Robert H. Shebbeare
The note below was attached to the end of the letter by Miss Helen Shebbeare, his sister:
But they were unfortunate in losing their first Commandant Captain R.H. Shebbeare, VC, who was at this juncture taken ill after the capture of the Taku Forts, as the following orders show.
Headquarters, Camp Sinho, 15th August, 1860.
Leave of absence upon the recommendation of a Medical Board is granted to Captain Shebbeare Commanding 15th Regiment Punjab Infantry, to proceed to England for 15 months under the new regulations. By order Fred Stephenson, D.A. General
This was the last letter that he wrote and for the poignant details of his attempts to join his regiment, and of his last illness before he embarked for England, we must rely on a letter from his great friend George Baker. In a later letter of condolence written to Charles John Shebbeare, Robert’s father, he describes how he had to be carried back to the coast and taken aboard the Emeu, bound for England.
It was indeed most pathetic that, having at last got his first home leave, he was to die at sea off Shanghai so shortly afterwards; and it was all the more a harrowing tale in that his family, including the sister to whom he had written and sent gifts, and one of whom he had never seen, were waiting expectantly for his long-anticipated arrival home. We can only imagine the awful sense of shock and loss that they must have felt at the dockside at Tilbury on being told the news of his death, and it is difficult, indeed, not to share in a little of their grief ourselves.
To Charles John Shebbeare 15th Punjab Infantry Regiment, Camp Hong Kong, December 30th, 1860
Dear Sir,
On our return from the north of China the most distressing intelligence of the death of your son reached us while on the homeward journey and plunged us all into deep sorrow. At the hazard of reopening your grief I take the liberty of addressing you, as well as expressing my own deep sympathy in your bereavement and to give you a melancholy account of his illness north and departure for England, as doubtless it will be satisfactory to you and Mrs Shebbeare to know he was well nursed, that every care was taken and that I only left him when he was comfortable aboard the steamer.
From the day he left Calcutta your son’s health began to fail and he was greatly troubled with sickness and faintness early in the mornings but at Talien Bay he became much better and joined us in long walks in the mountains. Just before we left he again began to suffer and before we had arrived off Pehtang he was forced to report sick. The liver being much inflamed it was thought necessary to apply leeches but though we searched the fleet thoroughly not one had survived the journey north.
The regiment landed, leaving him on board the ‘Bentinck’ under the care of Dr Meyer the ship’s surgeon, an able man, and Captain Hodge, who was kindness itself. Unfortunately your son suffered greatly mentally. His gallant spirit chafed at being left behind. He had determined to lead the men he had raised and to be lying down weak and ill when all were up and doing affected him most seriously. His whole mind was centred on the Regiment and when the heavy guns were heard on board his excitement was intense.
Finally, on learning the date on which the assault was to take place, he determined to land and take command. Much against the surgeon’s wish was it, and all means were tried to persuade him to remain quiet. The doctor by unremitting care having succeeded in bringing the poor man round, but all was useless after the first gun was fired. The ship’s boat with an awning conveyed him ten miles to Pehtang. There he mounted his horse and rode ten more to join the camp. The day was intensely hot and alas! his noble spirit, after bearing him through all fatigue, broke down during the long delay and he became much worse. Friends were with him through-out. All in the army were glad to render assistance but without avail and at last he was ordered home.
I escorted him down the river and General Napier most kindly, in conjunction with Lumsden of our regiment, did all in their power to render the transit easy. I put him on board the steamer, I thought better, but much pulled down. Alas! I little suspected his end was so fast approaching. Subsequently I have heard from a Mr Johnstone, merchant here, that your poor son wrote to him while at anchor here and that he repaired on board, and on seeing him he tried to induce him to go on shore to his house and wait till better before proceeding. But home was before him and he determined to push on. The painful end you will know and his body is beneath the deep blue sea.
To you his loss is irreparable — a nobler nature, more gallant officer or kinder friend I have never seen. You are aware that I have lived with him since my arrival in India. He taught me a soldier’s duty and to his kindness I owe my position in this regiment and I mourn for him as I would for a dear brother. I trust the arrival of his brevet majority cheered his last moments. India has lost a most accomplished gallant soldier and all classes mourn for him. The papers in India have passed a high Eulogium upon him.
He left nothing with the regiment. His sword was with him. A few letters from your house have reached us and Randall and I have destroyed them according to his last wishes. Should you need for any further information or if I can aid you in any way, pray write and I shall be most happy to do all in my power.
And now dear sir, having tried poorly, I fear, but truly to express our deep loss and to ease your mind by giving you a few particulars, with earnest sympathy to you and Mrs Shebbeare,
Allow me to remain, Yours most truly,
G.A. Aufrere Baker
This is not quite the end of the China story as, unaware that Robert Shebbeare had died, Lieutenant Randall wrote him a long and interesting letter about the later actions of the 15th Punjab Regiment in the advance on Peking.
Camp Pakin, 25th October, 1860
My dear Shebbeare,
I dare say you have thought me a horrid beast for not having given all the news of our doings but really I have had little time for anything. The mail goes today and I have now only time for a mere sketch of our doings since you left. A couple of days after you went on board the despatch boat, the 1st Division marched towards Tien Tsin, which place we reached without anything worth describing. On arrival these various reports were in circulation as to what our next move was to be, but all agreed in saying that the war was at an end. I always thought, and said, it was not. After remaining in Tien Tsin for some days a small force moved on, composed chiefly of cavalry and artillery. The C-in-C and Lord Elgin also went with the force. A few days subsequently the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, followed and, the chief party having halted at Hoosewoo, we overtook the cavalry at that place. The next day (18th September) the whole moved on, and after marching a few miles, the cavalry advance came across a picquet of the enemy’s cavalry, who beat a retreat at once, but, on the cavalry clearing the village in which the picquet had been posted, they found a large force of the enemy. The day before, several English and French officers had gone on to select ground for our camp as the treaty was to have been signed here. Amongst those who had gone on was Colonel Walker, and on the cavalry clearing the village back he came at a gallop with some people who had accompanied him. It was now told us that the whole of the English and French who had gone on, with the exception of Walker and those named above had been taken prisoners by Singolinski’s orders, that the Chinese had thrown up earthworks and had guns in position in a semi-circle all round us, that their intention had been to allow us to encamp and then open from their guns, at the same time charging with their cavalry. This scheme had been defeated by our surprise of the advance picquet. We now formed up, the French taking the right of the road and the English the left. Sir J. Mitchell commanded the English and his general plan was to turn the enemy’s right, driving them all towards their left. The Queens were to attack the village on our extreme left — the 15th the next village. For this purpose the Queens under Mitchell and Sutton marched off at once to the left village, while I was halted with skirmishers out ready to attack number two village simultaneously with the Queens. While halted, an order came from the C-in-C for regi
mental advance with guns and commence the attack on the enemy’s centre owing to the Chinese having got our range. We therefore advanced and having driven them from the centre village, and the Chief going off with the guns and some cavalry, I brought the right shoulders forward and advanced through the town, the skirmishers working along the left of the town, supports in skirmishing order on the right, main body through the centre. On clearing the town we found about 6,000 cavalry and infantry close in front of us and all the camps standing. We drove them all before us without resistance, took all their camps (five in number) which we burned; took twenty-one guns and then, finding myself about four miles ahead of anything in the force, I halted. Everyone said the Regiment behaved admirably and I was ordered to write a despatch as I was on my own hook during the greater part of the day. I wrote plain truth and they said I had not made half enough of it — talked of Wellington, Hannibal and all sorts of rot. The chief said the Regiment skirmished splendidly without noise and in as fine order as a European Regiment. Mitchell and Sutton sang our praises and said they wished we had been with them. On the 21st we again had another go in when the Regiment was divided by wings, left wing on the left of the line fighting on the right. The enemy was fast getting round our flank when I sent to Brigadier-General Longfield, whose guns I was supporting, to ask leave to go at them. He gave leave and we drove them off, killing several. In the evening the left wing under Harris went across the canal and attacked a large body of infantry, killing many. Chief, much pleased, called for Harris’ report. We have had one man killed, 11 wounded, Baker gone away seedy after a graze on the nose. Next we advanced on Pekin itself — no opposition worth mentioning. The Summer Palace was burnt after being looted. Prize money given on the spot about £35 to subalterns; 73 DM to N.O.; 37 to Havildars; 20 to N; 13 and a half to sepoys. I have got a lot of metal said to be gold for the Regiment, if gold — about 5 or 6,000 pounds (£) — Harris has some metal equal to about £8,000 which he keeps himself. It is said we go back to India at once. The treaty was signed by the Emperor’s brother yesterday. I fear the Treasure Chest money is very short but have not had time to go in to it properly yet. I think it must be at least 6,000 rupees short. I will write next mail with full particulars when I have made up the accounts. Your horse sold for 600 rupees — your traps and other description well. You shall have money in a mail or two. No more time. Yours sincerely, Randall
Long after these events took place, Harris published his memoirs.1 In them, he describes matters with himself in very much a central role on all occasions. He recalls his exploits mentioned above thus:
At some place on the road, called, I think, Chankiawan, where there was a fine bridge, we found the enemy in very strong force. There must have been at least 30,000 men, and we deployed to face them. Here again I found myself on the left of the line, for the General almost invariably split up my regiment into its two wings, so that I was given independent command.
Inclining my men a little to the left, we were soon completely separated from the rest of the army. Across our front was a very high and long bund, exactly like a long railway embankment, and I expect that it had something to do with the floods of the Hoang Ho river. Through this, about a mile or more ahead, there was a gap, and while making for this, I was, alongside and under the bund, three guns, each drawn by two horses tandem fashion, with some twenty-five foot-men, armed only with swords, to each gun.
I was the only mounted man of our force, so, having given Sotheby an order to bring up a couple of companies as quickly as possible, I galloped off to the gap. The Chinese, however, succeeded in getting the first gun through the gap, but I arrived in time to stop the others, and riding in front of the leading gun with a revolver in hand, I kept shouting ‘Kowtow’, which was the only Chinese word in my vocabulary. I do not suppose that they understood my attempt at their language, but at any rate it had the effect of making them halt. Indeed, had they moved, I intended to shoot the leading pony through the head, but they seemed quite unable to make up their minds what to do, and made no attempt to retire.
At the end of an awkward quarter of an hour my men began to struggle up at the double, and I told them to disarm all the Chinese. Had I given the order they would have killed the whole lot, but having disarmed them, I allowed them to go, and then we marched back with the guns. One of these guns was a most curious specimen. It consisted of three barrels each six feet long, and carrying a two-ounce ball, but as they could be neither elevated or depressed the gun did not seem to be of any great use outside a museum. However, it was, after all, a gun, and at the time I was mightily pleased to have captured it . . . I reported to the General, and was duly complimented.’
His memoirs contain various amusing anecdotes about the campaign, of which the following is an example:
One very curious incident on this march (from Pehtang to Peking) is stamped indelibly on my memory. At a halting place the provost-marshal caught one of our 3,000 Chinese coolies in the act of looting, a thing which had been strenuously forbidden. The culprit was tried by court-marshal, and condemned to be hanged by way of example. The Chinese were drawn up on three sides of a hollow square. The scaffold was erected, and, preceded by his coffin according to the usual formula, the man was duly hanged.
But the results of this were not at all what we expected, for the whole of the Chinese coolies burst into the most uproarious laughter, and obviously considered that the whole proceeding was delightfully comical. As a spectacle they thought it first-rate, but as a deterrent it was the most dismal failure.’
The same standards did not seem to apply when it came to the British, for in the very next paragraph he continues: ‘Some days after we came to a large town, called Hose-woo, and here I received my first lesson in looting, for I found myself in orders to take a hundred rank and file and loot the Government pawnbroking establishment.’
He went on to Peking, where, as one can see from Randall’s letter, he carried out some more looting, with great success. In today’s values his gold would be a fortune of several hundred thousand pounds. It was indeed customary that soldiers relied on loot, or ‘prizes’, to supplement their somewhat meagre salaries. What happened at Delhi, and was about to happen in China, was that the British authorities asked that prizes be pooled for distribution amongst the troops and then managed to delay paying it for years, if at all, so it is perhaps not surprising that officers did what they could for themselves.
As it was at Delhi that Robert Shebbeare chiefly distinguished himself in his short career, it is fitting that one of the Delhi soldiers should have the last word. In a letter of condolence to Robert’s father, Henry Daly sums up the general feeling of loss that was felt within the army:
St Anne’s Ryde, Isle of Wight, 18th November, 1860
My dear sir,
The sad announcement of the fate of your soldier son compels me to write a few words to you. My sorrow can be as nothing to your sorrow, yet perhaps you will not cast aside the deep sympathy I tender.
Intimacy prior to the days at Delhi there was none between us. At Delhi we were comrades in many trials and dangers and I learnt truly to appreciate the devotion and gallantry, the truthfulness and stoutness of your son.
I was so impressed with his merits and services that I interposed to obtain for him the command of the Guides during the last days of my incapacity from wounds; at a time when more than I can express depended on the character and bearing of the leader of the Corps.
I mourn for the loss of so good a soldier — few men of his standing possessed so much power over those under him; that is, he could and did command men. He was a rare soldier and as such he has left a name and performed services which will long be a cheering example to many in his profession.
I will not affect to write of the grief of his family, but the knowledge of the estimation in which your son was held by those who had seen him most tried may in some way soothe the parents in their affliction.
With much sympathy, believe me,
> Yours faithfully, H.D. Daly
Notes
1 Harris, Major General J.T., “China Jim” Being Incidents and Adventures in the Life of an Indian Mutiny Veteran, Heinemann, London, 1912. History as we know it is a mixture of fact, fantasy and subjective perception, so one can be entertained by accounts of the past in the hope that much of what is said may on the whole be reasonably accurate. Despite Harris’s tendency towards self-aggrandizement and Cadell’s caveat (below), his memoirs are interesting in that they give yet another very personal point of view about these events.
At Delhi Harris had been with the 2nd European Fusiliers and the copy of his memoirs in the National Army Museum contains inside it a four-page original letter, dated 1912, the year of publication, from Colonel Kendal Coghill, who had been Adjutant of the Regiment, to Colonel Thomas Cadell VC, also of that Regiment, in which he systematically pours scorn on Harris’s version of many events that took place before Delhi. A small sample will give the flavour:
I have read ‘China Jim’ and, till now, had not known what an Angel of Light, Knowledge, and Prowess we had harboured in the old 2nd E.B.F. By his own records he is a crossbreed between an Admirable Crichton, a Baron Munchausen in piccolo and a Brigadier Gerard. More — he is a perfect economium of veracity. He has done wisely to have delayed publicising his career until all his contemporaries had passed aloft, and even himself.
Appendix I
MISCELLANEOUS AND SERVICE RECORD
Miscellaneous
A third cousin of Robert Shebbeare, Lieutenant Nathaniel Burslem of the 67th Regiment, was awarded a VC in the assault on the Taku Forts on 21 August 1860.
Robert Shebbeare had spent much time in dealing with the affairs of Lieutenant Murray who was killed at Delhi. The financial affairs of most officers involved something of a juggling act between income and expenditure, and after Robert’s death his brother Henry had to sort many complications out. There is much correspondence about it all, of which the following letter from Lieutenant Baker to Henry is a typical example. Letter to Henry Shebbeare (Robert Shebbeare’s brother) from Lieutenant Baker:
Indian Mutiny and Beyond Page 16
