Forty Years with a Regiment.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3051, 25 November 1878, Page 2

Forty Years with a Regiment.

In these days of frequent changes and transfers, says the Indian Weekly Review, it does not often fall to, the I6t of a regiment to receive. the farewells of a Colonel who has served with its colours more than forty years. This happened the other day to the 3rd Queen s Own Bombay Light Cavalry, Neemuch; and we do not remember ever to have read a more touching or more soul-stirrjhg ad* dress than that which was made by Colonel Graves, C.8., on his. leaving the,regiment. " I joined, you," said the veteran, " as a lad of sixteen on the Ist April, 1838, and leave you as an old man on the 24th of May, 1878. We have been together in peace and war, in plenty and scarcity, in cantonment arid camp, for mote than forty years; and I am the oldest soldier —the father—of the regiment." Among { the: = old Colonel's " boys," there were grey - bearded warriors whofiaid ridden with him through Sindh, and above the passes into Afghan3»tfta. io-tbe old «*• » Hr*s=4l, wifcfrhe was still a griff. Their sabres bad gleamed with hfc throughout the whoto of that advance on Cabnl with Nott in 1812; they had served together in every action from the retaking and blowing up of Ghanzi, tfjbs:*»^ap»tion of Cabal and K.hilat-i-0-liilzai, and the ultimate '23? Matty of thiffe^^nSnSl^ day long ago,, when at Jellalabad, on the. return of theaVeriging British army, the swarms of hill-men came fiercely pressing on its rear; how young Graves and a .squadron of his beloved 3rd charged back into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell; how the 1 young hero's horse was shot under him when in'the very midst of the Afghan thousands; how, on the horae of a fallen comrade, he charged home again with all that remained of that devoid band, abd by this hirflliant exploit preserved the army from farther, molestation for many days. Twice in Sindh, * twice in- Afghanistan/ ostoii Jin Persia, once in Abyssinia, these " boys" had followed their " father " in many such a melee.. And when, after all this, the old soldier spoke to them—of the pain'aiul soi row with which he was leaving them— " my regiment, so dear to nu, my happy home for so many years!'—who shaft scoff at these old veterans if there hearts rose in their throats and unwonted mists) dimmed their eyes as they bade farewell to the old Colonel?