Henry Clifford V.C.: His Letters and Sketches from the Crimea

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Text originally published in 1956under the same title.

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Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

HENRY CLIFFORD V.C.:

HIS LETTERS AND SKETCHES FROM THE CRIMEA

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

GENERAL SIR BERNARD PAGET G.C.B., D.S.O., M.C.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

DEDICATION 4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5

ILLUSTRATIONS 6

MAPS 7

INTRODUCTION 8

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 14

THE LETTERS 28

APPENDIX I 258

APPENDIX II 259

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 267

DEDICATION

To the memory of

Henry Clifford’s second son

Brigadier General Henry Clifford D.S.O. Suffolk Regiment who was killed in action 11th September 1916 and of the six of his nine grandsons who gave their lives in the First World War.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The publication of the letters which my grandfather wrote to his family from the Crimea represents the fulfilment of a hope long cherished; that it has been found possible to reproduce illustrations from his sketch books has been an added satisfaction. Editing has been kept to a minimum. A few cuts have been made, where family small talk added nothing that would interest the general reader, but nothing of substance has been altered or omitted.

In undertaking the task of editor, and in particular in writing the biographical note, I have felt a grave responsibility, but the work has been shared by many willing hands—the earliest indeed being those which transcribed many of the letters when they were received, for transmission to members of the family. But my first acknowledgement must be to my friend, General Sir Bernard Paget, who so kindly agreed to write an Introduction. Henry Clifford could have asked for no better sponsor than this great champion of the Infantry Soldier. Mr. C. E. Vulliamy, himself a student of the Crimean Campaign and the author of a valuable book on the subject, has supplied many of the notes and so saved hours of research. To him also, and to Jonathan Cape Ltd, is due acknowledgement for their kind permission to reprint the map of the main operations of the Crimean War. To my cousin Charles, the present Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, and grandson of ‘Charles’ of the letters, I owe a particular debt of gratitude. Not only has he given the letters to my son, but he has also provided valuable information and has allowed to be reproduced the fine portrait of my grandfather painted by Francesco Podesti. Major E. A. Godfrey has kindly allowed me to quote from the journal of his great-uncle, Lieutenant A. W. Godfrey, who was a friend and brother officer of Clifford in the Rifle Brigade and who died of cholera during the Campaign. Major H. G. Parkyn, O.B.E., the curator of The Rifle Brigade Museum, has given freely of his time in searching records and willingly made available the original draft made by Sir George Brown when preparing his recommendation for the awards for the Victoria Cross. Mr. Patrick O’Donovan and Mr. P. E. Smart have given much helpful advice in the matter of arrangement and presentation. And last, but by no means least, sincere thanks are due to those who deciphered the manuscript and typed the copies.

C. F.

Acknowledgement is due to The Illustrated London News for permission to reproduce the five colour plates.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Henry Hugh Clifford in the Camp before Sebastopol

Brevet-Major Henry Hugh Clifford

Clifford’s handwriting

CLIFFORD’S SKETCHES AND NOTES

In colour

After the Charge of the Heavy Brigade

Lord Raglan consulting with General Canrobert at the Battle of Inkerman

Lord Raglan’s Room

Flag of Truce in front of the Mamelon

The Attack on the Redan

In black and white

Scutari

The Review with Omar Pasha

Bashi Bazouk

Lady Errol’s Tent, Monastere

Zouaves’ Camp at Varna

Balaclava

Sebastopol

The Battle of the Alma

The Trenches at Night

First Skirmish between Russian Cossacks and Light Cavalry

Russians advancing at Inkerman

A Customer for the Russians

Some of the Horses killed at Inkerman

All that remains of the Transport for the Light Division

Burying the Dead

The Transport of the Light Division

Old Soldier on Sentry

Young Soldier on Sentry

The French conveying our sick to Balaclava

Guarding the Advance Trench

Advance Trench

Wounded Zouaves

Shell bursting in a Powder Cart

Cavalryman and his Horse killed by

Cannon Ball

Zouave on the Lookout

68-Pounder in the 8-gun Battery

The Trench in front of the Redan the morning after the Attack

Pat Ryan

MAPS

First lines around Sebastopol

The Attack on the Redan

Main operations of Crimea War

INTRODUCTION

By GENERAL SIR BERNARD PAGET G.C.B., D.S.O., M.C.

THE following is an extract from the London Gazette of February 24, 1857 for the award of the Victoria Cross:

‘The Hon. Henry Hugh Clifford, Brevet Major, 1st Battalion The Rifle Brigade—For conspicuous courage at the Battle of Inkerman in leading a charge and killing one of the enemy with his sword, disabling another and saving the life of a soldier.’

Before the date of the award Clifford had received rapid promotion, but when this incident took place he was no more than a Lieutenant, and A.D.C. to Major-General Sir George Buller commanding a Brigade in the Light Division. We may wonder how it was that this young officer took part in the charge of the 77th Regiment at the Battle of Inkerman. But apart from the fact that A.D.C.s and the commanders they served were often in the forefront of the battle in those days, it will be learned from Clifford’s Journal that he lost no opportunity of being in the thick of the fight throughout the Crimean War. He was closely engaged in the Battles of Alma and Inkerman and was present at the assault on Sebastopol. He was an eyewitness of the charge of the Heavy and Light Brigades of which he gives a graphic description, and of the Battle of Tchernaya, though no British troops were engaged in this. He constantly visited the front line trenches and saps and carried out reconnaissances for his General whenever there was threat of attack or a skirmish.

It is amazing that he came through it all unharmed. This he ascribes to the protection of the Almighty and, as his letters show, he was sustained by a deeply religious faith. He writes ‘religion is the only thing that I can think makes a man truly composed and cool under fire.’ He was also inspired by an absolute sense of duty which he always put first, before his own safety or interests.

In reading these letters one cannot fail to be impressed by the noble character of the writer: a man of great courage, both moral and physical, a fine leader of men, and a first-rate officer, quick in his grasp of a difficult situation, forthright in his opinions and criticisms. Even by our standards of today he would certainly be classed as well above the average of his rank.

The influence of his family, his home and his upbringing is clearly shown in the Journal, which opens on May 30, 1854, and carries on till April, 1856 when the Crimean War ended. Not only did he find time to write long letters to his family almost daily and usually under conditions of great discomfort; but he was also an artist of considerable ability and made a large number of sketches, some of which are reproduced in this book.

It is a great privilege to read these frank and vivid letters of 100 years ago and to learn from them at first hand of the courage and endurance of the British soldier in adversity.

Those who served in the trenches in Flanders during the war of 1914-18 may have thought sometimes that the limit of human endurance had been reached, especially in the winter of 1914 and 1915 and the 3rd Battle of Ypres. The mud was almost worse than the shells, trench-mortar bombs and machine-gun fire, and it sometimes took hours to get a wounded man back from the front line to the aid post. In the 3rd Battle of Ypres men and mules were on occasions drowned in the mud. But at least we got full rations, we were well cared for when wounded or sick and we could get a hot bath in Poperinghe when we came out of the line.

The troops in the Crimea had no such amenities. The plight of the wounded was appalling. There were no anæsthetics, no organised nursing service, no properly equipped hospitals. Men lay sometimes for days in agony before receiving any medical attention. Cholera took a heavy toll, rations were often on a starvation scale, there was little protection from the severe winter conditions. This Journal gives us indeed a terrible picture of the suffering of the troops and, whilst we feel proud of the way in which they faced up to it, we must also feel shame for the gross neglect of those in authority, both civil and military, who were mainly responsible for these conditions. Sir John Fortescue ended his famous ‘History of the British Army’ as follows: ‘Why do I waste my life in writing the history of the British Army? I am told that my book is widely read by soldiers and politicians alike, yet we repeat the same blunders century after century, and the nation is never ready. At the end of every war the Army that has saved us is weakened by the politicians, and when the next war breaks out, as usual we are unprepared, and the flower of our Army is destroyed while we train our troops. What is the use of sweating one’s life out recording past blunders, if no lesson is learnt from bitter experience.’

That is a terrible indictment which we should do well to heed, for it applies not only to the Crimean War, but in some measure at the start of all our wars since then.

Clifford gives us an interesting character sketch of the British private soldier of his day who was trained under the old dictum ‘theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.’ Something of the same sort might be applied to our Infantry in the war of 1914-8, the P.B.I. of whom Captain Liddell Hart wrote that in the attack ‘their very symmetry was their cemetery.’

But in the war of 1939-45, thanks to the highly skilled and realistic training provided at our battle schools, we developed a standard of intelligent discipline, battle efficiency and team spirit which went far to winning the war.

Clifford gives a grim picture of the failure of our troops in the attack on the Redan and attributes it to their youth and inexperience. Many of our troops on D Day lacked experience of battle, but all had been acclimatised by realistic training; they knew what to expect and were physically and emotionally prepared for the shock of battle. This is a very important lesson for the future.

In spite of the failure at the Redan it is clear from this Journal that our troops deserved the tribute paid them by the French General who said to Clifford ‘Your Infantry is the finest in the world.’

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

By CUTHBERT FITZHERBERT

HENRY HUGH CLIFFORD, the third son of Hugh, 7th Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, was born on 12th September, 1826, at Irnham Hall, near Newark. Irnham had been the marriage portion of Henry’s grandmother, one of the co-heiresses of Henry, 8th Lord Arundell of Wardour, and his parents were in temporary occupation during the lifetime of his grandfather, the 6th Lord Clifford.

The family estates were mainly in the West Country, at Ugbrooke in Devon and at Cannington in Somerset, but although Henry’s grandfather died in 1831, and his father succeeded, the young Cliffords spent much of their early life in moving from place to place, sometimes in England and sometimes on the Continent.

Henry’s mother was the only child of Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle in Dorsetshire, who, after the early death of his wife in 1815, handed over the family estates to his younger brother and in 1818 was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. This was to have a profound effect on the grandchildren, for after a time as parish priest in England he was appointed co-adjutor to the Bishop of Kingston in Ontario. But before he assumed his new post, Thomas Weld was elevated to the Sacred College and created Cardinal.

From this date onwards, the Cardinal was domiciled in Rome, and the young Cliffords spent much of their childhood and early years under his influence. Their mother died in 1831, but Lord Clifford continued to spend a great deal of his time abroad, and at a very early age, Charles, his eldest son, assumed the charge of the family estates, and indeed the responsibility for his younger brothers and sisters.

Lord Clifford combined great piety with a tendency to extravagance and eccentricity, and the curious family relationship which resulted is clearly demonstrated in the letter written by Henry Clifford to his brother Charles dated 29th April, 1855, and cautiously marked ‘Not to be circulated.’

This parentage and background were likely to produce precocious and even original children, more particularly as there was a strong leaning on both the father’s and the mother’s side towards artistic accomplishment. The 6th Lord Clifford had employed some of the leading water-colour artists of the day to instruct his children. At Ugbrooke there are still preserved portfolios of sketches, many of them local scenes, by Prout and Varley, Payne, Towne and others, and some works of the young Cliffords which are clearly described as imitations of the Masters. There is also a series of small sketch-books filled with views of England and W ales, Ireland and Scotland, France and Italy, in which Thomas Weld used to record his travels during his early life. These were the sources from which Henry derived his talent and his inspiration as an artist.

Frequent trips to the Continent and long spells in Rome gave the family a breadth of experience and a receptiveness to impressions which emerge very clearly in Henry’s Journal letters written to his family from the Crimea. And with these acquired characteristics there was in Henry Clifford a deep sense of the debt which he owed to tradition, for the Clifford family had rendered great services to the Crown, and from time to time had taken a full share in affairs of state.

The early generations had played their part as one of the great territorial families of the North, and, as Earls of Cumberland, had ruled a principality. The Devonshire branch had sprung from Sir Lewis, a Knight of the Garter, Ambassador to France from the court of King Richard II, and a younger son of Roger, 5th Lord de Clifford. From Sir Lewis the line had continued in unbroken male descent through several generations of honest squiredom, to emerge once more from obscurity in the person of Sir Thomas Clifford, Lord Treasurer to King Charles II, created 1st Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, ‘Clifford of the Cabal.’

By the date of Henry Clifford’s birth, his grandfather was, in fact, the senior male representative of the once great House. The ancient Barony created by Writ of Summons in 1299 had passed in the female line on more than one occasion and the great estates, still substantially intact, with their chain of castles and keeps from Appleby through Brough, Pendragon, Barden Tower to Skipton, were held by the Tufton family, who were also descendants in the female line.

But another current, and perhaps the strongest of all, had joined the stream when the Lord Treasurer had been reconciled to the Church of Rome, and in face of the Test Act, had turned his back on public life and retired to his Devonshire home at Ugbrooke.

From that moment the Clifford marriages linked them with the Catholic families which make up a great cousinship, ‘our lot’ as Henry calls them in one of his letters, Preston of Furness, Blount of Blagden, Arundell of Wardour, Langdale of Houghton, Weld of Lulworth, Stourton of Allerton. And with their fellow Catholics they suffered the disabilities which, among others, forbade them to hold a Military Commission in the Armed Forces of the Crown.

But Henry Clifford was born into a changing world—three years after his birth, Parliament, under the ministry of the Duke of Wellington, passed the final Act of Catholic Emancipation, removing the last of the disabilities under which Catholics had suffered since the reign of Elizabeth I. Henry’s grandfather was one of the Peers to take a leading part, and a picture hangs at Ugbrooke, depicting Lord and Lady Clifford and their family standing by the empty Throne and watching the ceremony whereby the Lord Chancellor records the Royal Assent. It was in the following year that Henry’s maternal grandfather was created a Cardinal, and in this atmosphere of freedom and unlimited opportunity Henry Clifford spent his schooldays and grew to manhood.

Henry’s early schooling was undertaken at Prior Park, near Bath, a venture started immediately after the Act of 1829 with the over-ambitious object of combining a Catholic School for boys and a College for Undergraduates. The project failed in 1855, as Henry sadly records in his Journal; but in July, 1840, the school at least was well supported and we find Henry acting the part of Bushy in a performance of Richard II, while his young brother Walter speaks the prologue to the evening’s entertainment.

From Prior Park he passed on to Stonyhurst, a school which held particular family associations for him. Built and owned for many generations by the Shireburn family, this beautiful Jacobean house had descended by marriage to the Welds and had been given in 1794, by Thomas Weld of Lulworth, father of the Cardinal, to the Jesuits evicted from St. Omer by the revolution in France. At St. Omer the Jesuit Fathers had educated generations of the English Catholic nobility and gentry, and to Stonyhurst their sons now came as a matter of course, Henry and his brothers among them.

Had Lord Clifford been an ordinary English country gentleman, living on his acres, his son would probably have left Stonyhurst at the age of eighteen or even younger, to start his military career. But the cosmopolitan life which the family had led, and perhaps Henry’s own inclinations, took him to the University of Fribourg, and the young man did not receive his commission as an Ensign in the Rifle Brigade until 7th August, 1846, within a month of his twentieth birthday.

And so it came about that the young officer who set out to join his regiment, was already experienced in many fields. He had travelled the Continent and could speak fluent French; he had tasted the fruits of university life, he had developed an inherited talent with brush and pencil, and his wider education and his sense of picture and of drama helped his pen to draw and paint in words what he recorded with his sensitive and receptive mind. Throughout the Journal these qualities, influenced and guided by his love of tradition and his natural loyalties, emerge on page after page.

When young Henry Clifford received his commission the 1st Battalion were stationed at Corfu, but on 21st August they embarked for the Cape to take part in the Kaffir War. There is no record of the officers who embarked, and no note of Henry joining at a later date, yet the regimental records show that he was with them, and that he returned to England with the battalion in December, 1850.

But the Kaffir troubles were by no means over, and in December, 1851, the battalion was ordered back to the Cape, and this time Henry’s name is among the officers who embarked. The battalion was allotted to the transport Birkenhead, but at the last moment orders came to join the new steam frigate Megara at Dover. On 24th March, 1852, the Megara reached Simon’s Bay, and there the men learnt of the heroic end of the Birkenhead.{1}

With him were several brother officers who were to play a big part in his life during the next few years. His commanding officer was George Buller, later General Sir George Buller, to whom Henry was to act as A.D.C. in the Crimea. Like Henry, Buller came from the West Country, and it seems clear that the older man took a liking for the young officer who was later to serve him in circumstances of great difficulty.

Henry’s captain, Julius Glyn, ‘my good little captain’ as he is affectionately called in the Journal, was to share the hardships and the sparse comforts, the dangers and the humorous interludes, in a very intimate way. They were to build ingenious houses together, to share a little tent, to enjoy together the occasional parcel of good things from home, and side by side to experience the bitterness of seeing the failure of young and untried troops when the time came at last to make the final assault on the Redan.

There was young Godfrey, who like Henry had a taste for painting but for whom Henry would draw in the figures which Godfrey found difficult. To Henry’s deep grief this promising young man was to die of cholera.

‘Gusty’ Clifton was to send in his papers and return home before the end, taking with him the photograph of Henry on his horse, perhaps the favourite ‘Kaffir.’ As a very old man, and with a trembling hand, he was to scribble on the back of the photograph a direction that after his death this little memento of the friend who had predeceased him by thirty years and more should be given to Henry’s daughter, Blanche.

And so the stage began to fill, and in this atmosphere of comradeship and campaigning, the young man developed those qualities and found that confidence in himself which shine through the pages of the Journal.

The 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade left Port Elizabeth on 10th November, 1853, and reached Portsmouth on 8th January, 1854, but their stay in England was short. On 13th July they re-embarked and sailed in the steam transport Orinoco for the Russian war.

The Crimean War ostensibly had its origin in a dispute concerning Christian shrines in Jerusalem, and the protection of Christian minorities in the Principalities of Turkey. In the face of French opposition, Russia sought to assume the protection of all Christian subjects in Turkey, an object which Turkey resisted on the grounds that it would imply a limitation of her own sovereignty. Proposals for settlement of the dispute were advanced by the great powers, and accepted by Russia. The British Ambassador, Stratford de Redcliffe, advanced the agreed British arguments for peace, but it has been said that unofficially he advised the Turks to resist. However this may be, the Turkish Government refused the terms of settlement. Russia invaded the Turkish Principalities which subsequently became Rumania, and sank the fleet off Sinope. This act of aggression was violently resented in England, where Russia was in any case unpopular as a despotism, and when war was declared, in March, 1854, it was upon a wave of popular enthusiasm.

By this stage the original cause of the dispute had become of secondary importance, and the ambitions of Russia on the one hand and the counter-measures of France and England on the other became the motive power which decided the theatre of war. The Turkish power was in eclipse, as Henry records in one of his earliest letters, and Russia sought to accelerate the fall of the crumbling empire.

The prospect of Russian supremacy in the Black Sea was not to be endured, and it was not without significance that, after some marching and counter-marching in Bulgaria, and after the Turks had gained a victory in the valley of the Danube, the Allied Force was directed to the reduction of the Port of Sebastopol. Hopes ran high that a quick success would be achieved, but the project was ill-conceived and badly supported. In the event, however, and as an incidental result of the prolonged campaign, Russia was materially weakened and her policy of expansion curbed.

But the campaign had been ill-planned in so far as it had been planned at all, and Henry Clifford’s letters describe the inefficiency and something of the cost of the campaign.

When the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade embarked for the war neither Colonel Buller nor young Henry Clifford was with them, for Buller had been promoted to command a brigade in the Light Division and he had taken Henry to be his A.D.C.

General Sir George Brown, commanding the Light Division, and his staff had sailed some six weeks earlier, and the Journal opens on board the transport City of London on 30th May, 1854. From this date, until November, 1855, the letters form a continuous narrative. But as hostilities relax after the fall of Sebastopol, and finally when peace is declared, they become intermittent, and in April, 1856, they cease altogether.

During the first eighteen months, however, the reader may live from day to day on the closest terms with the writer. The Journal is his method of talking to his family to whom he is devoted, and from whom he has no secrets. He feels that he can relieve his feelings by saying just what is in his mind, though occasionally he has qualms that the letters have fallen into unauthorised hands. A hundred years later it is possible to read the most intimate passages without any feelings of embarrassment, and the criticisms and the frank confession of failures can be seen in their correct perspective.

To Henry, this almost daily contact with his family clearly met an urgent need. He wrote because he must, and the family, to whom he writes, emerge as individuals. His father appears as an object of great affection, but seems to be a slightly fantastic figure, with his eccentricities and his unreal approach to life. Charles, his elder brother, is the real mainstay of the structure, and Charles’s wife Agnes and the growing tribe of young children are a constant interest to Henry. The other brothers, William and Walter, are both priests, and of his two sisters Eleanor is a nun and Constance is married to the invalid William Vavasour. All take their place in the picture.

‘Aunt Lucy,’ Lady Stourton, takes the maternal role and her nephew is most anxious that she should have news of him.

Francesca Clifford, Henry’s favourite cousin and constant correspondent, seems to have occupied a special place in his affections and he suffers a good deal of anxiety on her behalf. Her father, George Clifford, was the fifth son of Hon. Thomas Clifford and grandson of Hugh, 3rd Lord Clifford, and his wife, Elizabeth Blount. As a younger son of a large family he cannot have received much in the way of a fortune, and his own large family of ten children did not lighten his burden. The ‘George Cliffords,’ as Henry calls them, seem to have been living at Boulogne, whither Henry had sent his dog ‘Master Billy’ to be under the care of Francesca. During the course of 1854 both George Clifford and his wife died. Francesca was left in a sad plight, which causes Henry great concern, and excites his warm-hearted father to an excess of futile generosity. ‘My father,’ Henry records in a letter to his brother, Charles, ‘writes most wonderful letters to me which I don’t answer—about taking up half Rome for the accommodation of the George Cliffords who, tho’ the brothers are in New Zealand and Constance and Francesca are not likely to move from Boulogne without them, His Lordship has made up his mind are going to visit the Eternal City and tho’ I don’t think and I must say I hope it will not come off, poor Papa has I believe already paid for the lodgings for them.’

And last, but by no means least, are the ‘Knights at Axminster’ and ‘Mrs. Collins.’ Hardly a letter but contains a message—Mr. Knight was the agent for the family estates and Mrs. Collins was either Henry’s old nurse or the housekeeper at Ugbrooke. They stand in a particular relationship to him and had doubtless known him from childhood.

And in his letters to his family Henry describes his friends and the friendships that he forms during the bleak and weary months of the Crimean campaign.

Julius Glyn, his old company commander in South Africa, who to his great delight is posted as Brigade Major, and with whom he shares his daily life, takes the first place, but the second place must surely be granted to the strange and rather puzzling figure, ‘Master Jacob.’

‘Master Jacob’ was certainly a Kaffir, and in all probability a ‘Fingoc,’ the name given to a tribe which had aided the British troops as scouts and spies—’Master Jacob’ provides the comic relief and is treated like an amusing but irresponsible child. He is credited with humorous messages and amusing cracks, usually aimed at the Higher Command, but it is clear that Henry feels himself very responsible and there is a sense of relief when ‘Master Jacob’ survives together with his master.

Henry’s relations with his general were a triumph of patience, but the patience is amply rewarded when the tired old man applies for a medical board, is ordered home, and is tucked up on board ship by his A.D.C. The parting from the usually undemonstrative Buller affects Henry deeply, but it is not difficult to sense the sigh of relief as he turns his head once more towards Balaclava and returns as he supposes to regimental duty, and the command of a company in the trenches—but this was not to be.

The way in which the young A.D.C. had conducted himself had caught the eye of the Higher Command. His courage and quick reaction in emergency was a subject of common talk and his part in the Battle of Inkerman, so vividly described in his own account of the Battle, was to win him the award of the Victoria Cross. Within a year Sir George Brown, sitting in the United Service Club in London and drafting his recommendations for Victoria Cross awards, was to write of Henry, that he was ‘universally admitted to be one of the most gallant and most promising young officers in the Army.’ But other qualities also had emerged. He had a flair for organization, and the capacity to get a difficult job done quietly and well. Lord Raglan had even enlisted his aid to explain to Sir George Buller that the offer of the command of the 4th Division, following the death at Inkerman of Sir George Cathcart, had been premature and must be withdrawn.

And so on his return to the scene of operations Henry found himself D.A.Q.M.G. of the Light Division. He had been gazetted Captain on 29th December, 1854, and now on 17th July, 1855, he was gazetted Brevet-Major. His promotion had been rapid, and the turn of events had set him upon the course which he was to follow throughout the whole of his military career.

Peace was declared in April, 1856, and this is the point at which the letters cease. In due course the British Forces left the Crimea, and Henry applied for leave on half-pay in order to spend some time with his father in Rome.

During the campaign Lord Clifford had written letters to his son which had moved the young man deeply, and the tone of the replies had suggested to the pious father that perhaps the soldier had a vocation for the priesthood. The succession seemed amply secured by Charles and his large family, and nothing would have pleased the pious old man more than that Henry, like William and Walter, should become a priest.

Henry was prepared to submit to a careful examination of the question, and on 26th January, 1857 he writes from Paris to his brother William, then in Rome, where he was awaiting his appointment as Bishop of Clifton. ‘I send you these few lines to say that I have just come out of my eight days’ Retreat, which I have made very much to my satisfaction under Père Ravignan S.J. Neither he nor I can discover any vocation in me for a Priest or Monk. Père Ravignan of course thinks as I do as to my future state of life.

‘You will remember at Albano when I said I did not intend writing to J during my absence, my Father saying I ought to write, but it is no use telling him so, he does not remember it, and it is of no consequence so do not say anything about it to him. I return to London tomorrow, and from there to Hazlewood.’

From this letter it is clear that Henry did not intend to return to Rome till Easter (Easter Sunday falling that year on 12th April), and