Dear Lady Arabella,
I cannot resist writing you a few lines to express my most sincere sympathy with you, and my sorrow at the loss of your gallant son at Kandahar, which the telegram has to-day announced to us. I have felt so much confidence in your son being with the Force, that I look upon his loss as a great public misfortune, as well as a domestic calamity, the bitterness of which you and his widow alone can tell. I much entreat you, dear friend, to try and remember that he fell nobly doing his duty, and I trust that God in his mercy will give you strength to bear this heavy bereavement, and will in His own time comfort you and the poor widow. Lady Napier joins me in the truest and deepest sympathy.
Believe me,
Dear Lady Arabella,
Yours most sincerely,
NAPIER OF MAGDALA.
Statement of Sergeant-Major Rickard, 2/7th Royal Fusiliers.
Sergeant-Major T. Rickard, of the 2/7th Fusiliers, states:—On the 16th August, 1880, I was one of the Party ordered out for the storming of Deh Khoja, under General Brooke. We attacked the village at the South end about 5.30 a.m. under a very heavy fire in all directions from the enemy. When we arrived in the centre of the village, Captain Cruikshank, R.E., got wounded. General Brooke assisted in helping him along. We then advanced further on, to force our way through the village, when we halted and got under a wall, as we thought under cover, but the enemy's fire from all directions kept getting heavier, and the longer we stopped the heavier the fire got. General Brooke said to me, "Sergeant-Major, we shall never get out of this, I am afraid." He then ordered us to retire back out of the village. We did so. After we got out of the village about 300 yards, we halted again under cover about 10 minutes, and fired on the enemy as fast as we could. General Brooke asked me to send him another man to help him along with Captain Cruikshank. I did so, and we retired again towards the Fort, and had only got about 200 yards when General Brooke was shot in the head (dead), and the other man that was helping was shot. I was with General Brooke the whole time, till he was shot.
T. RICKARD,
Sergeant-Major 2/7th Royal Fusiliers.
From Colonel French, R.A., Commanding Artillery in Kandahar.
Kandahar, 26th August.