CHAPTER V
WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA—ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION IN EGYPT—TEL-EL-KEBIR—MARRIAGE—LIFE IN CAIRO.
Shortly after Captain Wauchope's return home from Cyprus another opportunity for foreign service presented itself in South Africa, and he lost no time in offering himself to the War Office. He was accepted for staff duty, and received a commission to go out at once. So limited was the time given him for preparation that he had not even an opportunity to go to Aldershot, where his baggage was lying, to make up his kit, but he telegraphed from London to the quartermaster of the regiment—Captain Forbes—to throw him in a small kit into a bullock-trunk and forward it to Southampton at once, as he was off to South Africa next day.
The Transvaal
The country had drifted almost unconsciously into a trouble which has since cost so much in loss of life and treasure. The South African Republic, or the Transvaal, was founded some sixty or seventy years ago by Boer farmers from Cape Colony, who, being dissatisfied with British rule and its interference with them and their peculiar notions as to slavery, sought to establish an independent state for themselves where they might without hindrance carry out their ideas as they pleased. They, in fact, sought liberty to make the natives their slaves. Conflicts were, of course, the natural outcome of their attempts to acquire the land beyond the Vaal; but notwithstanding this, the new settlers in 1840 were so far established in possession, and their numbers had so much increased, that they formed themselves into a Republic for mutual protection. At that time the possibilities of the future importance of this part of South Africa, or indeed of our colonies there, were not sufficiently realised by either our Government or our people at home. Neither the Transvaal Republic nor the Boers seemed to be any concern of ours. It was left to a few Scotch missionaries such as Moffat, Livingstone, Stewart, and Mackenzie to make these known, and to endeavour to educate and civilise the degraded natives in the science of social life and in the truths of Christianity. In this effort they met from the first the virulent opposition of the Boer settlers, who neither wanted the natives to be educated nor to be Christianised.
Acts of oppression naturally brought their own retribution. The natives rose against their oppressors; feuds, murders, and thefts were acts of daily occurrence, until at last the infant Republic became so involved in native wars and internal troubles, that with a view to restore peace and order and to prevent anarchy and bankruptcy from spreading into Cape Colony, the British Government was constrained to interfere. In this intervention many of the Boers cordially acquiesced, and welcomed the protection of our troops, the more so that the financial difficulties of their independent action were in a measure cleared away. On the other hand there was a strong party among them who, in spite of mismanagement and debt, thought they could carry on a free Republican Government. The security of the British colonies was, however, of paramount importance, and it was deemed advisable in their interest as well as in the interest of the Transvaal Boers themselves that the Transvaal should have the benefit of British protection. Accordingly its annexation to the British Crown was in 1877 proclaimed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, followed by the appointment of Sir W. Owen Lanyon as British Administrator. This necessary step by no means pleased the Boer faction who had attempted to rule, and they did not cease to agitate for the restoration of the old order of things, bad as these were. For a time English money and English enterprise worked wonders: markets were created for produce, and land rose in value.
In December 1880, however, a majority of the Boers took up arms against the British authority. They invested towns held by Imperial troops, and surprised a detachment on the march. The situation was becoming critical. The Government, which at the time was deeply engrossed in other matters, did not sufficiently realise the gravity of the situation, for although troops were at once despatched to the assistance of those at the Cape, these were insufficient, and arrived too late to be of service. The Boers, ever on the alert, had seized the passes of the Drakensberg Mountains, and had strongly fortified themselves at Laing's Nek. Here they were attacked by Sir G. P. Colley, but without success. He was defeated with considerable loss, and shortly afterwards, attempting to check the enemy at Majuba Hill with a small force of six hundred men, he was again defeated with loss and was himself killed in the action.
The Boer Treaty of 1881
Immediately on receipt of this news Mr. Gladstone's Government gave instructions for an armistice in order to see if satisfactory terms could not be arranged for the restoration of peace. After a month's negotiation a treaty was made giving the Transvaal self-government in internal matters, but reserving all rights connected with foreign affairs, Great Britain to be recognised as the Suzerain, including the right to move Imperial troops through the country in time of war.
This restoration of independence to the Boers was viewed both at home and in Cape Colony not only with grave suspicion and distrust, but with high indignation; and so strong was this feeling against the home Government that in a great popular demonstration at Cape Town the effigy of Mr. Gladstone, the Prime Minister, was publicly burned, and the British lion was caricatured, while many English residents in Pretoria and other towns left the country rather than remain under the oligarchical government of the Boers. So ended this part of the Transvaal drama.
The action of the British Government was at the time attributed to various motives. By some it was considered the magnanimous action of a strong power, willing to help a weak but struggling state in its efforts at self-government; by others it has been described as a pusillanimous shrinking from a stern duty which it owed to its colonies around the Transvaal. President Brand declared the treaty to be 'in his opinion the noblest act England has ever done'; but the Boers themselves considered the peace as the result of their own efforts and of Britain's fear to prosecute the war. The after results have been most calamitous, and go to show the folly of not facing and overcoming the beginnings of a corrupt system.
Captain Wauchope returned on the conclusion of peace in the summer of 1881, having been only a few months abroad, and without engaging in active service. He was chiefly employed on the line of communication as one of the staff. His return home was accompanied with anything but feelings of respect for the Government which had so ingloriously stopped short in their work—a feeling very generally shared by the officers and men. Some years afterwards, when alluding to this episode in his life at a meeting in Edinburgh, he said of it:—'I was in the Transvaal during those terrible times in 1881 when we suffered the terrible disgrace from which all our after-troubles there arose. It was the vacillation and weakness and change of policy that caused all the trouble then.'
But while in one part of Africa a temporary peace had been patched up, in another part of that great continent, and that the most ancient, events were in the beginning of 1882 hastening to a rupture which was destined to open up a fresh field for the active military genius of young Wauchope. Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs, and in some respects the cradle of European culture, which had long been oppressed by Turkish tyranny, was showing signs of vitality, and was recognised as still a country capable of great resources, and having considerable commercial importance. The opening of the Suez Canal had much to do with this; and Britain having a large stake in the Canal as a means of communication with her Eastern possessions, was naturally interested in the well-being of the country through which it passed. Nominally a viceroy of the Sultan of Turkey, the Khedive of Egypt ruled despotically, and did little for the people he ruled. Discontent was general; and to screen themselves, those in authority endeavoured to create a feeling of antipathy against the Europeans residing and trading in Egypt. A party of military adventurers, headed by Arabi Pasha, and secretly abetted by the Sultan of Turkey, had seized the reins of government, and endeavoured, with the aid of the army, to drive all Europeans out of Egypt, and secure the control of foreign traffic through the Suez Canal to their own advantage. Arabi commenced the erection of forts at Alexandria, to command the harbour. This and other war-like preparations were made in defiance, it was said, of the authority of the Khedive, who was merely a puppet in Arabi's hands.
Bombardment of Alexandria
On the 11th June 1882 a large body of Arabs made a murderous attack on the European residents in Alexandria, and so serious was the matter considered that a week or two after, the Ambassadors of the Great Powers met in conference at Constantinople to take the crisis under review. As no redress was forthcoming, Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour, commander of the British fleet in Egyptian waters, having ascertained that work on the new fortifications at Alexandria was being continued, notwithstanding promises made that all such operations would be suspended, sent to Arabi Pasha, who was nominally the Egyptian minister of war, an ultimatum that unless the work ceased immediately the fleet would open fire upon the forts. The reply was a denial that any such work was being carried on. Three days afterwards the Admiral discovered that his ultimatum was treated with contempt, and that guns bearing upon the harbour had been mounted since the date of his message. He at once prepared a proclamation calling upon the Egyptian authorities to surrender the fortifications within twelve hours, otherwise they would be demolished by the fleet. On the 11th July the bombardment commenced, and nearly the whole of the fortifications were soon laid in ruins. Next day hostilities were resumed, but, on a flag of truce being hoisted, the Admiral ordered firing to cease. On the morning of the 13th it was found that, under cover of the flag of truce, the Egyptian troops, headed by Arabi Pasha, had evacuated Alexandria, leaving it to be pillaged and fired by a riotous mob of Arabs, who massacred a large number of Europeans. To protect life, and save the place from total destruction, Admiral Seymour landed a force of seamen and marines, who kept the city in order until the arrival of British troops a few days afterwards.
In the course of the following fortnight a force of about 16,000 occupied Alexandria, Ramleh, and the delta of the Nile, under the command of Sir Garnet Wolseley. Meantime Arabi Pasha had occupied Cairo, which was strongly fortified, while he had formidable entrenched camps some miles south of Ramleh, and also at Port Said and Ismailia on the Suez Canal, and at Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir, on the sweet-water canal route between Ismailia and Cairo.
Throughout the whole business the authority of the Khedive was not only ignored, but remonstrances from foreign powers were of no effect. Arabi was determined to make himself ruler of Egypt, and to assert his position by force of arms. His formal dismissal as Minister of War, on 22nd July, was the last weak attempt by the Khedive to maintain his sovereign authority. But Arabi paid no attention to it, and continued his warlike preparations. His position at Kafr-dawar was strategically a strong one, for he was entrenched there at a point where the isthmus, running inland between Lake Medieh and Lake Mareotis, is only about four miles broad. He thus commanded both the Mahmoudieh Canal and the railway to Cairo, which ran past his camp. Arabi's intention was to hold his own at this position till the annual rise of the Nile was at its fullest in August, when he counted upon being able to flood the country, and seriously impede hostile operations against him.
The rising had now assumed all the character of an organised rebellion, and was a standing menace to British commerce passing through the Suez Canal; and as the crisis came to be more clearly realised in this country, further relays of troops were despatched. In the subsequent operations against Arabi the Black Watch took a prominent part. After its return from Cyprus and Gibraltar in 1879, the regiment was brigaded for a time at Aldershot. It was then located partly at Maryhill barracks, near Glasgow, and at Edinburgh Castle, under the command of Colonel R. K. Bayly. Captain Wauchope served at Maryhill from May 1881 till August 1882.
The 42nd leaving Edinburgh
On the outbreak of hostilities in Egypt the regiment, which was then about 800 strong, received orders to embark for the East. The Maryhill contingent, in which he commanded the E Company, left by train for Edinburgh on the 4th August 1882, and arrived in the capital amidst much enthusiasm. After two days in Edinburgh Castle, the whole regiment was entrained for London on the 6th August, their send-off from the city being one of the most extraordinary ever witnessed. Wauchope himself, ten years afterwards, at a meeting of the old members of the Black Watch in Glasgow, when he had become Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, said 'he would never forget the scene.' 'He had of late,' he said, 'seen great excitement in the political world, he had seen political leaders received in Edinburgh (referring to Mr. Gladstone and the Midlothian election of 1892), and no doubt at times there had been a pretty brave show, but the people's heart never went out to these leaders as it went out to the 42nd when they were leaving Edinburgh Castle for active service in Egypt in 1882. It seemed to him as if every man and woman in Edinburgh was out to see them off. He would never forget that scene of enthusiasm and farewell, and he felt convinced that it affected the whole regiment, more than the eye could see or words could express. On the lips of many a brave man before that campaign was over, the last words had been "Scotland for ever," and he had no doubt their last thoughts were of their homes and native country.'
Having embarked at Gravesend in the transport Nepaul, Wauchope, with his regiment, landed at Alexandria on the 20th August, and proceeded to Ramleh, where they formed a part of the Highland Brigade under General Sir Archibald Alison. Here Wauchope very soon found his field of action in more than one engagement, and had one or two hairbreadth escapes. On one occasion a body of the rebels held a portion of the city, from which they were to be dislodged. Wauchope got the order to clear the streets. Coming to a house, from every window of which rifles were pointed, he halted his men, but only for a moment. Sword in hand, the captain rushed in, followed by his men. A rifle was pointed full at him, and but for the presence of mind of one of his followers, it would have ended his career. Dashing in front of his officer, the soldier threw up the rebel's rifle just as he fired, the bullet passing through Wauchope's helmet.
Tel-el-Kebir
The occupation of the Canal and the various ports upon its banks were important steps in Sir Garnet Wolseley's endeavour to secure Zagazig, some forty-five miles from Ismailia, the key to the railway system of Egypt. Arabi had also realised its importance, and in order to retain it at all hazards and to prevent the British advance in that direction, had strongly fortified himself at Tel-el-Kebir, about fifteen miles eastward.
On the 20th August, Port Said, Kantara, Ismailia, and the Suez Canal were taken possession of by the British. A few days after, a determined stand was made by the Egyptian army, about 10,000 strong, a few miles from Ismailia, but they were utterly defeated by Sir Garnet Wolseley, who was now reinforced by the Highland Brigade.
This was followed up by a renewed attack on the British position at Kassassin Lock on the Ismailia Canal three days later, when the Egyptians were again repulsed with great loss.
On the evening of the 12th September, the British army at Kassassin Lock struck camp. It had been well reinforced, and counted 15,000 men in cavalry, infantry, and artillery, and was now in a position to attack Arabi in his stronghold at Tel-el-Kebir. On the verge of a broad, dreary desert, with lines of entrenchments and redoubts well mounted with guns, and held by a large force, no better position, it is said, could have been chosen for offering resistance to any army approaching the Delta, or the capital of Egypt, from the Suez Canal.
After an all-night march, Sir Garnet Wolseley found himself within striking distance of the enemy's trenches before the first streaks of dawn appeared on the eastern sky. The Egyptians were taken by surprise, but the alarm once given, they sprang to their feet to face the attack; and immediately, along the whole front of their line of defence, was poured upon our troops a fierce artillery and rifle fire, which, however, was so ill directed that it did no great harm. With the utmost coolness, the British were formed for the assault. The Highland Brigade in the centre, with bayonets fixed, was supported by cavalry on both flanks With a loud cheer the Highlanders stormed the entrenchments, driving everything before them. The struggle was short but decisive, not more than twenty minutes elapsing between the first onset on the trenches and the capture of the main or inner fortress. The odds were as two to one—26,000 Egyptians to 13,000 British—but the zeal and soldierly qualities of our men, with the confidence they had in their leaders, proved the mettle of which our military are made. Where all did well, it seems invidious to distinguish. But of this fine force—perhaps the finest ever seen in Egypt—it was generally admitted that to the Highland Brigade and the Royal Irish Rifles special honour was due. This important engagement, in which forty guns were captured, 2000 Egyptians fell, and 3000 were taken prisoners, opened the way to Cairo.
Through all the campaign, Captain Wauchope, with the E Company of the 42nd, had bravely borne his share of the toil and dangers of the situation. At Tel-el-Kebir, he was among the first to enter the enemy's trenches sword in hand. The encounter was a fierce one while it lasted, and it was a marvel how he escaped injury in such a mêlée. But though the impetuosity of the charge bore down all before it, when the fight was over, it was found that no less than 200 of his men had fallen.
After Tel-el-Kebir
Wauchope's first care was to see that the wounded were attended to, for his interest in his men was ever uppermost in his mind. He liked to treat them as brothers as well as subordinates, sharing with them the roughest work and the greatest dangers; and now particularly, when many of them were bruised and bleeding, he had all a woman's sympathy, and did his best to alleviate their sufferings. He went carefully over the ground after the battle, searching out from among the dead such of his men who might be alive, relieving some with a draught of water from his bottle, and seeing that they were removed to shelter, where they could be surgically attended to; in some cases, tenderly helping to carry them himself off the field. Such scenes always filled him with sadness, as they did the heart of Wellington, who was wont to say: 'Take my word for it, if you had seen but one day of war, you would pray to Almighty God that you might never see such a thing again.' The horrors of war make most brave natures shudder.
Immediately after the capture of Arabi's camp at Tel-el-Kebir, at the next halting-stage in the army's progress to Cairo, the 42nd was marched into the square of a cavalry barracks to wait for a train being made to enable them to follow the retreating enemy to Zagazig—an important railway junction on the way. They were in very rough quarters, but were glad to get any sort of shelter from the scorching sun. One of the staff-sergeants, wearied out and oppressed with heat, stumbled into a room which, unknown to him, happened to be occupied by Captain Wauchope and his subordinate officer, Lieutenant Duff. 'As I attempted to withdraw—for I had entered not knowing they were there'—said the sergeant, describing the occurrence, 'Captain Wauchope at once called out in a kindly voice, "Come in, Pinkney, come in and sit down, you have as much right to be here as we have."'
But though this was so, Pinkney, who was not one of his men, did not fare so well on another occasion when his presence stood in the way of the convenience of the men of his company, Captain Wauchope having then no hesitation in leaving him to shift for himself. We give the story in the sergeant's own words:—'Shortly after this, we were marched down to the railway and literally packed into trucks. I being a staff-sergeant, and in a sense "nobody's child," crawled into one marked E. It was Wauchope's, and as all his men could not find room, I was ignominiously ordered out by the same gallant gentleman! We were very good friends, but as I did not belong to his company, he could not allow me to interfere with their comfort!'
Sergeant Pinkney also relates an incident of the same day illustrating Wauchope's thoughts on the inhumanity of war. 'We were all sitting together on the mud floor of the room where we were sheltering, discussing the events of the morning. "Andy," as we all loved to call our captain, had not, for a wonder, been wounded, but a Remington bullet through the scabbard of his sword had bent it nearly double, so that he could not return the weapon. Another bullet through his helmet had disarranged the pugaree and heckle, of which he was so proud. He drew my attention as armourer to the condition of his scabbard, and I took it into my hand and broke it across my knee, so that he could sheath his sword, though some eight inches of the blood-stained blade were exposed. While I was next adjusting his pugaree, he suddenly exclaimed, "I say, Duff, what brutes we men are." We were silent for a minute, and then seeing our surprised look, as we stopped our work, he continued, "Do you know, I felt this morning just as if I was on the moors, and for a while I was quite as anxious to make a good bag; man, Duff, we are terrible brutes, after all!"'
Niddrie Marischal, Back View
The same day Wauchope's regiment proceeded to within a few miles of Zagazig, reaching that place in the morning of the 14th September. Here they seized the railway stock, and went on to Belbeis, an important junction on the edge of the desert. There they remained under the utmost discomfort, without tents and without equipage, until the 23rd September, when they moved forward to Ghezireh, near to Cairo, and were again quartered with the Highland Brigade, under Lieut.-General Sir E. Hamley.
The subsequent occupation of Cairo, the arrest and banishment of Arabi Pasha, and the restoration of the Khedive under British protection, are matters of history. The war was closed, but still much required to be done to restore order and peace, and so the expeditionary force became an army of occupation.
Captain Wauchope, after a few weeks' encampment at Ghezireh, on the west bank of the Nile, was moved with his regiment into Kass-el-Nil barracks, where they were to be quartered for the winter. A time of peace succeeded a time of sharp fighting. But whether fighting or at peace, Wauchope gave himself no rest. His military duties might be heavy enough, but his self-imposed exertions in looking after the wounded and the sick were varied by efforts to find amusement and recreation for those who were well.
For his services in this campaign, Captain Wauchope received the medal with clasp, and the Khedive's Star, as the public recognition of the British and Egyptian Governments.
Return to Scotland
His stay in Egypt was unexpectedly interrupted by the serious illness of his elder brother, Major William Wauchope, which eventually resulted in his death on the 28th November 1882. Returning home a few weeks before that sad event, he was fortunately enabled to look after the settlement of family affairs and the future management of the estates.
The death of his brother without issue made a considerable change in his position, and when he arrived at Niddrie early in December, he was welcomed as the new laird with every expression of goodwill. Though he had been little about the old place for years, the tenants and servants had warm recollections of 'Andy' as a good, kind, genial soul, and they all hoped that he might now return to occupy the ancestral home, and settle down among 'his ain folk.'
As a pledge that such a consummation might be looked for in the near future, and taking advantage of his casual visit home, he was married on the 9th of December to Miss Elythea Ruth Erskine, second daughter of Sir Thomas Erskine of Cambo, Fife, to whom he had for some time been engaged.
The wedding had been arranged to be celebrated at Cambo in a quiet way, as our informant said, 'without any fuss'; but though this was so, Captain Wauchope found to some extent the adage verified, that 'the course of true love never did run smooth.' In arranging for his marriage in the stormy month of December, he did not at all events lay his account with the elements. These did their best to frustrate the happy event.
Marriage
Cambo is situated two or three miles distant from Fife Ness, the extreme eastern point of the county of Fife. It is now easily accessible by the railway skirting the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, connecting Thornton Junction and St. Andrews, by way of Anstruther and Crail. But at that time the railway was not completed further than Anstruther on the one side and St. Andrews on the other, and Cambo was about eight or nine miles from either place. Starting from Edinburgh on the morning of the day fixed for the wedding, Captain Wauchope should easily have arrived at Cambo in the forenoon, but a protracted snowstorm of several days had completely blocked railways and roads. Thinking he would be more likely to get a conveyance to carry him to his destination if he went by St. Andrews, he took that instead of the route to Anstruther; but on arriving at that ancient city, he was chagrined to find that the roads were so completely blocked with snow that no one would venture the journey for him. Taking his luggage to the Royal Hotel, he tried all his persuasive powers with Mr. Davidson, the genial host, to get a carriage, or even a dogcart, ready for him without delay. But the storm still raged, and he was told that the roads were quite impassable either for driving or riding, and he would require to remain where he was for the night. 'But,' said the would-be and now desperate Benedict, 'I must get to Cambo, as I am to be married to-night.' The hotelkeeper assured him that in the circumstances it was impossible, but promised to do the best he could for him the next morning if the weather moderated. At length, convinced that nothing more could be done, the disappointed swain was obliged to bow to the inevitable, and eat his solitary dinner with what resignation he could command. It was a severe trial of patience, but there was nothing else for it, and so he remained overnight in the friendly shelter of the 'Royal,' in the hope that he might get release the following day. Sir Thomas Erskine, meanwhile, expecting the bridegroom to come by way of Anstruther, where the roads happened not to be so badly blocked, had sent a carriage with the young bride to meet him there. But no Wauchope appeared, and the young lady had to return home without tidings of her lover. The disappointment of all may be better imagined than described, and the wedding was of course postponed sine die. The following morning the storm had somewhat abated, but the snow-drift still lay deep on the roads, making them quite impassable for wheeled vehicles. Davidson, true to his word, however, gave him the best horse in his stable, repacked his luggage in carpet-bags slung across the back of another, and with a groom in attendance Wauchope courageously faced the elements to meet his bride. It was a toilsome business, and not without danger. At Browhill, some two miles from St. Andrews, the block was so deep that they were compelled to make a detour, or 'a flank movement,' as he afterwards described it, across the fields, but in doing so they came to grief. The horse which Wauchope rode stumbled and fell through the accumulated snow into a deep ditch, where it was well-nigh smothered, and the combined efforts of Wauchope and groom utterly failed to extricate the poor animal. At length assistance was procured, a number of farm servants from the neighbourhood giving willing help, and after a good deal of exertion it was at length got out, while the groom, wiping the perspiration from his brow, declared, 'This is terrible work, captain; it's worse than Egypt yet!' The remainder of the nine-mile journey was completed in safety. Love had triumphed. A warm welcome greeted the belated bridegroom at Cambo, and though 'one day after date,' the marriage cheque was duly honoured!
The hopes of his friends at home that he might now give up active service, and become a local county magnate, were not, however, to be realised. Captain Wauchope, accompanied by his young wife, returned to Egypt a few weeks after their marriage, to take up his military duties with the Black Watch; and there, in the quaint old Oriental city of Cairo, they spent together the first and, alas, the last year of their married life.
Life in Cairo
Perhaps no other town under the sun has so many different characteristics as Cairo, and certainly few places afford such strong contrasts. It is at one and the same time an official capital, a city of immemorial antiquity, a garrison town, a health resort, an Oriental centre, and the Paris of the Dark Continent. Half the hidden charm of Cairo and its surroundings, it has been said, consists of the strongly incongruous sights that meet an observant eye: the modern woman leaning on her bicycle, and steadfastly looking at the unchanging eyes of the Sphinx, or a laughing party of officers and Americans in the shadow of the Great Pyramid, or among the tombs of the caliphs, its Oriental bazaar crowded with British soldiers and sailors: an old world and a new. Chief among the attractions of Cairo is its climate, combining almost continuous sunshine, comparative warmth, and an air of pure and tonic qualities.
Mrs. Wauchope resided during these months at the Grand Hotel, within comparatively easy distance of Kass-el-Nil barracks, where the captain's daily duties lay, and amid new surroundings found much to interest her, while she materially helped him in his work among the men of his regiment.
Unfortunately, though the climate as a rule is excellent during the greater part of the year, sanitary arrangements and modes of living were not then, whatever they may be now, such as to prevent the evils to which most Eastern cities are subject. Cholera, one of the scourges of the East, broke out in Cairo among the Copts in the summer of 1883, and, spreading among the better classes of society, even found its way among the British soldiers. Their removal from Cairo for a time was considered absolutely necessary; but before this could be effected, the Black Watch had suffered considerably from the epidemic. As soon as possible, however, cholera-camps were formed at Suez in July, where the greater part of the regiment remained till the beginning of September. During this time Captain Wauchope, with the rank of brigade-major, was left in charge of the Kass-el-Nil barracks with a small detachment; and surrounded as they were with an epidemic which was then cutting down hundreds of poor natives, without adequate means of relieving the distress, he was much moved by what he saw, and did his utmost to help. His first care was of course for the soldiers under his command. They did not altogether escape, and in a number of cases that occurred he was assiduous in his attention. Regardless of danger to himself, he would go back and forward between the hospital and the barracks, giving all the comfort and material assistance that were required.
But it was not merely in his co-operation with medical men and nurses that Wauchope's aid was given: he was a valued co-worker with the chaplain, assisting him in visiting and addressing meetings. The Rev. John Mactaggart, who was then acting with the 42nd in Egypt, says, 'He was always ready to aid me, and willingly responded to any reasonable request for money on behalf of the men, such as in helping to defray expenses incurred in holding social, temperance, or religious meetings.' 'I remember,' he continues, 'in the summer of 1883, the cholera, after raging for weeks among the native population, attacked the British troops. As a precautionary measure, these were dispersed and located at considerable distances from Cairo, the Black Watch being sent to the brackish lake near Suez. Captain Wauchope's sympathetic nature was deeply stirred by the many sad sights around him in Cairo, where he remained through it all with a small company of the regiment. Two of his men were stricken down, one immediately after the other, with the fell disease, and not being able myself to attend to them at once, he was full of anxiety about them, and could not rest till he got me to see them at the barracks, quite heedless of danger to himself.'
To many a poor fellow he was throughout all this trying time a friend indeed, counselling, helping, and encouraging wherever he had the opportunity.
At the evening voluntary meetings in the barracks, too, he frequently took a part with the chaplain in the religious services. His consistent manly conduct and the quiet, unobtrusive profession of his faith at this time, not only endeared him to many, but gave him a wonderful influence for good which it is difficult fully to estimate.
A Cairo mob
Every one has his own characteristic: Wauchope's was consideration for his men. 'Years ago,' says a friend, 'I was in the street in Cairo with him, when there approached us a bareheaded Highlander, running for his life, and pursued by a crowd of Arabs armed with sticks. Captain Wauchope halted the fugitive, turned about, ordered him to fall in in front, and thus we marched to the barracks, the mob howling behind. The Captain handed the man over to the sergeant of the guard, and notified his intention of giving evidence in the orderly-room next morning. A few days later I was to meet the Captain at the club and take a drive with him. On arrival there, I found a note directing me to come to the hospital. The orderly led me to a ward, but I could see no Captain. I interviewed the orderly again, and he told me to go to the far end and I would find him. There, on the bed of his colour-sergeant, retailing the day's news, sat the officer commanding his company. On my approach, with a cheery adieu and a promise to come back again on the morrow, Wauchope rose and went for his drive.'
Mrs. Wauchope was sent home in the summer of 1883, as it was not considered safe for her to remain in Cairo, and she was joined by the Captain in November. They took up their residence at Niddrie for six weeks, afterwards going to Cambo on a visit. Towards the end of January they proceeded to London, where Mrs. Wauchope gave birth to twins—both boys. The joy of this event was, however, speedily followed a few days after, on the 3rd February, by the death of Mrs. Wauchope.
It was a terrible blow to the Captain, and though he bowed submissively to the will of God, he none the less felt his loss keenly, and for a time was inconsolable.
The children were taken to Cambo, where, under the charge of Lady Erskine, they were tenderly nursed and cared for, while Wauchope himself sought in renewed activity to forget, if possible, the misery of his bereavement. When they were three years old both the children unfortunately caught scarlet fever. One, a specially promising child, died, and the other was left a hopeless invalid.