On Thursday “the corporation brought an address to Sir Harry Smith, to which he read them an answer. Soon afterwards he went away.”
Professor Sedgwick tells the romantic story of Lady Smith’s early life, and ends, “And now she is a pleasant, comfortable-looking dame with mild manners and soft, sweet voice.”[173]
But the intoxicating hour of honours and ovations was quickly to give place to another period of hard service to Queen and country. During a visit to the Rev. T. Holdich at Maidwell Hall, Northants, Sir Harry received the news that he had been appointed to succeed Sir Henry Pottinger as Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner, and in September he was to leave England again. Another Kafir war was in progress, and Sir Harry’s nomination gave the greatest satisfaction to the country. Before his departure his old friends at Glasgow presented him with a piece of plate of the value of £400 and upwards. On the 16th September, in reply to an address presented at Portsmouth on the eve of his departure, Sir Harry said—
“I trust, if it should be my good fortune to render any additional service to my Queen and country, I may be able to do it through other instruments than that called war.... If I can avert war, I will. If I can extend the blessings of civilization and Christianity in a distant land, where, without any affectation of humility, I can say that some years ago I sowed its seeds, it will be a gratification to me beyond expression to do so.”
In the evening of the preceding day the 43rd, 52nd, and 60th Regiments had entertained Sir Harry at the George (the inn which had so many associations with his arrivals in and departures from England in early life).
In replying to the toast of his health, Sir Harry referred to the dinner given him on his arrival in London by the survivors of the old Light Division; to his own participation in every action recorded on the colours of the 52nd before him; and to the special praise given by the Duke of Wellington to the Light Division:
“When I have set the Light Division to do anything which was difficult and dangerous, requiring enterprise, the next day I found that division, with scarcely any loss, ready again to fight.”
Sir Harry drew the moral, “He is the best officer who does the most with the least loss of life.” On the relation of officers to men, he continued—
“Believe me, the tone of courage is taken from the officers; whatever the conduct of officers is, such will be the soldiers. And, gentlemen, if you knew the feeling of the British soldier in the field, ... then would your devoted service be for the comforts and happiness of your men. Do not let it be supposed, gentlemen, because I talk of the comforts and happiness of the men, that I am one of those officers who I regret to say exist in the present day, who have a kind of twaddle in talking about ‘the poor soldier.’ In the country I am going to, I regret to hear it said ‘the poor soldier’ sleeps here and sleeps there, ‘the poor soldier’ wants this and wants that. It is the duty of every officer to provide to his utmost for the comfort of his men, and when comforts are not to be had, ‘bad luck to the shilling.’ And, my gallant officers, believe me, our soldiers are equally gallant men, and where the comforts are not to be had, they don’t call themselves ‘poor soldiers’; they call themselves the glorious soldiers in the service of Her Majesty.”