Chapter IV: Part 4

Under Captain Robertson, R.E., four sergeants and seventy-seven rank and file quitted King William’s Town, with the force, about 400 strong, under Lieutenant-Colonel Burns of the 2nd Queen’s on the 30th August. A body of Kaffirs and Hottentots being at Committy’s Hill, the troops marched on the 1st September from their bivouac at Fort Montgomery Williams by Breakfast Vley to the hill. One division of the sappers was extended as flankers on each side of the advancing column, and upon them a galling fire was soon opened from the bush. The sappers readily charged into it, and where the thicket could be penetrated drove the enemy back; but the denseness of the kloof in rear afforded the Kaffirs much security in retreating. Having ascended the summit of the hill, the sappers faced right about, and made a rapid charge down the hill on the enemy, who were gradually collecting in the bush from which they had just been driven, and inflicted considerable loss upon them. The charge was made with cheering, yet not in a hurry; the men stopped at each kloof and fired volleys into it, and then dashed after the fugitives. “It is most gratifying,” writes Captain Robertson, “to report the admirable and gallant conduct of the men under my command during this conflict which lasted nearly three hours, and of the readiness with which they advanced to carry off the wounded of their own and of other corps under a heavy fire.” The officers of the 2nd Queen’s spoke in terms of high commendation of the spirited manner in which the sappers acted, and of their cheerfulness in obeying their officers. Private James Murray behaved with great courage in exciting the men both of the 2nd and his own corps to follow him. Running forward like one whose life depended on the action of the moment, he was followed by several who lined the bush to which he drew them, and some fell in their gallant exertions. Among them was private James Fergus, whose arm was pierced by a ball which passed through the left breast and out near the spine below the heart. He died in camp soon after the action. Private Patrick Conroy, a cool and brave soldier, fired at a Kaffir more than 300 yards away and killed him. Private John Arthur came in contact with one in passing round a bush, and in a personal conflict laid him dead at his feet; and private Robert M‘Intosh, whilst in the act of ramming home a cartridge, saw a Hottentot about to fire at him, but not having time to withdraw the ramrod capped and fired, and the ramrod passed through his opponent’s body. Lance-corporal Hosick Cowen and privates Charles Foot and Thomas Brooking were wounded; the last severely.

At Fort Cox, on the 28th September, second-corporal James Wilson behaved with intrepidity in repulsing a meditated attack on the cattle-guard. A body of Kaffirs intended to drive the cattle from the post unperceived, and then to massacre the guard. Two civilians and the corporal happened to go out at the time for recreation to an unfrequented spot, and were unconsciously directing their steps to the bush where the enemy were concealed in ambush. Fortunately one of the two in advance fired a random shot, and suddenly more than 200 Kaffirs made their appearance. The civilians were in front, and the corporal considerably in rear followed in support. A sharp fire now opened on the corporal, and the enemy made a disposition to surround him; but the corporal stealthily retired, and took up a favourable position, from which he kept up an unerring fire on his adversaries, who fortunately for him seemed more bent on capturing the cattle than spending their efforts in beating down a single opponent. Taking advantage of their predatory activity, the corporal shot down five of the Kaffirs before any assistance was rendered by the military cattle-guard. On being apprised of the approach of the enemy, the guard lost no time in collecting and driving off the cattle to a place of security, but in the attempt two soldiers of the 45th were shot dead. The Kaffirs at once stripped them, and placing their red jackets on their own bodies, danced frantically at their triumph. While this scene of exultation was going on, corporal Wilson, through the intricate windings of the bush, cautiously neared the group, and firing, one of the savages received the ball from his carbine and fell dead. On the troops advancing, the corporal at once joined them, and assisted in driving the enemy from the post.[63]

From the 14th to the 31st October, two sergeants and thirty-one rank and file served in the field operations with Major-General Somerset’s division in the Water Kloof, Fuller’s Hoek, Blinkwater, and Kat river. Again, from the 4th to the 7th November, two sergeants and forty rank and file were on patrol in Seyolo’s country; and again, from the 1st December until the 18th January, nine rank and file were present in the long marches and difficult services of the division under Colonel Eyre. This party was intended to cut loop-holes in the missionary station at Butterworth. The India-rubber pontoon raft taken with the party, was used in the passage of the Kei. This service occupied two days, and the sappers worked with much ardour in its accomplishment.

With the exception of two or three patrols, in which the sappers were commanded by the officers already named, it was the good fortune of the corps in every instance during the campaign to be under the orders of Captain C. D. Robertson, R.E.

The cessation of the works at the Mauritius made the services of the company there available for duty at other stations. Accordingly, with the sanction of Earl Grey, the seventeenth company, under Captain Fenwick, R.E., quitted the island on the 25th October, and landed at the Cape of Good Hope on the 19th November. The force of sappers on the Eastern frontier now consisted of three companies, and counted 276 men of all ranks.

Speaking of the reinforcement Sir Harry Smith thus wrote to Earl Grey, under date the 4th October, “I assure your Lordship that I very much appreciate the value of this reinforcement. No officers and soldiers in Her Majesty’s army do their duty in a more gallant and exemplary manner.”[64] On the same date, Sir Harry thus wrote to Sir John Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications, “I have 120 sappers here now, under as gallant a fellow as ever lived—Captain Robertson. These men are the finest soldiers I almost ever saw, and have taken their tour of most arduous patrol duty heart and soul.”

“From being employed on the works,” wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Cole, the commanding royal engineer, “and their usual industrious habits, the men were generally found to endure long marches and fatigues better than the line, particularly in the commencement of the war.” “Besides,” said Captain W. C. Stace, R.E., “the performance of garrison, patrols, and escort duties in the field at most of the posts on the frontier, the works provided for in the annual estimates, and several special and numerous incidental services, many of them contingent on the war, were executed by the sappers and miners, and their important and valuable services have been duly acknowledged to me verbally by different officers. The want of such a body of men would have been seriously felt on many urgent occasions during the war, in consequence of the difficulty at all times, and sometimes impracticability, to obtain artificers when required.”

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Footnote 61:

Letter from Captain Tylden in the ‘Times,’ April 23, 1851.

Footnote 62:

‘Parliamentary Papers,’ Cape of Good Hope, June, 1851, p. 47.

Footnote 63:

The incidents of this affair, for the most part, are taken from a Cape
paper. One day this corporal was fishing in the Keiskama, armed with a
loaded carbine, when he was approached from behind by a Kaffir. The
latter fired, and corporal Wilson, who was untouched, fell as if
killed. Warily the Kaffir neared the spot; but the corporal, watching
his opportunity, jumped up and shot his opponent. The wound was not
fatal, but a blow from the butt end of his carbine sealed the Kaffir’s
fate, and the corporal took home his head as a trophy.

Footnote 64:

‘Parliamentary Papers,’ Cape of Good Hope, presented February 3rd,
1852, p. 164.

1851.
GREAT EXHIBITION.

Sappers attached to it—Opening—Distribution of the force
employed—Duties; general superintendence—Clerks and
draughtsmen—Charge of stationery—Robert Marshall—Testing
iron-work of building—Workshops—Marking building—Receiving and
removing goods—Custom-house examination—Fire
arrangements—Ventilation—Classmen—Private R. Dunlop—Clearing
arrangements—Miscellaneous services—Bribery—Working-pay—Close of
the Exhibition—Encomium by Colonel Reid—Also by Prince Albert
and the Royal Commissioners—Honours and rewards—Their
distribution—Statistical particulars—Lance-corporal
Noon—Removing the goods—Return of companies to
Woolwich—Contributors to the Exhibition—The Ordnance survey—And
Mr. Forbes, late sergeant-major.

It was the good fortune of the royal sappers and miners this year to be associated with the Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, by which its name and character, its acquirements and usefulness, became more extensively known, appreciated, and commended. For this honour, the corps is indebted to Lieutenant-Colonel Reid, the Chairman of the Executive Committee. Receiving the cordial concurrence of his civil colleagues, he represented to Prince Albert and the Royal Commissioners, the desirableness of military co-operation for carrying out the subordinate details of the work. The measure—at once approved of—was ordered to be carried into effect, and accordingly, three lance-corporals—Richard Rice Lindsay, Thomas Baker, and Charles Fear—were attached on the 11th September, 1850, to the executive committee. The two former were clerks and draughtsmen, and the latter an ingenious mechanic and modeller. Their first duty was to execute a plan and model of the proposed arrangements for the Exhibition. By the end of the year, fifteen rank and file, clerks and draughtsmen, including a founder and an engineer, were added to the party, who for a time were quartered in Kensington cavalry barracks. By degrees the force continued to augment, and at last by the arrival of the fifth and twenty-second companies, under Captains Owen and Gibb, R.E., and a strong detachment under Lieutenant Stopford, R.E., who was appointed acting-adjutant, the corps, on the 21st April, 1851, counted 200 non-commissioned officers and men. This was the greatest number of the sappers ever employed at the Exhibition. The enlarged force was furnished on the ground that as the corps was composed of artizans, its services would be especially useful, particularly in the mechanical part of the arrangements. As soon as the small cavalry barrack was full, the subsequent arrivals at the Exhibition were quartered in the royal palace at Kensington, and ultimately the detachment in the former barrack was also removed to the palace.

Just prior to the opening of the Exhibition on the 1st May, parties of the corps placed barriers across the various entrances into the building and also at some of the naves leading into the transept. At each outer barrier a small section of men was posted to prevent its removal, or the ingress of persons not authorized to view or take part in the state ceremonial. Within the area of the transept a strong detachment was stationed near Her Majesty, to attend to any orders which Prince Albert or the Royal Commissioners might see necessary to enforce. As the crowd kept flowing in, the “temporary barriers to protect the space round the throne were in part swept away” by the excusable impetuosity of the throng, “and the entire space of the nave seemed to be permanently in possession of the spectators. In this emergency Colonel Reid called out a party of sappers who soon restored order, and thus,” wrote ‘The Times,’ to whose columns these pages are indebted for the above description—“added one additional service to the many others which they had contributed for months within the walls of the Exhibition.” With temper and management the confusion soon subsided, and by ten o’clock order was established, “and reasonable facility afforded for the royal progress round the nave of the building.”[65] Immediately the Queen proclaimed the Exhibition opened, the sappers removed the barriers, and the avenues of the building were at once rendered free for the unrestrained passage of the people. For the temperate, quiet, and efficient conduct of the sappers on the occasion, they received the thanks of Colonel Reid, Sir George Grey, the Home Secretary, and Sir Richard Mayne, the Chief Commissioner of Police.[69]

The subjoined table shows the strength of the corps at the Exhibition at the beginning of each month from October, 1850, to December, 1851, and also illustrates the divisions of labour in which the several parties were occupied.[70]

─────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────── │ 1850 │ 1851 ─────────────────────────┼───┬───┬───┬───┼───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬─── RANKS—DISTRIBUTION │Sep│Oct│Nov│Dec│Jan│Feb│Mar│Apr│May│Jun│Jul│Aug│Sep│Oct│Nov│Dec ─────────────────────────┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼─── Strength:— │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Colour-Sergeants │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ Sergeants │ │ │ │ │ │ 2│ 4│ 6│ 4│ 6│ 5│ 6│ 4│ 3│ 2│ 1 Corporals │ │ │ │ │ │ 1│ 7│ 10│ 7│ 10│ 6│ 10│ 10│ 9│ 9│ 2 Second Corporals │ 1│ 1│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 3│ 10│ 13│ 8│ 14│ 10│ 13│ 10│ 9│ 8│ 3 Privates │ 6│ 5│ 5│ 9│ 11│ 31│142│158│160│155│137│144│142│132│154│ 17 Buglers │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 2│ 4│ 4│ 4│ 4│ 4│ 4│ 4│ 4│ 1 ─────────────────────────┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼─── Total Strength │ 7│ 6│ 7│ 11│ 13│ 37│167│193│185│191│164│179│172│159│179│ 24 ─────────────────────────┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼─── Distribution:— │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ General superintendence │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ Clerks, draughtsmen, │ 4│ 3│ 4│ 8│ 9│ 15│ 13│ 25│ 17│ 17│ 17│ 22│ 22│ 17│ 7│ 7 autographic press, &c. │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Charge of stationery, &c.│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2 Testing iron-work │ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Modellers—workshops │ 1│ 1│ 1│ 1│ 1│ 1│ 1│ 2│ 10│ 10│ 10│ 10│ 8│ 7│ 2│ 1 Lettering and laying out │ │ │ │ │ │ 18│ 18│ 10│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ passages │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Receiving, arranging, │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 44│ 46│ 23│ 28│ │ 12│ 3│ 5│121│ 4 unpacking, and removing│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ goods │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Custom-house examinations│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 24│ 24│ 6│ 6│ 4│ 4│ 2│ 2│ 10│ 2 Charge of gates │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 2│ 2│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Charge of fire-engines, │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 14│ 9│ 20│ 20│ 20│ 22│ 20│ 12│ 3│ 3 &c. │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Ventilation │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 2│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 1│ 1│ │ Class superintendents │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 21│ 48│ 46│ 46│ 49│ 50│ 41│ 42│ 3│ Cleaning British side of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 38│ 38│ 38│ 38│ 37│ 39│ │ building[66] │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Collecting and arranging │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 13│ 4│ 4│ 4 specimens │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ On guard │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 4│ 4│ 4│ 4│ 5│ 5│ 5│ 5│ 5│ Cooks and cooks’ mates │ │ │ │ 1│ 1│ 1│ 10│ 8│ 9│ 9│ 6│ 6│ 8│ 8│ 10│ 1 Sick │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 7│ 9│ 3│ 5│ 3│ 2│ 1│ 1│ 2│ Absent from various │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1│ 3│ 1│ 2│ │ 4│ 3│ 3│ causes[67] │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Tailors │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 3│ 1│ │ 1│ 2│ 2│ 3│ 8│ 4│ On command[68] │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1│ 1│ ─────────────────────────┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼─── Total │ 7│ 6│ 7│ 12│ 13│ 37│167│193│185│191│162│179│172│159│179│ 24 ═════════════════════════╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╧═══

Footnote 66:

Part of day only.

Footnote 67:

Duty, furlough, pass, &c.

Footnote 68:

Clerk, Royal Engineers’ Department, Glasgow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A brief but more extended exposition of their duties than the above detail adduces, is here given to show the general nature of the connection of the sappers with the Exhibition, and the availability of the men to discharge onerous duty and varied occupation.[71]

One of the colour-sergeants during the arrangements superintended the sappers on the British side, and the other on the foreign side. After the opening of the Exhibition, colour-sergeant Thomas Harding acted as sergeant-major; and colour-sergeant Noah Deary as foreman of works, in the repair of damages which accidents and the pressure of the crowd were continually causing to the railings, counters, &c. On two or three occasions when there was a press for money-takers, colour-sergeant Deary and sergeant Thomas P. Cook and William Jamieson did duty as collectors.

The clerks were employed under the various officers, military and civil, of the Executive Committee; the draughtsmen, partly under Sir W. Cubitt and Mr. M. Digby Wyatt, when they found such assistance necessary in the superintendence and record of the progress of the building; but principally under the Executive Committee, in making the numerous plans which were necessary during the preliminary arrangements. It was from their surveys and drawings that the plans in the Commissioners’ First Report were made. The men employed as clerks and draughtsmen varied at different times from three to forty in number. One of the men, lance-corporal John Pendered, was also employed in working an autographic press, which was useful when a few circulars were required at a short notice. The facility with which he acquired a knowledge of the apparatus was creditable to his aptitude, and the simple method he adopted to throw off the copies with rapidity and clearness proved him to be intelligent and skilful. The most distinguished of the draughtsmen were lance-corporals James Mack, Thomas Baker, and Nicholas Clabby, corporal Archibald Gardner, and lance-corporals Richard R. Lindsay and John Venner. The large plans, both of the ground and galleries, made for the convenience of the visitors, to enable them to find their way more easily to the parts likely most to engage their curiosity, and which were displayed at the south side of the transept during the later months of the Exhibition, were prepared by corporals Mack, Baker, Gardner, and Gabby. Both were considered to be highly-creditable specimens of drawing, combining boldness and skill with perspicuity. A daily journal, after noticing one of the drawings, thus wrote of the sappers, “Indeed that body have rendered invaluable services, not only in the general arrangements of the interior, but more especially in making those nice measurements which were essential with reference to the question of space.” It then concluded its notice by making some flattering allusions to the proficiency of the sappers employed on the national surveys.[72] The plans were each twenty-one feet long by six feet wide. Similar drawings on a very reduced scale, from which the plans in the first report were engraved, were executed by corporals Gardner, Mack, Clabby, Venner, and Lindsay, but the principal and most effective part of the work devolved on corporal Mack. The ground plan was drawn by the three first-named non-commissioned officers, and the galleries by corporals Mack and Venner. The interesting coloured diagram to show the fluctuations in the number of visitors, and other characteristic details, was wholly drawn by corporal Mack. The plan of the exhibition building to illustrate the water-supply, and measures for security against fire, was drawn by corporal Lindsay. These four drawings comprised the plans in the First Report.

The chart exhibited in the transept on the 6th October, to show by diagrams the fluctuations in the number of visitors to the building, was prepared by corporals Gardner and Mack, under the direction of Captain Owen. ‘The Times,’[73] said it was “a production of great merit and of much public interest, and resembled those scales of mountain elevations which are usually prefixed to atlasses. The shilling days were the Himalayas and Andes of the chart; while the half-crown and five shilling days were represented by heights of much lower altitude.” With the permission of the Executive Committee, these two non-commissioned officers compiled, on the same principle, a similar diagram with more copious general information, for the proprietors of the ‘Weekly Dispatch,’ from which an engraving was made, and copies in immense numbers were thrown off and issued on two stated occasions to the purchasers of that newspaper. Referring to the great chart shown in the Exhibition, the ‘Weekly Dispatch’ thus wrote: “This chart, which is beautifully executed, and is altogether a production of very great merit, reflects the utmost credit upon the authors—corporals Gardner and Mack of the royal sappers and miners, a corps which has rendered most intelligent and valuable service to the Exhibition.”[74]

Corporal Baker, under Mr. Henry Cole, had the honour of preparing a coloured plan of the arrangements for Her Majesty, another for Prince Albert, one for the Duchess of Kent, and several for the members of the Royal Commission. He also surveyed the whole of the arrangements on the ground floor. In an instructive article in ‘Chambers’ Journal,’ on the ‘Crystal Palace,’ allusion is popularly made to this portion of the sappers’ duty, and it is justly added, that “the men were found very useful. All our surveying and planning have been done by them.”[75]

During the latter months of the Exhibition, corporal Clabby recorded hourly the number of visitors who had entered the building up to the time of making the registry. This he did on a large sheet of paper fixed in the transept, at a sufficient elevation for the public to consult it. The rush at the moment of making the record was always great, and the interest with which the corporal was greeted and questioned by the curious, was accompanied by many honourable indications of kindness and good will.[76]

Two men were in permanent charge of the receipt and issue of printed forms, and all articles of stationery to the various officers. Second-corporal John Vercoe was in chief charge. He also assisted as a clerk, and was pay-sergeant for Lieutenant Stopford’s detachment. From the 2nd October, 1850, to 23rd January, 1851, he had the charge of the party then at the Exhibition, and for his courteous deportment and address, was well spoken of by those with whom he was brought in contact.[77]

Two men were employed during the erection of the building in testing the cast-iron girders and columns with an hydraulic press, &c., and in ascertaining that all the bolts were sufficiently screwed up; also in keeping a record of the ironwork fixed each day. This duty was intrusted to lance-corporals Robert Fleming and Joseph Barrow; the former tested the girders, and the latter the proper adjustment of the fitments and bolts. In cases of dispute about the practicable application of some defective columns and girders, the opinion of corporal Fleming was, on three or four occasions, sought for; and he gave it in so clear and manly a manner, that his views were readily followed by the contractors. It is not a little remarkable that this non-commissioned officer was the only sapper recommended by Sir William Reid for promotion, during the period that the Colonel commanded the corps at the Exhibition. Corporal Barrow, when not employed in examining the fitments, took his place in the drawing-room, and notwithstanding the rough occupation he had been accustomed to, was found efficient. For the successful stability of the building, some little credit is at least due to these two humble officials. Their exertions were very great, and their vigilance in the important work intrusted to them was fully equal to the responsibility.

Soon after the building was constructed, and before the goods began to be deposited, it was considered desirable to ascertain the effect of regular oscillation in the galleries. Experiments of different kinds were tried, but to carry out that which was regarded as the most trying, a strong detachment of the corps in close columns, keeping military time and step, was marched several times up and down, and round, and finally were made to mark time. With the result of this last test the eminent scientific men present expressed themselves highly gratified, and the incident was considered to be sufficiently interesting to become the subject of illustration in a popular journal.[78]

Lance-corporal Charles W. Fear made, in the early part of the arrangements, a model of a portion of the building for the information of the Royal Commissioners, and afterwards was employed in making small models of counters of various parts of the building and other things of the kind required during the progress of the work. After the opening of the Exhibition a party was employed in repairing damages caused to the railings, counters, &c., and in copying, in model, some of the simplest and most instructive mechanical inventions and appliances for provincial institutions. The better to carry out the new style of constructing models, four of the party attended lectures on the subject delivered by Professor Cowper at King’s College, Somerset House.

A party, varying from five to twenty-five men, all painters, was employed during the arrangements in numbering and lettering the columns, and laying down on the floor of the building the plan of the proposed passages and counters. Lance-corporal John Venner, who also worked as a clerk and draughtsman, was conspicuous in this division of duty. Corporal Archibald Gardner, also a draughtsman, was in great request for printing. The facility with which he lettered notices, labels, &c., required in _an instant_, brought him greatly into favour with the officials. The amount of work he had to execute rendered it indispensable that some more convenient substance than Indian ink, which took an immense time to grind, should be found. This he effectually provided, and thereby caused a considerable saving of expense. Gas-stoves were used in the Exhibition offices, in which he observed a very available description of soot to accumulate; and carefully collecting the material and mixing it with common ink and a little glue, he manufactured an abundance of a fine jet black preparation, which was always ready for emergencies.

The number available for unloading the goods when they were coming in varied from twenty to fifty men, and was not sufficient without the assistance of considerable numbers of porters from the docks. As the waggons containing the packages arrived within the building, they were driven to the centre of the transept and there unloaded and marked by a Custom-house officer. From the transept relays of sappers conveyed the packages in trucks to the compartment of the foreign country from which they had been consigned, where another band of Custom-house officers was ready to receive them. There was always a fresh supply of sappers with chisels and other implements to break open lids or other coverings, and who, with military determination, swept everything before them until the goods were revealed. This was the usual course of the reception arrangements.[79] “We have here,” writes a London Journal, “to commend the aptitude and intelligence with which the force of sappers execute the duties intrusted to them. So quietly and precisely do they obey instructions, that their assistance is properly considered of material consequence to the punctual fulfilment of the arrangements in which they are concerned.”[80] Another thus writes, “The sappers and miners form prominent objects in the animated scene. Their work is principally to facilitate the reception of goods, and they get through all they have to do with great energy, and with a certain observance of military precision which is not without its interest to the looker on.”[81]

From ten to twenty men were employed during the receipt of goods in opening the cases, and in assisting the Custom-house examination. Both in this duty and in removing the goods the greatest care was taken; so much so indeed, that only two or three accidents by breakage occurred to the exhibitors’ property.

As early as January, 1851, while the building was still under the control of the contractors, a party of four men of the royal sappers and miners patrolled the building and its workshops every evening after work, remaining until they had seen every fire and light properly extinguished except those in the offices, where the great press of work rendered it necessary to allow fires and lights to be kept up during the night. With the addition of a party of the London fire brigade, this arrangement remained in force until the opening of the building, when a picquet of twenty-four men of the corps was mounted in the building at eight P.M.; this party on arriving at the Exhibition was marched round it to all the stations where the different fire-engines, fire-cocks, tanks, buckets, &c., were placed; thus every individual ascertained that all the stores were correct and ready for use. The whole of the men of the corps at the Exhibition had been drilled to the fire-engines, and made acquainted with all the arrangements undertaken to provide for the immediate extinction of any fire. The twenty-four men slept in the building every night, one man remained on sentry to be in readiness to rouse the men in case of alarm, and a non-commissioned officer and two men patrolled the building every two hours. The picquet came off duty at six A.M., when another party of the sappers relieved them for the usual daily duty. This arrangement continued until the 4th November, 1851. The number was then reduced to twelve, and on the 11th November to two men, who remained all night in the building until it was again given over to the control of the contractors, Messrs. Fox and Henderson, in December, 1851.

By day two non-commissioned officers were selected, one for each side of the building, Foreign and British, whose sole duty it was to take charge of the men who belonged to the fire-party, and in conjunction with the men of the London fire brigade on duty at the building, they were held responsible for all the stores connected with the fire department, that everything was in its proper place and ready for immediate use, and also that the water was on, and the pressure not less than sixty feet. When the body of sappers was marched to work in the building each day, a party of twelve or fifteen men was allotted for each side of the Exhibition, and placed under these two non-commissioned officers, who distributed them to the various fire stations, and visited them during the day to see that they were at their posts, and alert.[82] The promptitude with which this service was attended to was exemplified on an occasion when a fire, in the southern part of the Colonial collection, raised an alarm. The flue attached to a stove in one of the offices of the contractors having become heated, ignited a piece of wood with bunting attached to it. A piece of the burning cloth fell into an open cask of Indian corn, but the drapery of the counter concealed for a time what had happened. Eventually the smoke began to break forth, and as soon as the existence of fire was ascertained, it was extinguished before it had time to do more than slightly char one plank of wood. The stores in charge of the non-commissioned officers were 8 engines complete, 40 cisterns, 16 hydrants, 410 spare buckets, 16 spare hose, 16 axes, 18 hand-pumps, and 15 fire annihilators.

Opening and closing the louvre-boards for ventilation, and keeping a register of the temperature in the building, were attended to by a few of the men. The register was kept from 19th May to the 11th October, and the indications of fourteen thermometers were taken three times a-day.[83] Corporal Thomas Noon was the chief at this duty, and was found very intelligent and attentive.

There were one or more men, termed classmen, attached to each class on the British side, who carried out the orders of the class and district superintendents during the arrangements, and also during the time of the Exhibition. The number of classmen appointed to the thirty divisions of the arrangements during the progress of the building, &c., was fifty-seven; and the number included in the organization for assisting in the classes during the exhibition, was sixty-one of all ranks. Five or six men also assisted on the foreign side, of whom two were attached to the Chinese court. The classmen afforded material help to the exhibitors and their assistants in displaying their property to advantage, and in protecting it.[84] They likewise were often found very useful in giving information to the public, and in conducting individuals through the masses, to those parts of the building which they were the most anxious to visit. Their courteous demeanour and intelligence were rewarded with repeated expressions of thanks and satisfaction, and the exhibitors were desirous to mark, in a substantial form, their appreciation of the services of the classmen, but it was declined on military considerations. Private tokens of respect, however, were frequently presented by some of the superintendents and class assistants to their military subordinates.

A party of about forty men came early in the morning during the Exhibition, and superintended a force of boys in sweeping the British side of the building. The arrangement was systematic, simple, and effective. Six hours—from four o’clock in the morning until ten—were dedicated to this purpose. Had it not been for the peculiarity of the structure, the duty of sweeping would have been insurmountable, but fortunately both floors and roof assisted very greatly to carry off much of the dust and dirt.[85] After finishing the service each morning, the detachment was either kept as a reserve, or returned to the barracks.

In addition to the above they on several occasions assisted the police in their duties, especially on the opening and closing days; occasionally a few trustworthy non-commissioned officers issued tickets during the arrangements,[86] and some of the privates rung the bells at the time the building closed each day. In assisting the police, corporal George Pearson detected an official personage, holding a lucrative situation at the Exhibition, taking money from the place in which it was deposited. The corporal for a long time watched his proceedings, and making known the case to the superintendent of police, the delinquency of the official was fully proved, and his dismissal from employment forthwith ordered.

During the preliminary arrangements the non-commissioned officers who issued tickets, and took charge of the gates and private entrances, were frequently besought by bribes to permit individuals the privilege of entering the building, &c., but no man of the corps was so wanting in a right sense of his duty as in this way to break the trust reposed in him. An instance of another kind was brought to the notice of Colonel Reid by sergeant Thomas P. Cook, who had a party under him employed removing goods from the hoarding to their destination in the building. Many of the exhibitors, wishing to insure a priority of attention in the removal of their property, offered considerations to effect it, but they were justly exposed, and the Colonel made it the occasion of complimenting the sergeant for his integrity.

The working-pay of the non-commissioned officers and men was 1_s._ 3_d._ a-day each; but from twenty-five to thirty of the most useful draughtsmen and others received 2_s._ a-day.

The Exhibition was closed on the 15th October, on which occasion small parties of sappers were posted at the barriers, and in the various passages leading to the transept, to assist the police in preventing the rush of the crowd. They were also placed around three sides of the dais from which the ceremony took place, and from which Prince Albert “took leave of all those who had given their assistance towards conducting the Exhibition to its prosperous issue.”[87] The sappers were engaged the whole of the previous night in removing obstacles likely to interfere with the arrangements for the ceremonial. They also constructed the platform, or dais; and while attending, on the morning of the ceremonial, to the preliminary arrangements for the temporary accommodation of the Prince and the Commissioners, a sustained cheer was given by the visitors for the sappers, as a parting token of thanks and satisfaction for their past services.

Colonel Reid, now Sir William, on being appointed Governor of Malta, resigned on the 27th October, 1851, his charge in London, and the command of the corps at the Exhibition consequently devolved on Captain H. C. Owen, R.E. “I have,” said Sir William on leaving, “the most perfect confidence that they will continue to the end of this service, to perform their duties with the same zeal which they have hitherto invariably shown, and with the same considerate and forbearing conduct towards all with whom they have been connected in this arduous undertaking.”

The crowning testimony to the useful services of the corps was graciously given by Prince Albert and the Royal Commissioners in a letter to the Marquis of Anglesey, the Master-General of the Ordnance. In promulgating the letter,[88] a copy of which follows, his Lordship expressed his confidence that this high testimonial in approbation of the valuable services of those immediately concerned, would be received with feelings of pride and gratitude by the whole corps of ordnance.

“MY LORD

“WINDSOR CASTLE, _Oct. 29th_

“I have the honour, as President of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, to convey to your Lordship, both in my own name, and in that of the Commission, our thanks for the cordial aid you lent us in allowing several of the corps of royal engineers, and two companies of royal sappers and miners to assist the executive committee in the arrangement and management of the Exhibition.

“Her Majesty’s Commissioners consider it due to the officers of royal engineers, and to the non-commissioned officers and privates of the royal sappers and miners, who have been thus employed, to express to your Lordship, in strong terms, the sense which they entertain of the admirable conduct of the whole body while engaged in this novel, delicate, and responsible duty.

“The officers of engineers have, in the able assistance rendered by them, afforded another instance of the useful manner in which a military body may be employed in civil services during a time of peace.

“The Royal Commissioners, being desirous of marking their sense of the share which the different persons employed in connexion with the Exhibition have had in bringing it to a successful issue, have requested the various civilians so employed to accept a certain sum of money in recognition of their services. We have ascertained from Colonel Reid, that such a course would not be agreeable to the feelings of the engineer-officers who have similarly given their assistance, and to whom we could have wished to offer a similar token.

“With regard to the non-commissioned officers and privates, it gives me much pleasure to state, that at the period of the preliminary arrangements, when the labour required was sometimes excessive, their exertions were always cheerfully made. During the course of the Exhibition, they practically demonstrated the great value of their schools of instruction by the many useful plans which they drew; and by carefully acting always in subordination to the civil police force, they established for themselves a character for good conduct and attention to the exhibitors and visitors, greatly to the credit of the corps to which they belong.

“The Royal Commissioners have therefore thought fit to award a sum of 600_l._, to be laid out either in drawing or mathematical instruments, or in other suitable lasting memorial of their connection with the Exhibition, for the non-commissioned officers and privates of the royal sappers and miners, to be distributed by the officers in such manner as your Lordship and the Inspector-General of Fortifications may approve; and we trust that you will give your sanction to the acceptance of these testimonials of their good conduct.

“I have, &c.,
“ALBERT, President Royal Commission.

“_Field Marshal the Marquis of Anglesey,
“Master-General of the Ordnance._”

In the first report of the Commissioners to the Right Honourable the Home Secretary, the corps of sappers and miners was thus alluded to: “In many parts of these arrangements, both before and after the opening of the Exhibition, the Commissioners derived the most important benefit from the co-operation and assistance of the corps of royal engineers and royal sappers and miners, who had been placed at their disposal.”[89]

To carry out the intentions of the Commissioners with respect to the disposal of the 600_l._ according to individual merit, a board of officers of royal engineers—Captains Owen and Gibb, and Lieutenant Stopford—laid down rules to guide them in the distribution. The cardinal grounds for exclusion were, that none should participate in the rewards who had been less than a month at the Exhibition, or who had been sent to head-quarters in consequence of irregularity, or who had been notoriously idle and useless. Of this character it is satisfactory to add, that among the whole body employed, from the very beginning to the close, only two privates had earned the unenviable distinction.

The distribution of the grant was arranged into sums considered to be equivalent to the criteria of five specific classes of qualification and utility. On this principle therefore, the first class comprised men only, who in situations of considerable responsibility, drew public attention for their steadiness and general ability.

The second and third classes embraced men, who in various degrees called for favourable mention, and who displayed considerable aptitude and zeal.

The fourth class contained men, who not having the same opportunities of distinguishing themselves as the men in the previous classes, gained the commendation of their officers and others for attention to duty, and cheerfulness and exertion in its execution.

The fifth class comprised men who had only been a short time at the Exhibition, but who, nevertheless, rendered themselves, by their conduct and zeal, deserving of a slight memento of their services.

According to this classification, the prizes distributed were in value and number as follows:—

Class. Value. Number.

1st. each 10_l._ 13
2nd. 5_l._ 41
3rd. 3_l._ 41
4th. 1_l._ 97
5th. 10_s._ 14
—-
Total 206

The prizes embraced a selection of gold and silver watches, cases of instruments, portable writing-cases, and such other articles as would tend to increase the professional efficiency of the men, and at the same time form a suitable and handsome memorial of their services. Every article was suitably inscribed with the owner’s name, and the source from whence it was obtained.

In addition to these rewards, each non-commissioned officer and soldier, to the extent of the above number, received a bronze medal inscribed with his name, in a morocco case, to be kept as a token of useful services rendered, and also a pictorial certificate signed by Prince Albert.

The number of men sent to the Exhibition from September 1850 to December 1851, reached a total of 274 of all ranks. Sixty-eight of the number reaped no advantage from the grant. Of these, twenty-four had been removed to head-quarters for slight irregularity, two deserted, two did not participate on account of indolence, thirty-three were only three weeks at the Exhibition before it closed, and the remainder, seven men, were removed after short periods of employment, in consequence of illness.

Only one casualty occurred in the companies during their service under the Royal Commissioners. Lance-corporal Thomas W. Noon had obtained leave to visit his friends at Oxford, and was killed by a railway accident at the Bicester station on the 6th September. Liberally educated, and brought up to the profession of an architect and builder, he promised to be very useful both as a non-commissioned officer and foreman. In several situations of responsibility, he proved the superiority of his attainments, and was consequently one of the first men selected for duty in London. Mr. Wiltshire, under whom he was employed at the Exhibition, bore testimony to the value of his services. Much esteemed by his comrades, his melancholy end was deeply deplored, and his remains, interred in the cemetery of St. Sepulchre, at Oxford, were followed to the grave by a large concourse of mourners, among whom were seven non-commissioned officers of the corps from the Exhibition. In a funeral sermon, preached by the Rev. W. Mitchell, M.A., in Hornton-Street Chapel, Kensington, was given a review of the history and character of the deceased, which awakened interesting sympathies in the crowded congregation.

The removal of the goods commenced immediately after the closing of the Exhibition, and all the available sappers were for some weeks employed in assisting the exhibitors and their assistants to pack their property, and remove it from the building. Soon these duties, from the rapidity with which the clearance was carried on, permitted a large force of the corps to be withdrawn, and accordingly, the 22nd company quitted for Woolwich on the 4th November, and the 5th company with the greater part of Lieutenant Stopford’s detachment on the 11th November. Of the number left, a few were employed in collecting and arranging specimens presented to the Commissioners for the formation of a trade museum, and gradually the numbers were reduced to twenty-four, and by the end of the year to nine men only.

Among the contributors to the Exhibition were the Ordnance Survey, and Mr. Forbes, late sergeant-major of the corps. The Survey sent a number of artistic specimens of maps, one of which, Lancashire, was fifty feet in height and twenty-seven feet in width. A plan of the city of Dublin, on a scale of sixty inches to the mile, was the finest specimen of map engraving ever produced in the United Kingdom.[90] With this plan was associated the name of colour-sergeant John West, late of the corps, whose services have already received honourable mention in these pages. Among the other maps exhibited, which especially attracted attention, was one of the borough of Southampton, on a scale of six inches to a mile. For finished beauty of execution and truthful delineation of the various features of the ground, it was regarded as unrivalled. This specimen was executed by Charles Holland, formerly second-corporal in the corps, and who is still the leading draughtsman at the Ordnance Map office, Southampton. As already noticed in these pages, he received a case of instruments from Prince Albert for his talent in drawing a similar plan of Windsor. Six or seven specimens of electrotype, to illustrate the different stages of the process of engraving the copper-plates, were also exhibited. Sergeant Donald Geddes assisted in mounting the maps, which from the colossal dimensions of one of them, was found very difficult; and he also arranged the various specimens in the space assigned to them at the end of the western gallery. “The Council gold medal was granted to the Ordnance Department who exhibited the maps, as a just and honourable tribute to the meritorious and scientific officers of that department who prepared them.”[91] “For the copper-plate etchings, and for the use of the electrotype process in reproducing the plates, our eulogium,” say the Jurors, “is justly due to the establishment at Southampton, where they are executed.”[92] Sergeant Geddes had from the first the charge of the electrotype branch at Southampton, under the executive officers of royal engineers, Captain Yolland, and afterwards Captain W. D. Gosset; and by his skill and acquaintance with chemical science, attained that perfection in the art which, but a few years past, it would have been thought chimerical to expect.

Mr. Forbes exhibited a beautiful model of his spherangular pontoon in raft, with all its stores complete, and waggon for carriage. He also contributed the model of an apparatus for the ventilation of mines. Both objects were inventions of his own, and the former, though not adopted in the service, gained for him the present of one hundred guineas from the Board of Ordnance. Mr. Forbes was very late in submitting the articles, and they have therefore not been included in the official catalogues.

-----

Footnote 65:

‘Times,’ May 2, 1851.

Footnote 69:

First Report of Royal Commissioners, Exhibition, App. xxv., p. 128.

Footnote 70:

Ibid., App. vi., p. 50.

Footnote 71:

Chiefly from the First Report, Royal Commissioners, Exhibition, 1851,
App. vi., p. 48.

Footnote 72:

The ‘Times,’ July 2, 1851. The reference is too good to be omitted.
“The training—which,” proceeds the ‘Times,’ “under Sir C. Pasley’s
system they undergo, admirably prepares them for this description of
work, and they have brought to it the practical experience acquired
during the Irish, Scotch, and English surveys, which it will be
recollected they were employed upon in compliance with a most valuable
suggestion to that effect made by Colonel Reid. The plan to which we
allude is a highly creditable specimen of the skill which the sappers
have attained in the art of surveying.”

Footnote 73:

October 7, 1851.

Footnote 74:

October 12, 1851.

Footnote 75:

March 1, 1851, p. 130.

Footnote 76:

Apprehensive of accidents, the _public_ registry of the numbers was, a
few days before the closing of the Exhibition, abandoned at the
instigation of the police authorities.

Footnote 77:

Robert Marshall, formerly a private in the corps, was also attached to
the stationery department. From this he was promoted to be collector
from the money-takers. After the Exhibition closed, he received a
gratifying testimonial from Earl Granville, and a gratuity of one
month’s pay from the Royal Commissioners as a recognition of his
services. In consequence of his industry and honesty, he was one of
two or three retained for employment under the Commissioners, from
whom he was transferred to the Department of Practical Art, to assist
in superintending the reception and classified organization of the
Trade Museum of specimens presented to it from all countries. In this
duty his disciplined habits of order and arrangement made his services
of great utility and value. He now holds a lucrative appointment as
superintendent to a boarding establishment in London, under the
Electric Telegraph Company, obtained for him, in consequence of his
creditable conduct at the Exhibition, by Major-General Wylde.

Footnote 78:

‘Illustrated London News,’ March 1, 1851.

Footnote 79:

The ‘Times,’ February 19, 1851.

Footnote 80:

‘Illustrated London News,’ February 22, 1851.

Footnote 81:

The ‘Times,’ February 26, 1851.

Footnote 82:

First Report, App. xxvi., p. 130.

Footnote 83:

First Report, App. x., p. 67.

Footnote 84:

One man, private Alexander Dunlop, in the machinery department, was
the operator of an interesting experiment with an article of
manufacture in which both England and France were concerned. The
incident was related by Mr. Overend, at a public dinner, given at the
Cutlers’-hall, Sheffield, to the Great Exhibition Local Commissioners
for that town. Among the jurors there was a French Gentleman, who very
properly showed great zeal in protecting the interests of his
countrymen. He admitted that Sheffield had made the best files, but he
maintained that there was a house in France that could make them
incontestibly superior. He challenged Sheffield to the trial, and
selecting the house with which he would make the test, it happened to
be that of the Mayor of Sheffield, Mr. Turton, who accepted it. From
France files were brought over for the purpose, and a French engineer
was despatched across the Channel to use them. Messrs. Turton did not
send to Sheffield to have files made specially for the occasion, but
merely went to a London customer, whom they supplied with files, and
took a few, indiscriminately, from his stock. Private Dunlop was
chosen to use the English file against the French engineer and the
French files made for the occasion. Two pieces of steel being selected
upon which to try the files, they were fixed in two vices. The
Frenchman was stripped to his work, with sleeves turned up, and all
encumbrances likely to affect his strength and freedom of action, were
removed. Dunlop was very differently garbed; his coat was buttoned up
to the throat, and he was, in all respects, going, as it were, to
parade. Both now, by a signal, began to work simultaneously, but
Dunlop, a very powerful blacksmith, had filed the steel down to the
vice before the French engineer had got one-third through. When the
files were examined, that of Messrs. Turton was found to be as good as
ever, while the French one was nearly worn out. The French juror then
said no doubt he was beaten in that trial; but Messrs. Turton’s file
must have been made to cut steel only, whereas the French file was
better adapted for iron. A new trial then took place upon the iron,
and the result was still more in favour of the English file.

Footnote 85:

‘Fraser’s Magazine.’

Footnote 86: