in good company 7

in good company 7

I reminded Lord Roberts of the incident when I came to know him

better, and he replied with a laugh:

 

“I recall the matter perfectly, for I like to think I have a

retentive memory. Of course I was, as you say, amused at the young

man’s assurance and confidence in his own military knowledge. Many

very young men are prone either to too great diffidence or to too

great assurance. I think, on the whole, I incline to envy the young

man with plenty of assurance, especially as I was disposed to be

diffident myself at his age, as many of us Irishmen, for all our

seeming confidence, are. But in any case I owed it to you, who had

introduced him, as well as to myself, to treat him outwardly at least

with courtesy and consideration.”

 

That was Lord Roberts’ charming and kind way of putting it; but to

me, a young man myself when the incident happened, it was a lesson in

fine breeding and in fine manners on the part of a great soldier and

great gentleman.

 

I heard afterwards that the Volunteer Subaltern of Artillery, in

speaking at a Distribution of Prizes to members of his corps, the

very evening following upon his one and only meeting with the

Field-Marshal, made frequent use of such phrases as “When I was

talking to Lord Roberts about the matter,” “What I told Lord Roberts

ought to be done,” and so on, no doubt to his own satisfaction and

possibly with the result that the members of the audience were for

the first time made to realise what a very important figure he

was in the military world. Later on, however, some one who knew

the facts wrote to him suggesting that the book for which the

world was literally panting was a work from his pen entitled _My

Recollections of Lord Roberts_, and when the Boer War broke out, a

telegram, purporting to come from Lord Roberts, urging the Volunteer

Artilleryman to take supreme command in South Africa, was dispatched

to him by a playful friend. I have no doubt the young man, who will

now be getting elderly, would be the first to laugh at his own

youthful self-confidence, and that if this paper should by any chance

meet his eye, he will pardon me for thus, and for the first time,

telling the tale in print.

 

Here is an instance of Lord Roberts’ kindness to and interest in

younger men. A Territorial Captain--his brother, an officer in the

Regular Army, told me the story--was taking part in a Field Day

with his battalion in Berkshire. His instructions were that he was

to hold a certain line of country at all costs. It so happened that

the attack developed in a direction which made it necessary for him

hurriedly to advance his men to a flank and away from his reserves,

whom he had posted where they were under cover and out of sight of

the enemy. The young officer (he was a junior subaltern recently

joined) in command of the reserves evidently had very mistaken ideas

in regard to discipline. His idea appeared to be that discipline

consists in staying where you were originally told to stay, like

the “boy on the burning deck” in the poem of _Casabianca_, until

receiving orders to another effect. Needless to say, the very reverse

is true. Soldiers to-day are taught clearly to observe events and to

act on their own initiative should unexpected developments arise.

Seeing that the tide of war was drifting the Firing Line and its

supports away from the reserves, the duty of the officer commanding

the reserves was, not to remain stodgily where he had originally

been placed (to do that would be less obedience to discipline than

a breach of discipline), but while keeping the reserves directly in

signalling communication with the Firing Line, as well as under

cover and out of sight of the enemy, so to alter his own dispositions

as to be ready to reinforce and to reinforce quickly when called upon

to do so.

 

This, however, he failed to do, and when his superior officer,

finding himself hard pressed, signalled for the reserves, there was

no reply.

 

Unfortunately there was neither a galloper nor a cyclist at hand to

carry a message. “If I don’t get my reserves here in half an hour,”

he said, “I shall lose the position, and the loss of this position

may mean, probably will mean, victory for the enemy all along the

line. It shan’t be so if I can help it. Now what can I do?”

 

Hurriedly but keenly he scanned the rolling Berkshire down around

him. Towards the north, on the whity-brown high road that curved

outward in a huge half-circle from the point where he was standing,

he saw a cloud of dust. “A motor! and coming this way!” he exclaimed.

“Follow me, Brown.” (This to a non-commissioned officer.) Stooping

low, so as not to offer a target to the enemy, he sprinted northwards

in a line which intersected the high road, at the nearest point which

the oncoming car must pass.

 

The motor was almost on him as he reached the road, and leaping into

the centre held up his hand. “I beg your pardon, sir,” he said to the

occupant, “but I’m in command of troops holding this position. We’re

attacked in force, and my reserves are some distance away along the

road in the direction you have come, near a copse. I’ve signalled

for reinforcements, but they have not kept up their communications.

I have neither a galloper nor a cyclist. If I get my reinforcements

here in half an hour, I can hold the position. If I don’t, I lose it,

and losing it means everything to the enemy. I wonder whether you’d

be so very good as to lend me your car for a few minutes to carry a

message!” “With the greatest pleasure,” said the occupant. Turning to

the chauffeur he said, “You are entirely at this officer’s disposal.

I shall walk on, and you can pick me up when he has done with you.”

As he spoke he got out of the car, and as he lifted his cap, in

response to the young officer’s salute and hasty word of thanks, the

latter recognised Field-Marshal Lord Roberts.

 

A day or two later, the great soldier was celebrating his eightieth

birthday, and received a letter from the officer in question. It was

to remind Lord Roberts of the incident, to apologise for the liberty

the young officer had taken in stopping the car, to thank him warmly

for his kindness, and to mention that the reserves had been brought

up at the double and in time to save the position. The officer

concluded by asking to be allowed to congratulate the Field-Marshal

on attaining his eightieth year and to express the hope that the

great soldier might be spared to celebrate many similar anniversaries.

 

A reply came almost by return of post.

 

DEAR CAPTAIN ----,

 

Many thanks for your letter and kind congratulations on my 80th

birthday. I was delighted to be of assistance, and am even more

delighted to learn the successful result of that assistance. You

did the right and only thing in stopping my car. If ever you

are this way and disengaged, I hope you will call and give me

the pleasure of making the further acquaintance of so good and

resourceful a soldier.

 

Yours truly,

ROBERTS.

 

After my first meeting with Lord Roberts at the Vagabond Club, I saw

no more of him--except for a mere handshake and “How-do-you-do?” at

a military function--for many years. Then I chanced, in April, 1910,

to contribute to the _London Quarterly Review_ an article on National

Defence. It was addressed specially to Nonconformists, one of the

opening paragraphs being as follows:

 

I do not for a moment believe that Nonconformists are one whit

less patriotic than any other great religious body, but I

fear there is some misconception on their part--due no doubt

to the intolerance and the exaggeration of some of us who

champion the cause of National Defence--in regard to our aims

and our purposes. It is in the hope of removing some of these

misconceptions that I pen the present paper.

 

The article I did _not_ send to Lord Roberts, nor did I draw the

attention of anyone connected with the National Service League of

which he was President to it. I did nothing directly or indirectly

to bring it under anyone’s notice. Yet a few days after the _Review_

appeared, I received the following letter from him. The Rev. R. Allen

of whom he speaks, I may say, was, and still is, an entire stranger

to me, and I to him:

 

ENGLEMERE, ASCOT, BERKS,

_April 4, 1910_.

 

DEAR SIR,

 

The Rev. R. Allen, a friend of many years’ standing, has been

good enough to send me a copy of the _London Quarterly Review_

for this month, and to draw my attention to the first article,

written by you on “How to Defend England.”

 

I am _delighted_ with the article itself, and with the very clear

and convincing way in which you have put forward the advantages

of military training and discipline for all our able-bodied young

men as affecting not only the position of Great Britain as a

World Power, but the individual moral and physical improvement of

the men of the nation.

 

But I am still more delighted that such an article should be

allowed to appear in a Journal published from the Wesleyan Book

Room. I am quite at one with you in believing that Nonconformists

are not one whit less patriotic than any other great religious

body, but that there is some misconception on their part in

regard to the aim and purpose of those who advocate universal

military training for Home Defence.

 

My hope is that such misconception may be removed and that every

Briton, whatever his position and whatever his sect, will realise

the necessity for taking the defence of his country seriously.

 

Such articles as yours will do much to effect this, and to open

the eyes of those who are now blind to England’s needs and

England’s dangers before it is too late.