The Story of the Guides | Page 2

STORIES.
Fighting against his own people--The temptation--The sentry
succumbs--Seventeen sent in pursuit--Their return after two
years--Duffadar Faiz Talab's adventure--An unwilling General--His
unhappy position--A narrow escape--Saved by a British officer 135
CHAPTER XI.
THE ADVENTURES OF SHAH SOWAR AND ABDUL MAJID.
Shah Sowar meets "Smith"--They depart together--Sheikh Abdul Qadir,
late Smith--A travelling Prince--The first pitfall--Escape--Tea and
diplomacy--The Evil Spirit--The Chief with a thousand spears--The
Englishman's disguise fails--Death in the morning--A hairbreadth
escape--Abdul Majid--The fatal shoes--The compass down the well--A
night with his jailer--A stroke for freedom--A later meeting--Peace and
jollification 144
CHAPTER XII.
THE RELIEF OF CHITRAL.
The beleaguered garrison--Two hundred miles from anywhere--Rapid
mobilisation--Kelly's fine feat--Storming the Malakand--The Guides'
charge in the Swat Valley--Roddy Owen--The Panjkora--Position of
the Guides--The bridge breaks--The fight in retreat--Seven thousand
held at bay--A battle on the stage--Colonel Fred. Battye mortally
wounded--A night of suspense--Defeated by star-shells--Death of Capt.
Peebles--Action of Mundah--Relief of Chitral 160
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MALAKAND, 1897.
A sudden call on the Guides--Prompt departure and fine march--Days
and nights of constant hand-to-hand fighting--Story of the
trouble--Great bravery of the enemy--Repulsed again and again with

slaughter--Reinforcements arrive--Sir Bindon Blood--Relief of
Chakdara--Its splendid defence--A word for the British subaltern--The
fight at Landaki--MacLean's heroic death--Three V.C.s in one day 172
CHAPTER XIV.
THE HOME OF THE GUIDES.
A camp to start with--The Five Star Fort--On the borders of
Yaghistan--After the mutiny--The bastions--Godby cut down--The
mess--The garden--The old graveyard--The Kabul
memorial--Ommanney's assassination--The names of roads--Old
leaders--The farm--Polo-grounds--Church--Daily
life--Sport--Hawking--Climate--A happy home 185

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Sir Harry Lumsden, who raised the Guides, from a portrait made when
he was commanding the corps Front.
Afridis on the war-path To face page 8
Ressaldar Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, who at the head of seventy men of the
Guides' Cavalry defeated and drove into Mooltan a Brigade of Sikh
Cavalry, from a picture by W. Carpenter. By kind permission of
General Sir Peter Lumsden, G.C.B. " 24
A Picquet of the Guides' Infantry bivouacking " 40
A Scout of the Guides' Cavalry warning his Infantry Comrades. The
small man on the right is a Gurkha " 70
A non-commissioned officer of the Guides' Infantry " 80
An Afridi of the Guides' Infantry " 92
The Memorial Arch and Tank to the memory of Sir Louis Cavignari

and the officers and non-commissioned officers and men of the Guides
killed in the defence of the Kabul Residency, September 3, 1879. In the
foreground is a brass cannon captured during the Relief of Chitral " 104
Statue of Lieutenant Walter Hamilton, erected in Dublin Museum " 107
A Trooper of the Guides' Cavalry Types of men in the Guides' Infantry
" 136
Types of men in the Guides' Cavalry, both in uniform and mufti " 144
Non-commissioned Officer and Trooper of the Guides' Cavalry " 162
Thirty-four wearers of the Star "For Valour," all serving at one time in
the Corps of Guides. This is the highest distinction open to an Indian
soldier for gallantry in action. The group illustrates the variety of tribes
enlisted in the Guides--Afridis, Yusafzai Pathans, Khuttuks, Sikhs,
Punjabi Mahomedans, Punjabi Hindus, Farsiwans (Persians), Dogras,
Gurkhas, Kabulis, Turcomans, &c., &c., most of whom are here
represented " 172
The old Graveyard at Mardan " 190
The Church at Mardan " 194

THE STORY OF THE GUIDES
CHAPTER I
FIRST STEPS IN WAR
It is given to some regiments to spread their achievements over the
quiet centuries, while to the lot of others it falls to live, for a generation
or two, in an atmosphere of warlike strife and ever present danger. The
Guides have been, from a soldier's point of view, somewhat fortunate
in seeing much service during the past sixty years; and thus their
history lends itself readily to a narrative which is full of adventure and

stirring deeds. The story of those deeds may, perchance, be found of
interest to those at home, who like to read the gallant record of the men
who fight their battles in remote and unfamiliar corners of the Empire
across the seas.
To Sir Henry Lawrence, the preux chevalier, who died a soldier's death
in the hallowed precincts of Lucknow, the Guides owe their name and
origin. At a time when soldiers fought, and marched, and lived in tight
scarlet tunics, high stocks, trousers tightly strapped over Wellington
boots, and shakos which would now be looked on as certain death, Sir
Henry evolved the startling heresy that to get the best work out of
troops, and to enable them to undertake great exertions, it was
necessary that the soldier should be loosely, comfortably, and suitably
clad, that something more substantial than a pill-box with a
pocket-handkerchief wrapped round it was required as a protection
from a tropical sun, and that footgear must be made for marching, and
not for parading round a band-stand.
Martinets