[150]. Ibid.
[151]. Ibid.
[152]. The ‘Times,’ Sept. 15, 1854.
[153]. Ibid.
[154]. Sergeant John F. Read, corporals William Harding, William Swann, and privates Robert M. Rylatt, Michael Westacott, and John Piper.
[155]. The ‘Times,’ Oct. 26, 1854, by the Author of ‘The Russian Empire.’
[156]. A few weeks before the Central Association commenced its humane operations, a fund was raised by Captain and Adjutant Somerset to aid the wives and children of men of the corps ordered to the East. The Central Association took its rise from a letter which appeared in the ‘Times’ on the 22nd February, 1854, on which date, singularly enough, Captain Somerset received the first subscriptions for his fund. As the working of this regimental charity could not but be limited, Captain Somerset did his best to lessen the chances of its being too soon exhausted. He therefore personally advised every married man before embarking, as to the course he ought to pursue during his absence from England, and obtained from him an agreement to make a monthly remittance, suitable to his means, for the support of his wife and family. This was not a difficult interference, for the men were only too anxious to make the utmost provision it was in their power to arrange. Of this regimental fund Captain Somerset had the entire charge. By his exertions it reached the sum of 240l.; of which 72l. were subscribed by the four survey companies. The rest was added by officers of the corps at home, a few companies of sappers, and the personal friends of the Adjutant. Its plan was to make advances—obtaining repayment of them by remittances from the seat of war; also to award donations, and to provide, in unforeseen circumstances, domestic troubles, sickness and death, such relief as the several cases needed, and which could only be met in this way. “The Somerset Fund,” so quiet and unpretending in its exercise, was of great benefit to the corps; and of about sixty women and nearly one hundred children who, by loans and grants, drew support from its means, not one ever had occasion to seek the cold shelter of a workhouse. With one or two exceptions, the wives of the sappers behaved with virtuous propriety during the absence of their husbands, and were a credit both to them and the corps.
The Central Association was a national undertaking, in which the wives and families of the corps, equally with those of the rest of the army, shared to the full extent of its numbers. It properly does not belong to this history to notice the gigantic operations of the Association, and the extraordinary good it achieved; but it may nevertheless be permitted to say, that the royal sappers and miners will ever retain a warm recollection of its beneficence, and cherish the name of Major the Hon. Henry Littleton Powys—the untiring advocate of protection to the soldier’s wife and family, and the gratuitous Honorary Secretary of the Association—with feelings of lasting gratitude.
[157]. Familiarly and indiscriminately called “Gordon’s battery or parallel,” “21-gun battery,” or “Frenchman’s Hill.”
[158]. Called “Chapman’s battery or parallel,” or “Green-hill.”