The Lord Mayor of London gave a dinner at the Guildhall in the Sirdar's honour. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh invited Lord Dufferin and Lord Kitchener to accept the Freedom of that ancient city. Edinburgh had reason to feel a special interest in the campaign, for one of the brigadiers was a Midlothian man and there had been two Highland regiments in his command. Lord Dufferin was especially pleased to see Gatacre again, for as Viceroy of India he remembered him well while serving on the Headquarters Staff. There were also two gala days when the General was the central figure; for his native county of Shropshire was very proud of her son. On December 15 Sir William was enrolled a Freeman of the City of Shrewsbury with much acclamation and many kindly speeches. The county town of Bridgnorth also entertained him handsomely, and reminded him that he had signed their roll in the year 1860. Sir William was not a pretentious speaker, but when called upon for a speech on such occasions his ideas were simple and his words fluent and appropriate. The appointment he had held at Aldershot {216} having been cancelled on his departure for Egypt, the General found himself unemployed for a time after his return, but at the end of October he was informally invited to say whether the Poona First-class District in India or the command of the Eastern District with Headquarters at Colchester would be the more agreeable to him. It was without hesitation that he chose the latter. From August 1880, when he left Dover with his regiment, to August 1897, when he had returned to take over his brigade at Aldershot, he had served continuously in India, while (with a short interval of five months) he had been working in the tropics for a further ten months. He had now nearly completed thirty-seven years' service, of which twenty-three had been spent in India. There was therefore to him a most attractive novelty about serving at home, and the independent provincial command that was offered to him would, he knew, in many ways prove most congenial. He took over the command from General Burnett on December 8, 1898, and went into residence at Colchester the next day. The Eastern District at that time included the nine counties which lie between Norfolk and London, and between Nottingham and the sea. The General Officer Commanding was directly responsible to the War Office for the troops of all arms, regular, militia, and volunteers, within this area. During the training season the work was very heavy and necessitated a great deal of touring. His previous experience in Bombay {217} had given the General a special interest in coast defence, and it was therefore with pleasure that he again found himself in command of a long sea-board. In the last year of his command, 1903, the Army Reorganisation scheme slightly changed his official position, but this was purely technical, and only affected his last six months there. [Sidenote: In Sussex]