Altogether it now formed a very serviceable yet attractive uniform. Its invisibility at a distance was remarkable, and was the subject of frequent remark by distinguished foreign officers attending manœuvres.
1902.
Captain B. J. Majendie, King’s Royal Rifles, was appointed Adjutant in November, 1902, vice Major Lamb, retired. Captain Majendie’s experiences in the South African war had been somewhat unique and unfortunate. Whilst accompanying a troop of cavalry sent out as a patrol from Ladysmith on the day that war was declared, the party were surrounded and captured by the enemy and held prisoners in Pretoria until that place was taken by General Roberts in the following year. Captain Majendie was the first Adjutant which the Corps had secured from the regular regiment of which it formed a Volunteer battalion; and by his efforts and instruction the Battalion became “riflemen,” and adopted rifle drill and customs. But the fact that officers were always trained at the Guards’ Schools of Instruction, where the drill of the rifleman is unknown, was a drawback to this arrangement.
In 1902, Major and Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel Danter, who had been appointed Major in 1897, resigned through bad health. The Battalion owed much to Colonel Danter for his hard and brilliant work for many years. To his energy and leadership in their early years may be mainly attributed the successes which the Regiment were now securing in its signalling section and in the School of Arms.
School of Arms.
To the latter institution a word is now due. Ever since the Headquarters had been opened, the athletic youth of the public offices in London had been attracted to this excellent training school in their midst. During the winter months the building was thronged to overflowing on “School” nights with perspiring youth in flannels, as class after class followed each other in unceasing relays for hours. Organising, directing and instructing this untiring energy were Danter, Brett, W. H. D. Clarke, Whitehurst, Weeks, Bell, Kirkby and others, ably supported, of course, by the most skilled instructors that the Guards and Aldershot could supply.
The result had now become apparent in the wonderful series of successes the School achieved, not only in the Home District Tournaments, but at the Royal Military Tournaments in competition with the Navy and Army.
A list of winners of Challenge cups and championship and silver medallists is given in Appendix No. V.
In addition to these successes, the School of Arms obtained 39 second and 18 third prizes at the R.M. Tournament, and an even greater number of prizes at the competitions of the Metropolitan Territorial School of Arms Association.
The most successful period for the Regimental School was during the first decade of the present century, when those fine all-round athletes Hobbins, Marsh and Chalke were in the hey-day of their prowess, and Major Brett, the oldest man in the competitions of 1907, won the Officers’ Bayonet Challenge Cup.