The receipt of the news of the General's death in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and indeed throughout the world, was accompanied with every expression of grief. It was felt that the empire had lost one of its noblest and best, that a hero had gone down to his rest ere his full life's work was done. Alike from soldier and civilian, from political opponent and political friend, came the common lament; while the fluent pens of journalists were in some cases constrained to acknowledge that it was all but impossible to write with calmness of the sad event.
The national feeling was roused as it seldom has been before, and from one correspondent we have the following remarkable testimony. 'I believe,' he says, 'that General Wauchope's tragic death did more than anything else to bring the nation as a nation to call upon God. No doubt before his death there was much prayer throughout the nation both in private and in almost all the churches; but there was no national acknowledgment of God—no day set apart by authority for this purpose. General Wauchope's death awoke the national conscience, and there was a public recognition of God by the nation. It is a matter of history that when this took place the tide of battle, which for so long had been against us, then began to turn in our favour. Andrew Gilbert Wauchope did not die in vain.'
Sympathy of the Queen
Her Majesty the Queen felt the loss she and the country had sustained, and, with her usual womanly consideration, sent a message through her Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Hopetoun, desiring him to express her deep sympathy with Mrs. Wauchope of Niddrie, and with Lady Ventry, the General's sister. In this message, it is understood the Queen paid a warm tribute to the General's fearless qualities as a soldier, and to his magnificent services to the nation; while she sympathetically referred to the fact, that in every campaign in which he had taken a part previously, with the exception of the Soudan war of 1898, he had had the misfortune to be wounded.
Seldom has so general and so spontaneous an expression of public feeling been given in this country. In Scotland especially was this so, as might naturally be expected. In Edinburgh, where both the Black Watch and the Gordon Highlanders had recently been stationed, the death of Colonel Downman of the Gordons, and many others with him in the same engagement, gave a sharper edge to the calamity. Lieutenant F. G. Tail, also well known in Edinburgh, and popular all over the country as a champion golfer, was wounded on this occasion. After his recovery he went again to the front and was killed on 7th February at Koodoosberg Drift. From Mr. Low's record of his life it is interesting to quote what he says as to the Black Watch at Magersfontein, inasmuch as it differs somewhat from the despatch of Lord Methuen already quoted, and expresses the opinion of one who was on the spot. 'The papers say the Highland Brigade retired and re-formed. The Black Watch never did; and, furthermore, we held our ground all day.' As to his commanding officer he says, 'General Wauchope is in no way responsible for the fearful loss of life amongst the Highland Brigade: he got his orders, and had to carry them out, and he was killed in front of his brigade.'
CHAPTER XI
CHARACTERISTICS
A devoted soldier