The times., 1899-10-23
english ARMY OFFICERS
The Peerage Represented in Brit
aims Fighting Force.
Members of AristOcratic Families in
the TrnnsvaaI or Soon to Depart
for the Seat of Wharf.-The Queens
Grandson "A Member of the Royal
ragoOns-COmmander and STATS.

Days have gone by when commission in
a smart British regiment was looked upon
as giving convenient professional stand
ing to the younger son or cadet of titled
family For long the pet troops of London,
called the Household Brigade, spent their
time between Westminster and Windsor, SO
that the officers were seldom called upon
for active service in war. There were some
grounds then for regarding the subalterns
and even officers of many years standing,
as merely carpet knights.
They were the curled darlings of society,
and their brother officers in ordinary line
regiments had ready jest at their ex-
peRse as more at home in the salons OF
Piccadilly and Mayfair than on the frontiers
of the Empire. Such is not the case today
In recent expeditions to the Nile the crack
corps of guards and cavalry have borne
their fair share Of campaigning.
Not since the Crimean War, more than
forty years ago. has England sent out an
army on so comprehensive scale as in the
present crisis. a deeper interest attaches
to the Transvaal campaign for this reason,
as il touches more closely aristoCratic fam
lilies and country houses throughout Great
Britain and Ireland a more pathetic note
viii sound from the news sent from South
Africa and many a village church may
have in consequence, additions TO its waf
relics. such as may still be seen recalling
the great Waterloo days, the Crimea, and
the Indian mutiuy.
The Queens Grandson serves.
From the Queen downward the upper
ranks of Great Britain are sending cut
their best and bravest. The names among
the officers whom the transports are hur-
rying to the Cape include most Of those
which have been familiar as household
words for centuries in English history
and still fill a large space in today 5 So
ciety.
The royal family will be in the closest
association with the front through the ser
vice of the Queens popular soldier grand
son, Prince Christian Victor Of SchleS-
wig-Holstein, who holds a staff appoint
ment and last year in the Nile campaign
earned for himself much military credit
Prince Francis of Teck, the Duchess Of
York s brother may also 90 to the front
with his regiment the First Royal Dra-
goons The PremieT's soldier son, Lord
Edward Cecil who was Lord Kitchener
Of Khartoum aide-de- camp last year at
Omdurman, is helping Colonel Baden Pow
ell to hold Mafeking against the Beers
Lord Lansdowne, the Secretary for War
has two sons in regiments under orders
the Earl of Kerry, his heir. who is lieu
tenant in the Grenadier Guards and Lord
Charles Fitzmaurice, a lieutenant in the
First Dragons. The great dubedoms of
Buccleuch and Portland have a scarcely
less vital stake in the struggle than Lord
Salisbury and his immediate colleagues.
r,F ..1.'
Lord George W. Montague Douglas-Scott
is a captain in the Tenth Hussars, while
Lord William Augustus Cavendish Ben
tinck holds the same rank in that gallant
regiment.
The Princes own.
This is the corps known as the Prince
Of Wales own Royal and the officers
form. perhaps. the most exclusive set in
the army. as they include. besides those
named, the Hon. e. Barring. OF Lord
RevelstoIle's family. the welI-known bank
ing house. the Hon. T. W. Brand, Viscount
Hampden's heir presumptive the Earl OF
Shaftesbury, the Hon. d. Anderson Pei
nam and the Hon G. b. Portmau
The Earl of DeTbys youngest son is
lieutenant in the same regiment. His IA
ther. when known as Lord Stanley, was
p Ggvernor-General of Canada from 1888
TO 1898. and his uncle, the late Lord Derby
was the Minister of rather a cross bench
turn of mind, but of reputed common sense,
whose omission TO define the rights of
suzerainty in the convention of 1884 has
been seized upon by the Transvaal Govern
meut as the recognition Of the complete
independence Of the Republic in its exter-
nal as wen as its internal relations. Wis
count Downe's heir the Hon. j. Dawney,
is now the adjutant Of the Prince of
Wales own and the Duchess of Port
lands brother. Mr. Dallas Yorke, is
Junior officer of the same corps
Another dandy regiment which is al
ready at the front is the Ninth Lancers,
the Queens Royal, and this again numbers
among its officers representatives. of many
families in the peerage and the equally in
auental county families not possessing a
title. but whose estates have been handed
down for generations in unbroken success