Of such sons as these, Henderson, Baxter, Crewe, and Captain Nesbitt, Rhodesia is deservedly proud. And we “who sit at home at ease” while these outposts of Empire are being won for us, may well be proud too, remembering that they are of our own blood, Britons in that Greater Britain across the seas.
CHAPTER XXIV.
IN EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.
Arabi Pasha’s rebellion in Egypt in 1882, which was quelled by the British army under Sir Garnet (afterwards Lord) Wolseley, was notable chiefly for the bombardment of Alexandria and the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. At Alexandria, as has been noted in a previous chapter, Gunner Israel Harding won the Cross for picking up a live shell and immersing it in water. At Tel-el-Kebir and at Kafrdour the two other V.C.’s of the campaign were earned in no less gallant style.
The Kafrdour hero was Private Frederick Corbett, of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. During the reconnaissance upon this village the leader of his company, Lieutenant Howard-Vyse, was mortally wounded, and Corbett obtained leave to remain by the officer’s side while the others went on. The Egyptians were keeping up a pretty vigorous fire the while, but the plucky private calmly sat down and bound up the lieutenant’s wounds as best he could, afterwards carrying him off the field.
Lieutenant W. M. M. Edwards’ exploit at Tel-el-Kebir, where he captured a battery almost single-handed, is worthy of being related at some length. It was, perhaps, the most dashing thing done in the war. At this hard-fought battle four miles of earthworks which the Egyptians had thrown up in front of their position had to be carried at point of bayonet. To the Highland Light Infantry and the Royal Irish Fusiliers was given the post of honour, and as the word of command rang out both regiments dashed forward at the charge.
Determined not to let the “Faugh-a-Ballagh Boys” be the first in, Lieutenant Edwards of the Highlanders raced ahead with his storming party towards the nearest redoubt. He reached the parapet well in advance of the others, and pulled himself to the top. Then, jumping down among the Egyptian gunners, revolver in one hand and sword in the other, he shot the first who attacked him, an officer, through the head.
Another grappled with him, and this man, too, he shot; but while engaged in this struggle a third Egyptian ran up and knocked him down with a rammer. Three Highlanders leapt into the battery at this critical moment, and Edwards was soon upon his feet to lead his men in a charge upon the guns. His scabbard had been shot away in the fight, and his claymore broken in two, so after emptying his revolver the lieutenant took the sword of the artillery officer he had killed and carried on the fight with that. And in less time than it takes to tell the battery was captured with its four Krupp guns, all the Egyptian gunners being slain.
After which achievement Edwards sat down on the parapet to bind up the scalp wound he had received with a towel, in Indian “puggaree” fashion, afterwards marching to Tel-el-Kebir station, two and a half miles off, with this decoration on his head. A few months later he wore another decoration, the Victoria Cross having been bestowed upon him for his gallantry.