed the •fortunes of the Eussian flag from the crossing of the Pruth to the investment of Constantinople. He marched to Jellalabad /with the Ehyber Pass expedition, and jvitaiessed the capture of Ali Musjid. He was complimented in despatches for his ser.vices to the wounded, and for at least one action -which merited the Victoria Cross. 'From Afghanistan his singularly adventurous' fate and profession took 'him to Mandalay, and from M'andalay to South Africa, where he attached himself to Lord Chelmsiord, and reported the battle of TJlundi. [Perhaps that was the greatest of his achievements, for he rode alone through an enemy^s .country a distance of one hundred anil twenty miles to carry his message, and he ,-was the 'first" to communicate to Garnet •Wolseley, Sir Barfcle Frere, and the British Houses of Parliament the news of victory. He had suffered for years from a peculiarly distressing malady, and at last this and the privations and hardships of campaigning wore even his iron constitution down. But when last I met him he was still soldierly, cheery, and upright, in spite of the burden of coming age and much pain. One finds with a sort of surprise ■that he was only 62 years of age. It is not often one hears of a life so crammed

with exciting experiences, but he found ' time to lecture for some three years through the Australasian colonies, the United States, and Canada, and to write a rathe* considerable shelf full of books.