During these early years of Wauchope's life, so free from restraint, his education was being carried on at home under a tutor. At the age of eleven he was sent to a school at Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, but he did not remain there very long. He had a hankering for active life, and specially for the sea. It was accordingly resolved to prepare him for entering the navy as a midshipman, and he was sent to Foster's School, Stubbington House, Gosport. His experience here was also a short one, and was marked by an incident characteristic of his spirit of adventure and faithfulness to obligations; though in this case we must say the latter virtue was rather misapplied, and it might well be said 'his faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.' The boys at Foster's, evidently wanting to vary the monotony of school life—perhaps none of the brightest—thought it would be a good lark if one would run away from the school, and they resolved to draw lots who it should be. The lot fell upon young Andy Wauchope, and, like the loyal lad he was, he resolutely stuck to the agreement and ran off from the school, but of course he was promptly brought back by his people, and no doubt received the just reward of his frolic!
He used to say long afterwards that he had only been at two schools when he was a boy. 'At one of them he was said to be the best boy in the school, but at the other he was the very worst!'
With what would now be considered a very inadequate training, young Wauchope was on the 10th September 1859 entered as a naval cadet on board Her Majesty's ship Britannia, there to pick up in the rough school of a sailor's life that knowledge of the world, and particularly of his naval duties, which books and schooling had denied him. At the same time, though deprived of the advantages of Eton or Harrow, or any of the Scottish Universities, he had a much better gift than education—an immense natural shrewdness, and a persevering application, which afterwards made him a good French and German scholar. Among his shipmates on the Britannia he was a general favourite. He was only thirteen years of age, but appears to have been a plucky little fellow, full of life and fun, and quite capable of standing up for himself, or for a friend if need be; and in the thirteen months of his service in the ship he made several lifelong friendships. Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, writing to us of that period, mentions that he and Wauchope joined the navy about the same time. 'I remember,' he says, 'our chests were close together in the Britannia. We separated when we went to sea, but we never lost the friendship we formed in the Britannia. We met often in different parts of the world, and I always found him the same sterling, honest, strong, and chivalrous friend, whose splendid characteristics had so impressed me as a boy. I have always regarded his friendship for me with sentiments of pride. He was very proud of being a Scotsman, and being an Irishman myself, we had many arguments—as boys will have—as to which nation possessed the most interesting personalities. We agreed cordially on every other point, but never once on this. The nation has lost one of its best in poor Andy Wauchope.' There are doubtless others of his Britannia shipmates surviving who could give similar testimony.
Enters the Navy
On the 5th October 1860, Wauchope received his discharge from the Britannia, and was entered as a midshipman on board H.M.S. St. George, and he mentions himself with what pride and satisfaction he found himself on that autumn day walking down the main street of Portsmouth in his new uniform to join the St. George. 'It was one of the happiest days of my life,' he says; 'a day in which I felt myself identified as an officer in Her Majesty's service, more particularly as on the way down to the harbour I was met and saluted by one of the marines.'
The St. George was manned by eight hundred men, and in 1860 was considered a well-equipped vessel, and as compared with the days of Nelson and Collingwood showed a great advance in naval strength and efficiency. At Trafalgar the biggest gun in the whole British fleet was only a fifty-six pounder, but the St. George had in addition to a number of that calibre several sixty-eight pounders, while her speed of ten knots an hour was considered highly satisfactory. Though these equipments would not bear comparison with present-day standards, the young midshipman was proud of his ship and proud of the service, and in after years could with no little exultation honestly say that, 'though armaments had changed, the hearts of oak remained as of yore; while the old red rag, which had withstood the battle and the breeze for a thousand years, was still able to claim the allegiance of its people.'
H.R.H. Prince Alfred
Wauchope's commanding officer on board the St. George was Captain the Hon. Francis Egerton—whose son, Commander Egerton, was killed at Ladysmith in November 1899—and among his brother officers were H.R.H. Prince Alfred, afterwards the Duke of Edinburgh, and latterly known as the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, and Admiral Sir Robert Harris, now Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope station.
The St. George was commissioned at Portsmouth, and was transferred to Devonport early in 1861. She was then one of the noblest and most imposing-looking ships of the service, having the year before been thoroughly overhauled and converted from a one hundred and twenty gun ship to one of ninety guns. As a three-decker sailing ship she was considered one of the finest fighting vessels afloat, and her conversion to a steamship of the line had been attended with the most successful results. She was selected by Prince Albert for his son, the youthful Prince Alfred, who joined her as a midshipman a few months after Wauchope—on the 16th January 1861—as she lay in Plymouth Sound, under orders for a cruise to the British North American Stations and the West India Islands.
The greater part of the year seems to have been spent in and about Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, which became a centre for cruises in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Canadian ports. We have it on the authority of several of those who were midshipmen with the Prince, that they were a jovial, happy company, all on the most friendly terms with one another. The Prince, who was very fond of 'Andy,' as he was always called, showed him particular friendship, and the affection which as boys and shipmates they formed then continued more or less in later years.