1885-1889
BLACK MOUNTAIN EXPEDITION
Sir Frederick Roberts succeeded Sir Donald Stewart as Commander-in-Chief in India in 1885. After short leave home the new Chief returned just in time to preside over a great concentration of troops near Delhi in December of that year. It was the biggest thing of the sort that had yet been attempted; the manoeuvres occupied about three weeks, and concluded on January 8, 1886, with a Grand Review in which about 35,000 men took part. It would have been a splendid sight, had it not been spoilt by a deluge of rain. The Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, was on parade, and it was afterwards suggested that it was the firing of his salute that had brought down the rain. Anyhow, just as his flag was run up, the storm burst and the rain pitilessly poured down on the columns of men as they carried out the unaltered programme of the day. The march-past occupied six hours. According to an eye-witness, the "trot-past of cavalry and artillery in spite of everything was magnificent, and could have been performed by no other troops.... The Viceroy sat on his horse through the rain with exemplary patience, and we only hope that he will be none the worse."
General Chapman[[1]] had just taken up the post of Quarter-Master-General, and first saw his Deputy at this camp. Gatacre seems from the outset to have made a good impression on his Chief, who describes him in a letter from Delhi as "a man of active intelligence, quick and ready to do anything, a good rider, and a popular man."
[[1]] Now General Sir Edward Chapman, K.C.B.
At Headquarters
It is the province of the Deputy to take charge of the office in which he is working—that is, to acquaint himself with all that is going on in the department and to know all the staff and the clerks personally. On his arrival at Headquarters Gatacre rapidly gathered up all the threads of his new work, and made himself more and more valuable to his Chief; while from his own point of view he used to say that it was at this time that he learnt how to put a finish to his work in the office, and to appreciate the scope and importance to the army at large of the individual work done at Headquarters. As is often the case after a campaign, there was much important reorganisation worked out during the next few years; new schemes of training, housing and surveying, were initiated and carried out. From the inside of the Quarter-Master-General's office Gatacre could in a short time get a comprehension of many points of army administration such as a lifetime in the field would fail to give.
1886
During the winter months the Commander-in-Chief goes on tour, accompanied by a few staff officers: sometimes the Quarter-Master-General would go himself and leave Gatacre in charge, sometimes it was the other way round. One year when the Q.M.G. was making an extended tour, Mrs. Chapman was much pleased at getting a visit from Colonel Gatacre every morning as he went down to office. In response to her appreciation of these attentions he averred that he looked upon her as part of the office, and must see that all was well.
The two men were associated in this department for more than three years, and by the time that General Chapman had to resign (owing to bad health) a fast friendship had sprung up between them, one from which "the all-assuming months and years" have taken no part. On hearing of his friend's death in 1906 General Chapman wrote: