Charlie Egan
One touching incident illustrating his goodness of heart is told by the Rev. George Dodds, the Free Church Minister of Liberton, as occurring about this time. When in command at Maryhill Barracks the Colonel one day inspecting the hospital had his attention directed to a boy—one of two brothers in the band of the Black Watch—who was dying of consumption, and it touched the soldier's heart. Finding out that the boy was an orphan, he had him removed to a room in his own house, the Colonel himself accompanying the lad from Glasgow to Niddrie, where every possible attention was paid to him. Dr. A. Balfour of Portobello was asked to look after the case, and it was the Colonel's wish that a nurse should attend him. The lad, however, got so attached to the housekeeper at Niddrie—one of the kindest and most faithful of servants—that he would have no other attention than hers. During all the illness of the brave little chap, no one knows but the kindly nurse, the doctor, and the minister, the Colonel's tenderness and anxiety and unstinted generosity towards his little friend. When at length after some weeks he died, it was a sight not to be forgotten, how at the close of the funeral service he stood weeping at the head of the coffin which was laid on trestles in the hall. It was a stormy wintry day at the end of April, the snow lying thick on the ground; but, following the bier, he walked uncovered through the snow with all the reverence of a bereaved man to the grave in the little private burying-ground in the Niddrie policies, where the young soldier, whose closing weeks of life he had soothed so tenderly, was laid to rest by his comrades from Edinburgh Castle.
Poor little Charlie Egan, with only his fifteen summers over his head, truly found in his commanding officer one who was touched with the truest Christian sympathy, and acted well towards him the part of the Good Samaritan. Such conduct is a noble example. It is the secret of lasting popularity. It is more,—it is the secret of true happiness.
In 1894 occurred a protracted strike among the colliers throughout the country. The Niddrie coal-works were affected by it, and for seventeen weeks the men were out of employment, and their families suffering the severest hardship. On this question he expressed himself at a later date most forcibly in these words:—'I do not know anything to a patriotic mind more terrible for the country, and bad for it, than anything in the shape of strikes—those industrial wars which the country has witnessed and which had been an evil thing in every way. I know it will be said that I am a man of war, and that I love war, and all that sort of thing. Never was there a greater fable. Though I have never had to stand on a great European field of battle, I have seen too much of war in all its horrible aspects not to hate it in every sense of the word. In the same way with those industrial wars, there is nothing more deplorable and nothing which has tended more to unhappy homes, and all the consequences thereof.' But the Niddrie miners were in sore straits, and a deputation of them went to the Colonel to lay their case before him, and they did not appeal in vain. He told them very plainly he had no sympathy whatever with the strike; 'but man, Tam,' addressing the leader of the deputation, 'I would rather do anything than see the women and weans starving,' and there and then he promised to give one pound daily to keep the soup-kitchen going, so that they might at least have one good meal a day. Not only so, but as long as the strike lasted, vegetables in abundance were supplied from the Niddrie House gardens.
The country gentleman
In New Craighall there is a large reading-room and bagatelle-room. Many years ago the building was erected by the Wauchope family for a school, and was used as such up till 1896, when it was superseded by the large school erected by the Board at Niddrie Mill. Niddrie bowling-green, gifted to the villagers lately by Sir Charles Dalrymple, has been a great boon to the men; and Colonel Wauchope contributed largely to the expense connected with its formation. A bleaching-green in the centre of the village—part of it fenced off for football; the local football club; the local brass band—these were all objects of his liberality. Was a site for a church or a chapel wanted, it was given ungrudgingly, and his grounds were thrown open for Sunday-school excursions and picnics during the summer months. In cases of accident to any of the miners, he had an ambulance waggon ready at the collieries, and in many other ways he indicated his interest in the villagers.
Similar instances of generosity among the people of Town and Kirk Yetholm—where the other family estate is situated—made him, we are told, the 'admired of all admirers.' There he bestowed large monetary help in providing better water supply and sanitary requirements for these villages. In Yetholm district he was an open-handed benefactor, and will probably be longer remembered as such than for his warlike achievements. And all this kindness was done without ostentation. It was the outcome of a noble and generous disposition. 'No man is truly great who is not gentle,' it has been wisely remarked, for a gentleman must be kind and considerate for others; and though the work of a soldier is to fight, and if need be to kill, he is all the stronger in his hour of struggle against the enemy that he carries within him a gentle heart.
Colonel Wauchope's heart was in the right place, and his influence was consequently far-reaching. It is told of him that one day he had as a companion in a country walk an ex-brother officer, not very popular among the private soldiers. As they sauntered along, they forgathered with a big boisterous bully who had been drummed out of his regiment, taking with him a rankling ill-will against this officer. He gave vent to his wrath against the Colonel's companion, and threatened that he would 'do' for him, showing at the same time every disposition to carry his threat into effect; but Wauchope promptly stepped between the two, when the rowdy somewhat changed his manner, saying, 'Captain, I would not lift a hand against so gallant an officer as you; it is lucky for Mr. —— that you are with him,' whereupon the Colonel lectured him upon the impropriety of his conduct, and with sundry other good advices parted from him by leaving a silver coin in his hand. This was too much for the man, and he burst into tears.