98
THE YPRES TIMES
An Appreciation.
THERE are probably few readers of the Ypres League Journal who have not
the right to claim that directly or indirectly they helped to win the war.
Indeed, all who did their duty during those four years, and especially those
who made the supreme sacrifice, have that right, and the invidious task—the picking
out of that great multitude any individual or individuals, as a man or men who
personally achieved victoryis, perhaps, happily impossible. Yet, nevertheless there
is a very small group of army leadersa group to be counted easily on the fingers
of both hands, possibly on those of one hand onlyof whom it may be said
individually that but for them the war might have ended in a great disaster to the
British Army and Empire. Smith-Dorrien's name stands out unmistakably, and
perhaps most prominently, in that group. The Armyat least that portion of it
that rejoiced in the title Old Contemptibles has long known this. Let us
thank God that the death of this great soldier, who by his personal skill, courage
and determination saved England from what might well have been irretrievable
defeat at Le Cateau, has opened the eyes of his fellow countrymen to the magnitude
of the debt they owe him.
How came Horace Smith-Dorrien to be a man capable of achieving that
deliverance
Born on May 26th, 1858, the son of Col. R. A. Smith-Dorrien, of Haresfoot,
Herts, he was educated at a Preparatory School in the Isle of Wight, and later at
Harrow, but modestly tells us in his most modest autobiography that he distin
guished himself at neither. The fame of being a great runner at school, generally
attributed to him, belonged apparently to his brother, who won the three miles
in the 'Varsity Sports at Lillybridge.
His own destiny in life, being one of a family of fifteen, appears to have been
uncertain until at the age of seventeen, when on holiday in Switzerland, his father,
himself an old soldier who had served in the 16th Lancers and 3rd Light Dragoons,
suddenly asked him if he would like to go into the Army. The proposal appears
to reveal at once to the young schoolboy his true vocation. Overjoyed, he dashed
home to a crammer, passed for the Army in December, spent the following year
at Sandhurst as a Sub-Lieutenant on the unattached list, and was gazetted in
January, 1877, tothe 95th Regiment, having earned a year's antedate of his
Lieutenant's commission by success in his final examination.
There is no space here to describe, even in brief, the details of his continuous
spells of active service during his rapid passage through the junior ranks of the
Army. They will be found narrated most modestly, but in full, together with
some references to his playtimes, in that most attractive book Memories of Forty-
Eight Years' Service." Let it suffice here to say that Smith-Dorrien felt within
him the innate gift of leadership, and. realizing that such an endowment can only be
developed by constant practice and the experience of actual war coupled with
study, he deliberately laid himself out to secure every chance of such experience
and training as could be obtained.
As a Subaltern he served his first campaign in Zululand in 1878-79, in which,
owing to the good luck of the General Officer Commanding in South Africa, the
late Lord Chelmsford, being Colonel of the Derbyshire Regiment, he was employed
as Transport Officer. There he had the extraordinary experience of surviving the
