Accordingly, at 7 a.m. on the 1st June, the Gold Coast Regiment left the camp at Korewa, and began its march back to Port Amelia. From Medo to Ankuabe—a distance of five-and-twenty miles—it was conveyed by motor-cars, but the rest of that weary journey was accomplished on foot over a road which had been knocked to pieces by the traffic passing over it. A standing camp was established at Gara, between Mtuge and Bandari, which was reached on the 13th June, Colonel Rose having, on the preceding day, relinquished the command of “Rosecol” and resumed that of the Regiment.
The rest of June, July and the first twelve days of August were spent in refitting, and men of the Regiment who were doing duty at various points along the lines of communication were gradually recalled and collected. On the 29th July Colonel Rose and Major Read sailed for South Africa from Port Amelia on board H.M. Transport Hymettus; and on the 13th August Major Hornby with 37 officers, 17 British non-commissioned officers, 862 rank and file, and 135 stretcher-bearers, gun-carriers, etc., embarked on board H.M.T. Magdalena and on the 14th August set sail for West Africa.
At Durban, reached on the 18th August, Colonel Rose and Major Read rejoined the Regiment, and both here and at Capetown, where the transport arrived on the 27th August, several officers were landed who were taking leave in South Africa, Australia or Tasmania.
Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast, was reached without incident late on the 5th September, and on the following day the Governor, who had seen the Regiment off from Sekondi exactly two years and two months earlier, came on board the Magdalena to welcome and inspect the troops, and to thank them on behalf of the Colony whose name they bear, for the splendid fashion in which, through all the trials and dangers of the East African campaign, they had upheld its reputation.
Colonel Rose and Major Read disembarked at Accra, but the Regiment sailed on the evening of the 6th September for Sekondi, where it arrived early next morning.
From this port to Kumasi, whither the Regiment at once proceeded in special trains, its journey was a triumphal progress. At Sekondi itself a feast of native foods, such as these soldier-exiles had not tasted for two years, had been prepared for their consumption; and at every halting-place crowds had assembled to greet and acclaim the Regiment and to load the men with gifts. All along the line little knots of natives shouted and danced their welcome, and even after darkness had fallen every station at which the trains stopped was crammed by eager crowds of Europeans and natives alike, bent upon showing the men what pride the colony felt at the reputation which they had won for themselves, and how deep was the popular sympathy for all they had suffered and endured.
It was a royal home-coming, and when at dawn the men, worn out with excitement and fatigue at last arrived at Kumasi, their women met them at the station in a clamorous mob, and accompanied them in triumph to their cantonments, with the songs and dances wherewith the warriors of West Africa have always been greeted on their return from a victorious campaign.
But, alas! there were wailings and keenings too, mingling with the joyful tumult, for many a woman there was lamenting some poor fellow who lies buried far away on the other side of Africa, and would not be comforted because he was not.
The casualties sustained by the Gold Coast Regiment during the campaign in East Africa were as follows:—