The History of Lumsden's Horse: A Complete Record of the Corps from Its Formation to Its Disbandment
History
The History of Lumsden's Horse: A Complete Record of the Corps from Its Formation to Its Disbandment
Great Britain. Army. Lumsden's Horse; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
Regimental Sergeant-Major: C.M. Marsham (Behar L.H.); Company
Sergeant-Major E.N. Mansfield (Punjaub L.H.); Sergeants: H. Fox (Behar
L.H.), E.M.S. McNamara (Behar L.H.), R.S. Stowell (Poona V.R.), and W.
Walker (Assam V.L.H.); Lance-Sergeants: F.L. Elliott (Assam V.L.H.),
D.S. Fraser (Oudh L.H.), J. Lee Stewart (Coorg and Mysore R.), and
R.E. Dale (E.I.R.V.C.); Corporals: Percy Jones (Behar L.H.), G. Lawrie
(Oudh L.H.), E. Llewhellin (Behar L.H.), and H. Marsham (Behar L.H.);
Lance-Corporals: A.M. Firth (Behar L.H.), A.C. Walker (Assam Valley
L.H.), E.J. Ballard (Punjaub L.H.), H.F. Blair (Behar L.H.), D.J.
Keating (Calcutta Port Defence), W.S. Lemon (Calcutta V.R.), A.
Macgillivray (Behar L.H.), and J.W.A. Skelton (Assam V.L.H.).
Transport Establishment: Lance-Corporals R.P. Estabrook, C.T. Power,
J. Charles, S.W. Cullen, and G.W. Palmer.
It could not be expected that 150 men would be together on board ship
for three weeks without a certain proportion going sick.
Lance-Sergeant Lee Stewart, of the Coorg and Mysore Rifles, was struck
down with pneumonia. Shortly afterwards Private H.H.J. Hickley, of the
Behar Light Horse, was attacked by the same illness aggravated by
pleurisy. About this time a large number were bowled over. Blame was
laid on the tinned provisions, but, probably, if men had worn the
mufflers, so tenderly knitted for us by Calcutta ladies, about their
waists instead of round their necks much pain and trouble would have
been avoided. The decks at night were covered with sleeping figures,
clad and unclad in every degree. At turning in, a gentle zephyr that
wouldn’t disturb the ringlets on a fair lady’s neck might be blowing,
and in an hour a sharp breeze laden with heavy rain would sweep down
and drench the unconscious sleepers. Then one of the immediate results
of an order for men to go about barefooted was that Private
Clayton-Daubney, of the Behar Light Horse, took a fall when turning a
slippery corner and broke his collar-bone.
[Illustration:
_Photo: Bourne & Shepherd._
THE REGIMENT IN CALCUTTA
_Part of A Company_
]
To Sir Patrick Playfair Colonel Lumsden wrote while at sea a letter that
is interesting as a proof of his interest in and care for the men under
his command. They paid many glowing tributes to him afterwards, but none
that gives a better key to the hold he had on their respect than his own
simple words as they appear in the following extract:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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