»«^^^^^^' ^^#%;' the: LIFE OF 1 IRITUT COL, JOHN HAUGHTON iifA, !( )y A iS&Si^^ SHREWSBURY 1551 UPPINGHAM 1584 Cornell University Library DS 479.1.H37Y31 comrnan Lieutenant-colonel John Haughton, 3 1924 021 024 306 wvrih] CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021024306 LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN HAUGHTON '&o^t.9ytce/m:u^/t^,,€^'^ne^ <3&f^j^^i/u LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN HAUGHTON Commandant of the 2,(ith Sikhs A HERO OF TIRAH A Memoir BY MAJOR A. C. YATE 2ND (duke of CONNAUGHT'S OWN) BALUCH BArfALlON F.R.G.S. AUTHOR OF "ENGLAND AND RUSSIA FACE TO FACE IN ASIA," ETC. " In all retirements he stuck doggedly to the rear-guard until he saw the last of his column safely out of danger." " LUMSDEN OF THE GUIDES," p. I20. LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1900 ! LONDON PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS. LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. X 5/^ Shrewsbury School. Uppingham School. Founded 1551. Founded 1584. THIS MEMOIR IS, BY PERMISSION, > Pc6icttfc6 HEAD-MASTERS OF SHREWSBURY AND UPPINGHAM SCHOOLS, AT WHICH GENERAL JOHN COLPOYS HAUGHTON AND LIEUT.-COLONEL JOHN HAUGHTON WERE RESPECTIVELY EDUCATED. PREFACE. In these days, when reviewers ring out their clang of warning against the flood of memorial literature, to swell the current without a cause would be worse than waste. The waters must be waters of life, and the source must be pure, that those who drink thereof may profit thereby. Popu- larity is seductive, but not always a gauge of literary merit, gentle bearing, or good taste. It is these alone that bear the test of time ; and it is on time that we may rely to show (for instance) that " Tom Brown's Schooldays," and not "Stalky & Co.," portrays the characters, the principles, and the manners which we desire as examples for our boys. During the War in South Africa, some of our best-known military critics, and notably Mr. Spenser Wilkinson, have dwelt on the fact that the average British officer is in no sense a serious student of his profession. It is possible that the Memoir may appeal to that officer in a way that the Manual Vlll PREFACE. apparently does not do. It is essential that the examples of our best soldiers should be set before the Army—not only of those who have attained high rank and held onerous commands, but also of those who have distinguished themselves in less prominent capacities. It is the many juniors who, under the few Generals, win our battles. It is said that the non-commissioned officers are the backbone of the battalion. I venture, then, to say that the Commanding Officer stiffens that backbone. The " selection " of a Commanding Officer is a matter of the first importance ; and all those who take a thorough interest in the Army must always devoutly pray for the guidance of those in whose hands " selection " lies, and for their delivery from the many temptations that beset " selection." When we do find a Commanding Officer who has risen to that post, without favour or affection, who in that post has won the more than regard and respect of those under him, and who has personified a very high ideal of coolness, capacity for command, courage, and devotion, the example of that man ought not to be lost to Her Majesty's Army. It is one that every soldier may do well to know and follow, and it is one that every parent may set before a soldier son. On Lieut.-Colonel John Haughton the mantle of his father had fallen. Both ; PREFACE. ix father and son were, in every sense of the word, gallant and good men. Yet to-day Lieutenant John Colpoys Haughton, the staunch defender of Charikar in 1 84 1, is known but to the few serious students of Indian Frontier warfare ; while, to my knowledge, the name of Lieut. -Colonel John Haughton is, within three years of his noble death at Shinkamar, " caviare to the general," which, being interpreted, is " a dead letter to the man in the street." Never- theless, the name of John Haughton is worthy to stand by that of John Nicholson, as one who gave himself without stint for his country and for his brethren-in-arms. The two men present strong points of resemblance, in their fine physique, in their great influence over natives, in their grand moral qualities, and in their fearlessness of danger. My chief and best fellow-worker in writing this Memoir has been Colonel Haughton's widow. I am also indebted for information and help to Mrs. J. C. Haughton, and Mrs. Richard Haughton, Colonel C. H. Palmer, Lieut.-General Sir G. B. Wolseley, Major Gunning Hunter of the loth " Jats," and to several other officers who prefer to be incogniti also to several of the Masters and old boys of Uppingham School. The conviction, confirmed if not engendered by Dr. Warre's lecture at the Royal United Service Institution on the 27th June last, of the very X PREFACE. important part that Public Schools might, nay, ought to take in the military training of the youth of the upper and middle classes of the Nation, made me desirous of associating this book with the two Public Schools, Shrewsbury and Uppingham, at which General J. C. Haughton and his son had been respectively educated. The courtesy and kindness of the Head-masters of those Schools, the Rev. Prebendary H. W. Moss and the Rev. E. C. Selwyn, B.D., have enabled me to gratify this wish. Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Claude MacDonald—the one the preux chevalier of his period, and the first and foremost of the soldiers educated at Shrewsbury, the other the staunch defender of the British Lega- tion at Peking, and the most distinguished of the recent accessions to the Honour- Roll of Uppingham —are, so to speak, the first and last links in a chain that unites the earlier years of our great Queen Elizabeth with the later years of our still greater Queen Victoria. A Public School and its alumni possess a reciprocal power of action and reaction, which is the mainspring of the great influ- ence that Public Schools exercise on the manhood of the Nation. I am proud to acknowledge the debt I owe to Shrewsbury. In addition to private sources of information, I have, by the courtesy of the Editor, made use of the special correspondence in the Times PREFACE. XI of India from September, 1897, to February, 1898. I have also consulted the books published by Captain Shadwell, Colonel Hutchinson, and Mr, Lionel James, and by the Pioneer and Civil and Military Gazette Presses. I am indebted to the Rev. Father Mansfield, Roman Catholic chaplain at Peshawar, for the photograph of the grave and monument in the cemetery there, and to the Rev. G. H. MuUins for that of the memorial tablet placed by the 35th and 36th Sikhs in Upping- ham School Chapel. Some of the smaller illustra- tions are from photographs taken by Colonel Haughton himself. For others I am indebted to Messrs. Law Brothers of Ambala, Dr. A. H. Brown of Amritsar, and one or two other persons. Good photographs of scenes in Tirah I have found difficult to procure. The map of Tirah is based on the best authorities available. In the Introduction and in Chapters I. and II. I have_sought to show the sources from which Lieut.- Colonel John Haughton derived or inherited the high qualities of military leadership that he displayed in Tirah, at the same time giving an account of his ancestry, and of his father's distinguished career. In Chapters III., IV., and V. I have dealt with his early days, and with the first twenty-five years of his service, from 1872 to 1897. In Chapters VI. to -XL I have related the deeds that won him fame. Xll PREFACE. The last Chapter is a risumi of ideas suggested by recent warfare and the condition of the British Army. Appendix A gives Colonel Haughton's impressions of the Tirah campaign, written while every event was fresh in his mind, and just a fortnight before his death. As regards Oriental names, I have adopted that spelling which I considered would be understood by all. When I quote other persons' writings, I do not alter their spelling of names. A. C. YATE. WooDHiLL Place, Bath, September 2, 1900. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Introduction ... ... ... ... ... i I. The Haughton and Presgrave Families ... 12 II. General John Colpoys Haughton ... ... 27 III. John Haughton's Early Days ... ... 62 IV. Marriage and After ... ... ... ... 78 V. Preferment... ... ... ... ... 96 VI. The Defence of the Samana Forts ... ... 109 VII. Raising the "Pardah" of Tirah ... ... 141 VIII. Saran-Sar and Tseri-Kandao ... ... ... 150 IX. The Reconnaissance to Dwatoi ... ... 169 X. The March down the Bara Valley ... ... 180 XI. Rest and Death ... ... ... ... 194 XII. L'Envoi ... ... ... ... ... ... 206 Appendix A.—Letter from John Haughton to Sir Charles Gough ... ... ... 221 Appendix B.—" Shinkamar—January 29, 1898" ... 227 Appendix C—An Ambulance Reserve for India 229 Index ... ... ... ... ... ... 233 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. TO FACE PAGE LlEUT.-COLONEL JOHN Haughton {Photogravure) Frontispiece The First Suspension Bridge in India, built over the Beas River by Colonel Duncan Presgrave. {From an oldphotograph by Lieut.-Colonel John Haughton) ... 19 An Afridi Tower ... ... ... ... ... 40 Lieut.-General J. C. Haughton, C.S.I. {Photogravure) ... 54 Memorial Brass in the Chapel of Uppingham School 65 Officers of the 36TH Sikhs.