General Gatacre Part 12

[Sidenote: The Navy]

But transports were not the only vessels in Bombay Harbour. There were ships from the Royal Navy, ships from the foreign navies, and Peninsular and Oriental weekly mails, outward and homeward bound.

Between the navy and the army there was a strict etiquette regarding the exchange of visits. Writing from Bombay on November 3, 1909, General Swann tells us that--

"The procedure in the matter of ceremonial calling was for a staff officer to go on board within twenty-four hours of a ship's arrival and arrange for the exchange of visits between the captain and the general; the first visit was made by whichever was the junior of the two, and both visits were supposed to be over within the twenty-four hours."

Such official visiting had also to be attended to with great punctuality in the case of foreign warships, and on these occasions a bottle of champagne would be produced at any hour, and the health of the respective sovereigns ceremoniously toasted. The General particularly exerted himself to entertain these foreign guests. When a Russian vessel was in the harbour he asked the captain and three or four officers to breakfast at his house, inviting some ladies who could talk French to come and entertain them. On another occasion, when an Italian vessel lay at anchor, the General writes:

"I got up in the middle of the night last night to take the Duke of Savoy and his staff out {116} hunting to-day. He thoroughly enjoyed himself, galloped to his heart's content, made himself very sore at the knees, and came home perfectly happy. I got back just in time to dress for parade service, but could not get time for breakfast. Went to church, and got back to luncheon at 2.30."

[Sidenote: 1894-7]

The hunting days in Bombay were Thursday and Sunday mornings; horses were sent on overnight. The meet was at daybreak at a place reached after about forty minutes in a train that left the station at 4.30 a.m.

Hounds moved off as soon as the light allowed. It was a sporting country, for there were plenty of jackals, and the ground varied from soft ricefields, enclosed by Irish banks, to hard rock and heavy sand in which p.r.i.c.kly-pear hedges were disagreeably abundant. The hunt usually returned to the Jackal Club Camp in time for the 8.30 train, and all the men got back in time to be at their offices by 10 o'clock.

Every one in Bombay has an office of some sort, for no one would live there unless forced thereto by the necessity of fulfilling their vocation.

Another feature of the Bombay command was the constant semi-official attendances at the railway station and elsewhere. Whenever His Excellency the Governor, or His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, or His Excellency the Admiral Commanding the East Indian Squadron pa.s.sed through the station, the General Officer Commanding was there to receive him, or to see him off as the occasion demanded.

{117}

[Sidenote: Guests]

It was also his pleasure to meet any friends, official or private, who might be arriving or departing by the mail. There was hardly a week when his launch was not in attendance on the mail-boats. These usually arrived at daybreak, but for Gatacre no hour was too early. One morning the mail was to bring a general officer who was on his way to take over a command up-country. His son, already appointed as A.D.C., had come down to Bombay to meet his father, and had called at the Staff Office on the previous day. The General offered to take him on board in his launch, as he was himself going to fetch his guest home to breakfast, and named the hour. But when the General stepped into the launch next morning the A.D.C. was nowhere visible on the Bunder.

Afterwards the young man turned up, and his father said with a carelessnesss of speech which Gatacre was quick to detect: "May I introduce you to my son?" To which Gatacre replied: "You may bring him up to me if you like."

It was one of the paradoxes of Gatacre's character that he was sometimes as punctilious about fine shades of etiquette as he was on other occasions kindly when such subtleties interfered with his mood or his purpose.

All through the cold weather the General's house was full. There were the friends going by the mail to whom an invitation would be of the greatest convenience; there were the friends arriving by the mail who must stay one night to clear their baggage before starting up-country; {118} there were the friends who had entertained him when inspecting at their station, and whose daughters would enjoy the gaiety of the city.

He was very fond of ladies, and minutely thoughtful for every detail which might contribute to their comfort or pleasure while in his house.

Over and above all these calls on his time there was still the soldiering. The district covered a considerable area, extending northward as far as Cutch-Bhuj in Kathywarj and including many inland stations such as Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, and Khandalla. There was also a detachment of the Marine Battalion in the Persian Gulf. All the arrangements had been made for an official visit to Bushire in the spring of 1896, and it was with great reluctance that the General gave up this trip when he found himself under orders for Quetta.

It was the soldiering that he loved, and it was for this love of the soldiering that he deliberately overworked himself. No personal considerations had any weight. Having no one at home to watch over him, he became recklessly irregular at his meals, and would sit up to all hours of the night writing--endlessly writing. What kept him going were the trips up-country to inspect the outlying regiments and detachments; for in the train he would make up his arrears of sleep, and the rules of politeness secured his punctual attendance at meal-time. The uncertainty of his hours was a matter of some comment at the office, where no doubt it {119} gave rise to considerable inconvenience, and probably not less troublesome was his habit of utterly disregarding the usual luncheon interval. The General was playfully conscious of all these misdemeanours, for on bidding good-bye to his chief staff officer on his departure for Quetta, he said:

[Sidenote: Office hours]

"Now you will be all right--with a brand-new General whom you can educate to attend the office regularly at eleven, and go home to tiffin at two."

This officer, however, bore him no grudge for his vagaries, and now writes with great affection of his old Chief.

POONA, _September_ 17, 1909.

"As his staff officer there were two points he used to impress on me--'No difficulty' and 'No finality.' Difficulties, like hills, were useful for the exercise they give in surmounting them. There is no difficulty that cannot be overcome somehow. No finality is the watch-word of progress. What may seem best to-day can be improved upon to-morrow, but that is no reason for deferring action indefinitely: 'The best is the enemy of the good.' Act on what seems good at the moment, and trust to time and opportunity to find something better to act on later. But act, and act promptly. This, I think, sums up the principles he tried to instil into me, and his example ill.u.s.trates his teaching.

"I never served under a chief who thought more quickly, decided more readily, or acted more promptly."

During the last week of November 1894 the {120} Viceroy, Lord Elgin, arranged to hold a Durbar at Lah.o.r.e. There was to be a great gathering of the native princes of the Punjab, and a concentration of British, Native, and Imperial Service troops. The Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief both had large camps, to which they invited guests from all parts of India. Having received the offer of a tent and the hospitality of his camp from Sir George White, Gatacre selected the two best-looking chargers in his stable and repaired to Lah.o.r.e in the highest spirits.

[Sidenote: 1894]

In a letter written a little later, however, he confesses that it was not the attractions of the Durbar that took him so far out of his command at such a busy time of the year, but the expectation of seeing some one again whom he had recently met as she pa.s.sed through Bombay.

For the guests a Durbar week is a holiday; the General was a free man--he had only to look on and enjoy himself. There were many official functions where every one was gloriously apparelled, but he looked as splendid as any in that brilliant company; and there were many social festivities which afforded opportunity for daily intercourse. It was during the picturesque pageants of the Lah.o.r.e Week that I came under the spell of the General's charm. To know him was to love him, as many another has since said to me. During that week we learnt to know one another, and at the end of it he wrote a frank manly letter to my father, Lord Davey, begging him to sanction the idea of our marriage. {121} I regret that the kindly reply to his honest exposition of the whole matter has not been preserved; its purport being in accordance with our hopes, the engagement was made known, and I had the gratification of hearing my General's praises on all sides.

In some letters of December 1894 he intentionally writes about himself, and supplies us with the incentives which inspired him.

"I am always thinking of how I can get on, not for the sake of the money it brings, but for soldiering itself."

And again:

[Sidenote: Soldiering first]

"I hope you will not mind my love of soldiering and work; it has such a fascination for me, I am inclined to put it first always. But my love for you will stand out first, and your love for me will enable me to carry out my work at personal inconvenience to ourselves, won't it?

You see I am cunningly trying to get you to overlook my endeavours to think of soldiering as the first thing, but, dear, you will always be in my heart all the time."

Perhaps it was by contrast with the slackness natural to the soft climate of Bombay that Gatacre's indomitable spirit attracted so much attention. Colonel James Arnott writes:

"Working, as I did, in the Civil Department, I had no official a.s.sociation with your husband, and it was only when he commanded the Bombay District that I got to know him at all well. I was much impressed by his keen interest in his {122} profession, his strong _esprit de corps_, his enthusiasm for work, and the activity and strength which enabled him to carry it on in a way to stimulate others.

I have a clear recollection of his active figure and his first-rate horsemanship, riding, as he often used to do, bare-backed, an indication of character and of those qualities so necessary in a soldier.

"General Gatacre took his share in everything of public interest in Bombay, but I shall only refer to the very successful a.s.sault-at-Arms which he organised--the first and best thing of the kind that I saw in my long residence in Bombay."[1]

[1] September 13, 1909.

[Sidenote: The first tournament]

This tournament was a great event. The large gra.s.s-covered enclosure known as the Oval was borrowed from the Munic.i.p.ality for the purpose of a Grand Naval and Military Display and a.s.sault-at-Arms. This s.p.a.ce, flanked on one side by the Town Hall, and on the other open to the sea, offered every facility for such an undertaking. Admiral Kennedy, who was in residence for Christmas, willingly co-operated; his handy men rendered most valuable a.s.sistance, the naval element lending a distinction of which only a Bombay a.s.sault-at-Arms could boast. An attractive programme was made out and entries were invited from all the stations in India.

It was of course necessary to get subscriptions and guarantees; but the General was already personally acquainted with all the leading men in Bombay, and had no difficulty in {123} getting what he wanted. The Governor and the resident native princes gave their support and patronage, and many wealthy merchants, realising the great local expenditure that such a tamasha must involve, contributed generously.

In the friendly relations established with the citizens of Bombay over the multifarious business of this tournament lay the secret of the facility with which Gatacre two years later won them to accept his views about segregation.

Every detail of the entertainment had the General's personal attention; his fertile brain organised and perfected the whole and every part, his hands painted the scenery of the Soudan Village, his horse carried the officer's daughter who, in the gay uniform of the Royal Horse Artillery, opened the proceedings by presenting His Excellency the Governor with a programme in a silver case. The incessant labour entailed by this vast undertaking, and the strain necessary to honour all its calls upon him while carrying on simultaneously the routine of his official life, can be best expressed in his own words.

Writing on the Thursday before the tournament, which was to open on Monday, December 17, he says: