Indian Mutiny and Beyond
Page 15
Now with love to all believe me ever yours most affectionately,
Robert H. Shebbeare
(The clay figures mentioned were commissioned by Robert Shebbeare and have an inscription ‘Gopaul Dass fecit’. They were given to the Sandhurst Museum, which is now part of the National Army Museum.)
Lines addressed to Captain Shebbeare’s Corps under orders for China, 27 January 1860:
Go forth ye sons of Mahood Of Brahmin and of Ram,
By bravery gain glory To your tribes in Hindustan
And o’er the children of the sun May your right arms prevail,
From the river banks of Peiho To the walls of far Canton,
Stay not the tide of battle Till the victory be won.
‘Victoria’ be your motto, Your Empress and your Queen,
Go fight beneath her banners, Let your loyalty be seen.
For by your deeds in that far land, Ye warriors rest assured,
Ye will be judged by nations, Let a good name be secured.
Then neath Britannia’s standards If ye find a bloody grave,
Your names shall be recorded, And deathless, dying brave.
Calcutta, 16 March 1860. Extract of a letter to Miss E.M. Shebbeare:
I have been here since 24th of last month, having been ordered down by dawk to make arrangements for the China business. My regiment arrived at Ranigunj yesterday and is to come here on the 18th or 19th by rail. You will easily understand that it is a very anxious time for me. Sikhs as well as all other natives of India look with dread on the voyage and the sojourn in foreign countries and though I think my men are cheerful and jolly, yet I have constantly to think of and carry out innumerable little plans to increase their comfort and prevent their regretting that they have volunteered. General Sir Robert Napier has command of the embarkation and does everything he possibly can to make the men comfortable. I shall be very glad when we are off. Cholera is flying about and both Fane’s and Probyn’s are losing men.
Robert Shebbeare sailed from Calcutta on 15 April and his diary records that in his cabin aboard he had with him:
Contents of No. 1 Bullock Trunk
Posteens and furs, Chocolate pugries, Undress belt, Black Inverness napper [presumably a cape], Books, Flannel shirts, One pair lace boots, Light summer waistcoats, Hair Oil in case, Khaki trowsers.
Contents of No. 2 Trunk, to be in cabin
Full dress uniform with cummerbund, Mufti coats and trowsers, Medals, Warm socks, coloured and white, Black coat, Flannel shirts, White shirts, Towels, Stud box, Pyjamas, Pocket handkerchiefs, Citrate of magnesia, Khaki coat, Wide Awake [a type of hat].
Valise, in Cabin, Toilette apparatus and 1 change, Memo books.
Ship Bentinck, Hong Kong. 21st May, 1860
My dear Mother,
Here we are safe and happy after a very pleasant passage. We shall go on I believe in about three days and then I shall have more to tell you than I have now. The mail is in today but I am obliged to post this without waiting for the distribution. Innes was here at dinner yesterday looking very well. I received your letter through the Admiralty immediately on arrival here.
I dined with Sir Hope Grant the day before yesterday and he was very kind and made a great many enquiries about the men. He has had to leave two Sikh regiments behind but he would not hear of our regiment being left. I am as usual in a hurry having left my writing to the last moment, but I did not like the mail to go without a line or two.
With best love to all, believe my dear mother, ever your affectionate son,
Robert H. Shebbeare
Hong Kong, June 1st, 1860
My dear Harry,
I sent you from Calcutta ‘By long sea’ two largish boxes, one containing clay figures of my men etc., which will perhaps interest you, and the other containing a number of swords and curious arms. The figures will receive no damage I hope, but I fear the swords will be very rusty. There is one sword called ‘misnee’ which I have worn constantly but which is now done up elaborately in a red velvet scabbard with gold mountings. I should be very sorry if this were spoilt as it is a present from Nuttha Sing. By the present mails (Steamer Madras) I have sent a box full of silver ornaments, bracelets etc. It is addressed to Alice under cover to Grindlay. I enclose today a bill for £10 on the Oriental Bank which I hope will cover any expense which you may be put to on account of these packages. I hope that Alice will be able to select something from the box which may console her for the loss of her coral necklace which was lost and that she will serve out the other articles to her sisters. I forget what is in the box exactly so I can give no list.
We ought to be off north this evening but it appears inclined to be squally and it is very possible we may stop another day. Tell F. Innes that his brother is looking well and happy; he goes north also. Will you go to Grindlays as soon after receipt of this as you can and pay for Alice’s parcel? It rains almost all day here and there is no fun of any kind going on. I shall be very glad to be off. Continue to direct to ‘China Force, Hong Kong’.
Believe me yours ever affectionately,
Robert H. Shebbeare, Captain
I am so bothered with public letters that I have signed myself ‘Captain’ from force of habit.
On arrival in Hong Kong two entries in the diary note:
May 15th. Called on C-in-C and Lady Grant. Dined with Wilmot; Sotheby with me. Got a terrible ducking as it rained cats and dogs. Borrowed clothes from Col. Bruce and Wilmot and turned out in most gorgeous staff war paint.
May 16th. Dined with the Commander-in-Chief. Saw Fane’s beautiful scrapbook and heard excellent music. C-in-C on violincello.
Deep Bay, Hong Kong Island, Steamer Bentinck
June 3rd, 1860
My dear Jack,
We left Hong Kong on Friday and went out to sea about two hours before dark, with the ‘Queen of the East’ and ‘Pioneer’ in tow; about ten o‘clock the wind rose and by twelve it was blowing a gale and there was a very heavy sea on. The ‘Pioneer’ carried away both her hawsers a little after midnight and went off on her own hook. We held on until daybreak when we went round and made for Deep Bay which we reached safely with the ‘Queen of the East’ in tow. We could hear nothing of the ‘Pioneer’, but found that three other steamers which went out at the same time as us, had cast off their ships and come in. In Deep Bay we found the ‘Viscount Canning’ which started two days before us with Randall’s party. In the evening the Admiral came round in a small steamer and ordered us round the island to fetch the ‘Pioneer’ which had come in about four miles off. We went round and anchored by her for the night and brought her into Deep Bay this morning. There are some five and twenty vessels lying here, all waiting for fairer weather. The wind is still from the NE, a very unusual quarter at this time of the year as the SW Monsoon generally sets in about the 10th May. HM Transport Steamer ‘Assistance’ ran on to a reef which is marked on the charts, in broad daylight, and is now a complete wreck. She had 800 China coolies on board and a few European soldiers. I fancy all were saved but have not heard anything certain. The wreck is within 300 yards of the shore and is above water forward. There are ninety-one hired transports that I know of taken up for troops to the north and I don’t know how many government vessels besides. I think John Chinaman will begin to look about him when he sees them sail into the Gulf of Pechili! Some China men in Canton offered to bet 20,000 dollars that we shall be licked in the North. They were taken up by the joint stock company of officers, chiefly staff, I hear. The French ran a ship on shore also the other day in the same stupid manner as the ‘Assistance’ and I hear that they have lost all their artillery harness!
Young Keppel of my regiment told me the other day that he has an uncle or cousin living at Surbiton who knows you but I cannot recollect the name. If you know who he is you can tell him K. is quite well and jolly. He is on board the ‘Viscount Canning’. Innes is at anchor within a few yards of us and I mean to go and see him when I can get hold of a boat. Baker is on b
oard with me and very jolly.
Saturday was a day to be recollected by our Sikhs. They have been so accustomed to fine weather and smooth seas that they were quite taken aback and did not know what to make of the heavy sea which tossed us about in every direction. I suppose the ship we were towing had some effect on our own motion for we pitched and rolled and kicked and jumped in a most extraordinary way and for the first time during the voyage I was most woefully and unmistakably seasick and was very glad when we ran into smooth water and anchored in Deep Bay.
The regiment arrived at Singapore on the 27th April, having experienced a dead calm the whole way, which was lucky for the steam transports as they were towing one, and sometimes two sailing vessels. There was very little sickness amongst the men and they were all very happy and in good spirits. [Extract of a letter from Lt R.H. Shebbeare to his home, by kind permission of his niece Miss M.L. Shebbeare.]
His diary tells us that the Bentinck anchored in Talien Bay on 17 June, in heavy fog, and one of the men had his leg broken by the hawser. On the 18th he called on General Sir Robert Napier and the following day on General Mitchell. At 5.30 am on the 20th, 100 men under Elton went ashore to build a jetty and to dig for water, returning at 4 pm. Entries tail off and the last, on 30th June, records that ‘Nuttha Sing found some pennyroyal. Thermometer 86 degrees at 11 am in bell tent.’
Camp Talien Hwan in Manchooria. July 10th, 1860
My dear Nelly,
We are still here waiting for the French who will probably not be ready for the next fortnight. They are encamped at Cheefoo on the opposite side of the Gulf of Pecheli so I cannot tell how they are getting on; but I know we have had to supply them with powder, artillery, harness and a great number of other things which they had either lost by allowing their ships to go on shore or else had never brought at all. I wish we were independent of them as we are losing the most valuable part of the year through their not being ready. Lord Elgin arrived yesterday in the ‘Feroze’ so I suppose their preparations will be hurried on. I don’t know whether Baron Gros is here or at Ceefoo (I don’t know the spelling). I hear that Sir Hope Grant is gone over there today.
We were sent on shore on the 25th and at first were rather badly off; but we have now found our mess tent and some preserved meats, soups etc., and everybody tells us we are much better off than any other regiment. We have brought some of our Indian experience of camp life and I find that we manage better than the English regiments. We get very bad fresh beef but no sheep at all. My knowledge of cooking comes in usefully and I am generally asked to make a stew or some dish more savoury than our cook treats us to. The commissariat bread is scarcely eatable and we get very few vegetables and the Bay appears to have no fish. We bought a six-oared gig from the captain of the ‘Bentinck’ and row about the harbour a good deal. My horses I am glad to say arrived in very good order and the new charger is turning out pretty well. I fortunately brought leather water bags and a pack saddle so the pony makes himself useful, the water being rather scarce and the wells distant. My men have dug some ten wells near our own camp but there is very little water in them. I am sorry to hear this morning that Brigadier Crofton, commanding the artillery division, is ill. He hurt his leg while getting out of a boat and neglected to take proper care of himself; he is said to be seriously ill. I hear of no other officers in bad health and as far as I know the troops are healthy but we have only one division of infantry on this side of the Bay. The 2nd division of infantry and the whole of the artillery and cavalry are on the north side about nine miles off, where the water supply is better.
There is a curious and I think rather disreputable old fellow here called Maturin or Matchurin or some similar name out here who says he knows my Father and he was certainly aware that his chambers were in 5, New Square. I suppose he must be in some way acquainted with him. Nobody in the whole army seems to know what he is and it is impossible to get him to tell. He told me that he was two years with the Duke of Wellington and that he came out here in the ‘Odin’ with Lord John Hay, the Duchess’s brother, but Lord John tells me that he himself does not know who or what the man is. He says that he was also in Canada with Lord Elgin and in fact he has apparently been all over the world with all sorts of noblemen, but whether as secretary or valet-de-chambre or in some other capacity superior or inferior no one can even guess. The general supposition is that he is a newspaper correspondent but he calls himself, or rather leads other people to call him Captain and hints that he is attached to the Embassy. In short he is a perfect mystery and although he is generally partially intoxicated he is quite impenetrable. The climate here is very good really at this time of year. Thermometer about eighty degrees in mess tent at 2 or 3 pm and sixty-four at night. We have brigade parades three times a week and rather more than our usual allowance of working parties, pickets etc., but not enough to fatigue the men. I think General Mitchell and Brigadier Sutton are as good and pleasant commanders as we could have had and both seem to be very pleased with the regiment. I hope they may think the same after seeing it in action and I think they will not be disappointed.
Signor Beato the photographer is here in the village close by. He wants to take my portrait he says, for his volume of Indian celebrities! so I am going down in all my war paint this afternoon or tomorrow.
We have made up a code of signals and are now asking the ‘Bentinck’ to send off the oars of our boats which have been sent on board for repairs. The signals will I hope be useful to us through the campaign.
In case I should get a chance of sacking a town what particular article of Chinese furniture or apparel would you like me to steal for you? The villages about here are almost entirely deserted and the Provost Martial people are very active so that it is almost impossible to get even a cabbage or an onion. My soldier servant Dyal Sing does sometimes manage to get me a few eggs and occasionally a fowl, but then he is a remarkably clever fellow and has the command of a large bag of cash or Chinese halfpence which I brought up from Hong Kong.
The mail goes out on the 13th and I shall not close my letter until the evening of the 12th. My old friend Heathcote of the Rifles is now here with the 2nd Battalion and I am glad to be near him again. Colonel Palmer who commands the 2nd Battalion and Captain Bowles were also in the 1st Battalion at Delhi, and there is a brother of Sir Edward Campbell’s also here; but I am afraid this battalion will not in any way be equal to the first as it is almost entirely composed of recruits. (In explanation of the cause of all my blots and scratches let me tell you that some twelve subalterns are clamouring for tiffin in the mess tent where I am writing).
I got my Mother’s letter of the 24th April through the Admiralty and I am very delighted that you can occasionally write in that way as the post is so very uncertain and I have had no Post Office letters since I left India. Bye the bye, I must not forget to send you a copy of an epitaph on a tombstone in the graveyard in ‘Happy Valley’ at Hong Kong. I think it is the most exquisite specimen of that style of composition that I have met with.
12th. I have been ordered on a court of enquiry at ten o‘clock and must therefore close my letter. A marine who was servant to Lieutenant Hudson commanding the Gunboat ‘Leven’ took up a pistol and shot his master through the neck the day before yesterday. After firing the shot he went on deck and told the Master that Hudson wanted him. The Master went down into the cabin and the Marine fired at him through the skylight, hitting him behind the ear. The ball lodged in his arm. Hudson is dying but the Master is out of danger. I must now positively close with best love to all, Believe me, dear Nelly, ever your affectionate brother,
Robert H. Shebbeare
In his memoirs, Harris notes:
On landing at this place I saw, with great pleasure, that the whole coast was covered with oysters — real natives. I at once sent back a message to the chief engineer ... asking him to send me a bucket and an oyster-knife. Later on I got a hammer and a chisel, and next morning the beach was a sight with 8,000 men eating oysters .
. . Two days afterwards one had to walk for miles before finding an oyster.
We stayed at Ta-lien-whan for about five weeks. The climate was glorious, the scenery beautiful, and the food excellent. We had no sickness, and during the whole campaign I do not believe we had more than three men at a time in the hospital. Truly, the China campaign of 1860 was the most enjoyable picnic in which I have ever taken part.
Gulf of Pecheli, Ship Bentinck. 10th August, 1860
My dear mother,
I am just recovering from a severe attack of fever and liver which commenced on the 26th, the day we left Talien Bay. I am in hopes that the liver is reduced to its natural size again now and I feel no pain in it so that I may be said to be quite well, but I have not got a bit of strength in my body, my legs are ridiculous to look at and I can hardly lift a cup of tea. Now however the mutton chops commence and I hope a glass of beer and I trust I shall pick up rapidly. Meantime my regiment is on shore under Randall and although it could not be in better hands, yet I can’t help regretting that I cannot command it myself. The regiment is gone out today to take some entrenched camps [the Taku Forts]. I hope most sincerely to join in about five days more. I am very comfortable aboard the ‘Bentinck’. The captain has made me up a large bed in the saloon and sends Lascars to pull my punkah all night. He has indeed been most kind to me all through my sickness.
I will write to you by the next opportunity and hope to have more cheerful news.
Believe me dearest mother, your most affectionate son,