UCSB LIBRARY 
 
 CLIVEDEN LffiRARY 
 
 Shelf . ._*... 
 Number -rr-. 
 Date. /. 
 
 ASTOR 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN 
 
'And that he wears a truer crown 
 Than any wreath that man can weave him. 
 
 God accept him, Christ receive him.' 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
A WREATH OF 
 MEMORIES 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 ARTHUR. L. HUMPHREYS. 
 1917. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN, 1913 . . . frontispiece 
 AT CHELWOOD BEACON, 1895 . . . facing page 12 
 
 GEORGE WITH HIS GRANDFATHER, LORD 
 
 CRANBROOK, 1896 ,,24 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS, 1897 ,,36 
 
 GEORGE, PHYLLIS, AND CICELY, 1903 ,,48 
 
 LORD GOSCHEN, GEORGE, AND DENIS ROCHE, 
 
 OXFORD, 1904 ,,60 
 
 GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN, 1905 . . . 72 
 
 1914 . 80 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN 
 
 THOSE who loved George Goschen can lay no 
 flowers on that quiet corner of the cemetery in 
 Mesopotamia ' which is for ever England,' but 
 many have wished for a slight record of his life, so 
 short and yet so complete, culminating in a noble death 
 for his country. This garland of memories is gathered 
 by those to whom he was infinitely dear, and is specially 
 intended for the young cousins to whom it may be an 
 inspiration ; for they may still have far to travel along 
 life's road, and find help in the shining track of his 
 footsteps along the way which he trod, with his face 
 ever set forwards. 
 
 George Joachim Goschen was born on the 18th of 
 November, 1893, at 30 Draycott Place where his 
 parents spent the early years of their married life. He 
 met with a warm welcome from many ; his grandparents 
 on both sides, who were still living, and his great-grand- 
 mother, Mrs. Goschen, hailed his arrival with the greatest 
 joy. He was christened at Seacox Heath the home of 
 his grandfather, on Christmas Eve, in the Church of St. 
 Augustine, Flimwell, his names, George Joachim, being 
 
 1 B 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 those of his father, grandfather, and many of the family 
 in former generations. The robe he wore had been 
 worked by his mother's sister, Edith Graham, for her 
 own boy, Ronald, now Sir Ronald Graham, who, with 
 Willie Goschen and Katharine Gathorne- Hardy, was a 
 godparent. 
 
 Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday that year, so the 
 usual festivities were postponed until Christmas Day, 
 when the baby was carried round the Christmas-tree 
 clasping a silver rattle, in which was tucked a 50/. 
 cheque, the gift of his great-grandmother. 
 
 Whether he noticed the shining candles and toys 
 cannot be said, but even then he had the sweet smile 
 that always gave a charm to his face in later years. A 
 firstborn always seems to his own circle the most won- 
 derful child in the world, and brings joy to his sur- 
 roundings. George did this then, and the early promise 
 never failed, for he was one of those who always 
 brought sunshine and never willingly gave a pang to 
 any one. 
 
 This was the first of the twenty happy Christmas- 
 tides which George spent at Seacox surrounded by 
 loving friends. The old nurse, Mrs. Elliot, who had 
 been with his grandmother before she was married, still 
 ruled the nursery, as she had done in the days of his 
 father and aunts, and was called the grand -nannie. 
 When she died, in 1904, she had lived for fifty years 
 with the family. George's own nurse, who took charge 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 of him from the time he was a month old, was Annie 
 Farley. She lived with the family for sixteen years, 
 and never lost her hold on the children's affections. 
 George wrote to her from Eton, Oxford, and India, and 
 sent her a special present from the things he collected 
 during a tour he made from Kamptee in 1915. 
 
 At first there was only the London home, but 
 happy times were spent at Seacox and Hemsted, the 
 two homes of his grandparents, where the children 
 were always warmly welcomed. Between these two 
 places George divided his first summer. In 1895 his 
 father was adopted as the prospective Unionist Candi- 
 date for the East Grinstead division of Sussex, and a 
 charming house in Ashdown Forest was lent to his 
 father and mother for the summer months. He could 
 just run then, and, when he arrived, toddled to the 
 window, imitating as well as he could the cuckoo, which 
 he heard for the first time outside. The garden opened 
 on to the Forest, with its stretches of heather and 
 gorse and lovely views of the Sussex Downs. 
 
 One of the best early photographs of him was taken 
 at this place, Chelwood Beacon, against a pillar covered 
 with honeysuckle, and with the big sable collie, Foxie, 
 lying beside the child. 
 
 At the end of that summer his sister Phyllis was 
 born at Seacox ; only nineteen months separated the 
 two in age, and they were close companions. In 1899 
 another sister, Cicely, joined the two, and from that 
 
 3 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 time on the three were bound together with a wonder- 
 ful tie of love and companionship, which neither time 
 nor distance loosened. 
 
 Of those early happy nursery days there is not 
 much to tell. The little white-clad figures with their 
 shining hair, grouped round the piano, singing, or play- 
 ing games, are a picture not easily forgotten. 
 
 George was a very sweet-tempered child, but even 
 then showed some decision of character. For when 
 occasional explosions took place and he was adjured not 
 to cry, he would reply, in his desire to oblige others but 
 not to disappoint himself, ' Oh ! very well I won't 
 now, but I shall when I get upstairs into the nurseries.' 
 
 He always had as a child an extraordinary desire to 
 give pleasure to others even at tfie cost of a cherished 
 wish as once when his father asked him to walk down 
 to the farm and the child accepted with alacrity, and 
 then became rather silent and two large tears rolled 
 down his cheeks, because he really had arranged some 
 special game with the sisters and only went to please 
 his father. As the years passed he grew into a slender 
 boy not very robust without much colour, and with 
 a thoughtful look in his big dark eyes. He spoke 
 slowly, with almost a slight drawl ; but at the same 
 time he was highly strung, with a nervous tempera- 
 ment, and it was always a joke against him that when 
 he was very excited he would jump two or three times 
 into the air. 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 He was of a thoughtful and pensive disposition, and 
 at an early age showed a liking for books which grew 
 upon him as time went on. He had a good memory 
 for what he read and decided views as to what appealed 
 to him. 
 
 He must have been almost eight years old when he 
 said once that he liked so much the verse of the 
 ' Benedietus ' ' to guide our feet into the way of 
 peace ' and his mother wrote it in the Bible that 
 went to school with him. 
 
 During his career at his private school, and after- 
 wards at Eton, literature was his favourite subject, and 
 his essays were always extremely good. He was still a 
 very small boy when he wrote the following lines for 
 his Sunday questions : 
 
 THE WIDOW'S MITE. 
 
 'For Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it 
 Thee : Thou delightest not in burnt offering.' 
 
 Lo ! on the temple gate the box receives 
 The gold and silver that the rich man leaves, 
 With scarce a pang doth he from money part, 
 Yet gives it not with any warmth of heart. 
 
 When lo ! a widow clad in black appears, 
 Her look is sad, her eyes are filled with tears ; 
 
 5 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Yet in the box that hangeth on the wall 
 Without regret she pours her little all. 
 
 ' Now more than all of these,' said Christ, ' hath she 
 Cast in the box in her humility . . . 
 For they from out their riches, yet not glad, 
 While of her want she cast in all she had. 
 
 The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria stands out 
 as a great occasion in those early days. Mr. Goschen 
 was then First Lord of the Admiralty, and the proces- 
 sion passed close by the Admiralty Gardens. George 
 and his sister spent the day there. George was dressed 
 in a man-o'-war suit, and was supremely happy, walking 
 hand in hand with his grandfather across the parade- 
 ground before the procession came, and keenly inter- 
 ested in the splendid pageant. He sat between his 
 mother and grandmother, on seats erected under the 
 shady trees, and was enchanted when Queen Alexandra, 
 then Princess of Wales, graciously kissed her hand to 
 Mrs. Goschen in passing. A photograph of the three 
 generations taken that summer remains a slight record 
 of that day, which George always remembered. In 
 1901 he watched the coffin of the great Queen-Empress 
 pass through London to its last resting-place with 
 solemn eyes, and went home to draw a long picture of 
 the procession wonderfully accurate for a child to 
 send to his grandfather, Lord Cranbrook, because, as 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 he said, * it was such a pity grandpapa could not be 
 there.' 
 
 After Lord Cranbrook's death the little drawing 
 was found, carefully preserved, amongst his treasures. 
 
 In 1897 Lady Cranbrook died, arid in the February 
 following Mrs. Goschen. Both had been tenderly 
 attached to the children and infinitely good to them. 
 
 In 1902 he was page to his cousin, Violet Gathorne- 
 Hardy, at her marriage with Ernest Crawley, and 
 carried himself with great dignity. He wore a pale 
 green cloth suit with shoes and stockings to match, and 
 a white satin waistcoat and lace ruffles this was a 
 great resource for fancy-dress children's parties until he 
 outgrew it. Phyllis was a bridesmaid at the same 
 time. 
 
 At ten years old George began his school life at 
 Ludgrove with Mr. G. O. Smith, where he was very 
 happy. The day he went he kept up a good courage, 
 but the little sisters were left in floods of tears. 
 
 When he first went to Ludgrove he took a low 
 place, rather to the disappointment of his elders, who 
 had higher expectations ; but he rose rapidly after the 
 second term. 
 
 A rather delicate physique and nervousness pre- 
 vented him at first from showing that he possessed a 
 considerable amount of knowledge, and he had to shake 
 down in the new life before his steady work told. 
 Even at first he was friendly with masters and boys, 
 
 7 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 and wrote home that * he was the only new boy who 
 had not blubbed ' ; and that he liked school ' awffly.' 
 History and literature were the subjects he really liked, 
 and at the end of the term he was first in his division 
 in history, also in catechism although low down in 
 classics and mathematics. From his earliest days he 
 was fond of drawing, and his pencil was always a great 
 resource to him during his life, and gave great pleasure 
 to his friends, to whom his caricatures were a constant 
 source of amusement. 
 
 His letters from India, 1915, often contained sketches 
 of his brother officers and of incidents which appealed 
 to his humour, and the Complaint Book of the Regi- 
 mental Mess, of which he was President, was full of 
 humorous verses written and delightfully illustrated 
 by him. 
 
 His school reports all speak of his neatness in work 
 and evident desire to do his best, and at the end of the 
 second term he had made great progress. Mr. G. O. 
 Smith wrote to his mother: 
 
 ' I am very glad George did so well in his work last 
 term. It is most creditable and I thought you would 
 be delighted. I don't wish to flatter you or him, but I 
 am even more pleased with George than with his work. 
 He is such a nice boy, and I look forward to the time 
 when he will be one of the leading boys at Ludgrove, 
 and I feel sure that he will be a great help to me then. 
 
 8 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 A school depends so much on its leading boys, and I 
 am very glad to think that George is always such a 
 reliable and steady boy I feel sure I shall owe him a 
 great deal before he goes to Eton.' 
 
 When the strangeness had worn off, the boy took a 
 double remove, which gave great pleasure to his father 
 and mother and his grandfather, Lord Goschen, who 
 gave him, in memory of the occasion, an illustrated 
 history in six volumes which he had long admired. 
 
 Mr. G. O. Smith wrote : * You may be justly proud 
 of him.' 
 
 There were delightful times when the family used 
 to drive to Ludgrove and spend the afternoon talking 
 and wandering about in the garden. There was a 
 special summer-house, where one of the amusements 
 was to see how many articles George carried in his 
 pockets. Seventeen were counted on one occasion, 
 about ten of which were family letters, which soon 
 accumulated, as his mother always wrote on alternate 
 days, unless any other member of the family was writing. 
 
 His dormitory was shared with two friends, 
 Frederick and Wilfrid Beaumont Nesbitt, nicknamed 
 the * Paddies.' They remember that he used to tell 
 them stories at night after lights were out, for he had a 
 vivid imagination. One or two recollections remain of 
 those days. Once a new boy was put into their room, 
 and they had been asked to be kind to him. George's 
 
 9 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 mother asked, when next she saw him, if he had made 
 the newcomer any happier. George answered, doubt- 
 fully : ' Well, he would lie in bed and sniffle, so we 
 said, " For goodness' sake cry if you want to, but don't 
 sniff." The boy was made happier afterwards by being 
 put with a cousin and soon settled down, and it was 
 recognised that recommendations of that sort were not 
 of much avail when George said, at the end of the 
 holidays, ' Please, mother, don't send me any more 
 little boys to be kind to if you can help it.' 
 
 The little sisters loved the expeditions to Ludgrove, 
 and though they seldom saw the other boys, except in 
 the distance or at the rather solemn general tea, there 
 were one or two amusing incidents with other boys 
 during the school-days. 
 
 One boy, who had never spoken to them, said to 
 George, * When I grow up, I shall marry your sister ' 
 alluding to the older one. ' Oh, no, you won't,' 
 answered he heartlessly, 'for I don't want you for a 
 brother-in-law.' The Paddies were overheard by their 
 mother in the holidays discussing the same subject, the 
 younger saying, ' I know you asked her, whatever you 
 say' (the soft impeachment having been denied), 'be- 
 cause I asked George if I could have her, and he said, 
 " No, I'm sorry you can't, because your major's got 
 her."' 
 
 Mr. G. O. Smith came to stay at Seacox once in 
 the holidays. He was always a true and good friend 
 
 10 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 and very much attached to the boy. George had a 
 rather slow way of speaking, and Mr. Smith's amuse- 
 ment was great when, on asking George what his idea 
 for the future was, he answered, with the little pause 
 for thought that was so characteristic, * I think I should 
 like to be an Orator.' 
 
 Many parents used to meet on the platform at 
 King's Cross at the beginning and end of holidays, 
 when a stream of small boys poured from the train, 
 looking so much alike that even the most devoted 
 parents could not pick out their offspring until they 
 were close at hand and the joy of meeting took place. 
 
 During the Ludgrove days in 1904, Lord Goschen 
 was made Chancellor of Oxford University, a well- 
 deserved honour, and one which he always said gave him 
 almost more delight than any of the many he received. 
 In June of that year he made his first official appearance 
 in Oxford at the Encaenia, and his two grandsons, 
 George Goschen and Dennis Roche, acted as his train- 
 bearers, in black Court suits of velvet, with lace ruffles, 
 cocked hats and buckled shoes. It was a wonderful 
 time for the boys, their first sight of that most beautiful 
 city in all the loveliness of June. They were the guests 
 of Dr. and Mrs. Thomson, of Oriel, and the kind 
 hostess, who had sons of her own, gave them a room 
 looking into the ' High,' where they sat entranced. 
 They spent their first afternoon going over various 
 colleges and their gardens, and walking by the river, 
 
 11 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 where they were very interested in watching college 
 eights rowing their courses. George always loved Ox- 
 ford from that day ; he was keenly appreciative of its 
 beauty and traditions, and his two years at Christ 
 Church before the War were amongst the happiest of 
 his life. The procession through the town in the bright 
 June sunshine was a memorable sight, the Doctors' 
 robes giving a brilliant splash of colour. The ceremony 
 of the Encaenia in the Sheldonian Theatre, being all in 
 Latin, was a little long for the boys, but George's father 
 and a beadle each lifted one of the small boys, who 
 were sitting on little stools, out through the curtain at 
 the back of the platform to the amusement of the 
 audience, who saw the boys disappearing through space 
 as if moved by some spirit-power. The fresh air and 
 buns soon revived them. 
 
 The list of those who received the D.C.L. and D.L. 
 was a most interesting one, and included the present 
 French Ambassador, Monsieur Cambon, the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Mr. Asquith, 
 General Sir John French, Admiral Sir Frederick 
 Richards, Mr. Sargent, R.A., and other well-known 
 names, including Marconi. Mr. Walter Leaf was one 
 of the D.L.'s, and his son afterwards served in the 
 5th Buffs in India and Mesopotamia with George, and 
 volunteered to take him down to the Base Hospital 
 when he heard he was lying wounded behind the 
 trenches. 
 
 12 
 
AT CHELWOOD BEACON, 
 1895. 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 A large luncheon was served in the hall at All 
 Souls' after the ceremony of the Encaenia, where the 
 boys enjoyed a varied meal, far removed from the 
 watchful eye of parents and guardians. It began with 
 lobster and ended with strawberry ice ; however, they 
 were none the worse, and on the return journey to 
 London played at railway guards with great vigour 
 and much movement until Paddington was reached. 
 
 After George went to school the family always 
 spent the holidays together, first at Hemsted or Seacox, 
 and then a month or more of the summer each year at 
 some seaside place. The first summer holidays were 
 passed at Southwold, where there used to be picnics on 
 the wide heathery commons and expeditions to see the 
 wonderful churches that abound in Norfolk and Suffolk. 
 The family were never separated except when his father 
 had to go to London for his work, and it was only after 
 George returned to school that his father and mother 
 went away to pay visits. 
 
 The following year Balmacarra was chosen, a lovely 
 spot on the west coast of Ross- shire. There, in spite 
 of almost constant rains, the party were wonderfully 
 happy, and on the few fine days made long expeditions 
 by sea and land. It was from here that George paid 
 his first visit with his father and mother, Mr. and Lady 
 Anne Murray fetching them in their yacht to spend a 
 few days at Loch Carron. George enjoyed his visit 
 immensely. While his father stalked, he and the rest 
 
 13 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 of the party used to spend long days on the yacht, 
 fishing off Lunga Island with hand-lines ; or they 
 would drive over the glorious hills to Loch Torridon, 
 and fish the river. To George it was an entirely new 
 experience, and he revelled in the sport and the long 
 days in the air, and in the lovely scenery of the West 
 Coast. 
 
 In the evenings he and young Murray dressed up, 
 and arrived in weird and wonderful costumes during 
 late dinner. 
 
 That was his first visit to Scotland. He revisited 
 Loch Carron in 1913. 
 
 In 1906 a small villa near St. Briac, on the coast of 
 Brittany, was the summer holiday home. It was a tiny 
 house called Villa Clary, and had a garden full of pine- 
 trees opening on to a sandy bay surrounded by rocks. 
 A French cook, of an uncertain temper but well versed 
 in the culinary art, and a * bonne a tout faire,' with the 
 butler and the footman from home, ran the household. 
 Any small contretemps only caused amusement, as when 
 the family sat waiting for their early breakfast for half- 
 an-hour, and then saw a small, not over clean, child 
 appear clasping the rolls, which were not enveloped in 
 paper, to her bosom. 
 
 It was a gloriously hot summer, and every one lived 
 out of doors, so the ramshackle condition of the villa 
 did not matter, although it was in such a crumbling 
 condition that Cicely, the youngest girl, had to be 
 
 14 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 removed from her room the first evening on account 
 of millions of ants which came out of the wall. After 
 a fierce contention with the owner of the villa, the 
 cracks were plastered up and the ants were immured, 
 until, at any rate, the summer was over, but they 
 probably came out for the next year's visitors. 
 
 The motor had been taken to France, and many 
 long expeditions were made to Mont St. Michel, to 
 Chateau de Josselin, and shorter drives amongst pic- 
 turesque villages, where there was always something 
 new to see, and where the quaint peasant dresses and 
 coifs, the big round loaves, and the novelty of a fresh 
 country and customs delighted all the children. 
 
 On one of the longer expeditions to a peasant 
 festival at Carnac, Bretonne costumes were ordered for 
 the little girls, and made by a charming peasant woman, 
 who sent them over later to England, with a doll pro- 
 perly dressed to show how they should be worn. For 
 some years she used to write to, and hear from, the 
 family. 
 
 The shore was an unending joy. When the tide 
 was high the whole family used to bathe in the de- 
 liciously warm water, and when it was low to go for 
 long afternoons wading and digging for a small silvery 
 eel which was excellent eating. 
 
 It was in these sunshiny days in Brittany that 
 George acquired the nickname of 'Joss,' that became 
 familiar to most of his friends, and by which he was 
 
 15 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 known in the home circle and afterwards at Oxford and 
 in India. 
 
 It came first from his aunt, who was staying there, 
 calling him a ' funny little Josser,' and it was soon cur- 
 tailed into * Joss,' and to the last he always signed him- 
 self so in family letters. 
 
 Soon after these holidays, the much-loved grand- 
 father, Lord Cranbrook, passed away, leaving a great 
 gap, but a serenely beautiful memory of an old age that 
 was like a golden sunset. 
 
 A page in the children's life turned over here, as 
 Hemsted, which had been so much of a home to them, 
 was closed. 
 
 Between * little George,' as he was called then, and 
 Lord Cranbrook a very tender tie had always existed, 
 and when a little child he would carry about a photo- 
 graph of his grandfather riding his favourite horse. 
 The following touching little story shows the love 
 and sympathy between the grandfather, who was in 
 his ninety-second year, and his young grandchildren and 
 great-grandchildren. Two of them were heard talking 
 together after their mother had broken to them that 
 the grandfather they loved was passing from this 
 world, but that they would see him again and that 
 he would be very happy. The elder boy, about eight, 
 was heard to say to the younger, * But are you sure, 
 Eddy, grandfather will be happy ? ' ' Oh ! yes, of 
 course/ said the brother, 'for grandpapa loves little 
 
 16 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 boys, and there are lots and lots of little boy angels 
 in heaven.' 
 
 In February ot 1907 Lord Goschen, the other 
 grandfather, died very suddenly. 
 
 It was a curious coincidence that the grandmothers 
 died within three months of each other, and after ten 
 years the same period elapsed between the death of his 
 two grandfathers. 
 
 George came from Eton to attend Lord Goschen's 
 funeral the first he had ever seen. 
 
 A feeling of genuine sorrow for the grandfather he 
 had lost was mingled with one of awe and apprehension, 
 which was soon dispelled when he saw that sorrow did 
 not necessarily mean gloom, and that peace and beauty 
 hallowed death more than the expression of grief. 
 
 The ceremony was a very simple one, the party 
 walking from the house in the pale February sunshine 
 to the beautiful churchyard on the hill, where the 
 burial took place. 
 
 With Lord Goschen, as with Lord Cranbrook, the boy 
 had always been a great favourite, and when they were 
 all at Seacox his grandfather often used to take the 
 small boy off for a walk alone with him, and always 
 said he was an excellent companion, and that his quaint 
 ideas and humour amused and refreshed him. 
 
 Both of his grandfathers for a long period of years 
 served their Sovereign and Country in high offices of 
 State, and from them he inherited a fine spirit of 
 
 17 c 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 patriotism and a stern sense of duty, and like them he 
 gave of his best to his country. 
 
 Tn the troubled times of '86, when the Union was in 
 danger and Unionist leaders were exhorting the rank 
 and file to stand firm at all hazards, Mr. Goschen as 
 he then was ended an appeal to his audience with 
 these words, ' Quit ye like men be strong.' Thirty 
 years after, on the banks of the Tigris, his grandson, for 
 the sake of his country, put these words into deeds. 
 
 In the autumn of 1906 George went to Eton for his 
 pass examination, taking remove, and he entered Mr. 
 Bowlby's house the January following. 
 
 One of the strict unwritten laws of Eton was that 
 the boys were no longer met or seen off as in Ludgrove 
 days, and no self-respecting parent would dream of 
 transgressing an Eton tradition. This, however, does 
 not hold good on the first entry into Eton life, and both 
 father and mother took the boy down, and spent the 
 afternoon buying curtains and the usual needful things 
 for the small room looking on to the chapel roof. 
 
 George was in excellent spirits, but his elders felt a 
 pang as they turned away and left the small figure 
 standing on the threshold of his door and of manhood. 
 
 Eton boys are almost always happy, and George 
 wrote at once full of pleasure at the comparative free- 
 dom of a public school. He had many friends, several 
 from Ludgrove, and others with whom he had much in 
 common, among whom were Cranborne, Tichfield, the 
 
 18 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Laurence boys, Arthur Hardy, J. Barnet, and others. 
 A kind friend, Anna Graham, made the Sunday 
 specially happy for her nephews, George, and a few 
 favoured boys, who went to tea Sunday after Sunday 
 to ' Aunt Anna,' and felt at home in her pretty house 
 and tiny garden. She always had a fly which took 
 them back in time for chapel, so that there was no 
 feeling of hurry. She sometimes said she wondered the 
 boys cared to come to an old lady ; but her loving 
 hospitality will always be remembered by those who 
 shared in it, and by the fathers and mothers who knew 
 the touch of home it gave to their boys' lives at school. 
 The first summer half that year was rather spoilt to 
 George, as he had measles in the Easter holidays, and an 
 operation for adenoids and tonsils immediately after, 
 which delayed his return to Eton for a fortnight. He 
 was far from strong all that summer, although he never 
 ' stayed out,' and always worked to the best of his abilities. 
 
 After two halves at Eton, George was moved into a 
 room looking on to Windsor Castle, an ever-beautiful 
 view across Mr. Luxmoore's garden. 
 
 In 1910 Mr. Lubbock took over the whole house, as 
 Mr. Bowlby became headmaster of Lancing, and Bald- 
 win's Bee was left for another house. 
 
 Many delightful recollections remain of happy days 
 spent by the family at Eton. Eton fashions are very 
 strange, and one remembrance lingers of a bitterly cold 
 winter's day, when George was found waiting on the 
 
 19 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 platform with no great-coat, but an enormous pair of fur 
 gloves. Lunch at the * White Hart ' was part of the 
 programme, and to George and his family, for whom 
 the time used to be all too short for the chatter of home 
 news, some of the other parties caused much amusement, 
 for they seemed to have nothing to do but to ply their 
 Eton companion with food whilst conversation waned. 
 The afternoons would be spent in walks round Eton, 
 about the playing-fields, or by the river. In the winter 
 term, when the days were short, chestnuts were roasted 
 over the tiny fire in George's room, after a festive tea. 
 
 Eton and other friends came sometimes in the 
 holidays, and George, who used to read the Psalms and 
 Lesson with his mother and sisters, evidently thought 
 it was always the custom and used to bring the boys 
 without a thought of shyness, and they seemed to take 
 it as naturally as he did, and were wonderfully friendly. 
 
 In August of that year the family moved to Seacox 
 a great change but it soon became an intensely 
 happy home to the children. 
 
 George and his sister Phyllis were neither of them 
 very strong that summer, as both had been ill, and they 
 used to encamp on the slope behind the house, under 
 the fir-trees, with hammocks and an Indian tent, and 
 had many delightful games. They always loved those 
 amusements in which imagination played a large part, 
 and there were some games whose mysteries, known 
 only to the three children, continued even when they 
 
 20 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 grew up, and will remain a memory inseparable from 
 their childhood and closely-linked lives. 
 
 A kitten, tortoises, and pigeons were the first pets, 
 but the pigeons refused to live in the picturesque 
 abode made for them and died off gradually, the tor- 
 toises buried themselves for the autumn and never 
 re-appeared, and the kitten grew into a cat. 
 
 The first Christmas without their grandfather, Lord 
 Goschen, was naturally a very quiet one, though the 
 circle was joined by their aunts, Beatrice and Fanny 
 Goschen, and Willie Goschen with his wife and four 
 children. Instead of the usual Christmas-tree, a large 
 plum-pudding, filled with presents for the children dis- 
 gorged its treasures in the smoking-room. 
 
 The following summer, 1909, Seacox was let and 
 the family went for the holidays to the aunts Emily 
 and Katherine Gathorne-Hardy, who dearly loved the 
 trio. George had a slight threatening of appendicitis, 
 which rather spoilt the early summer, but he was well 
 enough to travel in August to Mundesley, where his 
 father and mother had taken the Rectory, a comfort- 
 able house, with a garden and lawn-tennis court, where 
 six weeks passed very quickly. 
 
 There was a hut 011 the shore, and many expeditions 
 were made to the Broads and to Norwich, and many of 
 the beautiful churches. A coastguard gave the children 
 swimming-lessons, and the days passed quietly and 
 happily. When the end of the holidays came, the 
 
 21 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 family took George to Norwich to catch the express to 
 London, and established him in a carriage by himself 
 with a tea-basket and illustrated papers. Just before 
 the train started a car came up, and the headmaster of 
 Eton, Mr. Lyttleton, got out and jumped into the same 
 carriage too late to make any change. The boy 
 looked rather scared, but wrote afterwards that the 
 Head had been very friendly and given him papers, and 
 had finally fallen asleep, which was an immense relief to 
 the shy fellow-traveller. 
 
 One of George's letters in 1910 was full of pleasure 
 at being elected to the House debating society. He 
 was the youngest boy chosen, and appears in a group of 
 the Society the only one still in his Eton collar and 
 jacket. 
 
 He always wrote home the subjects of the debates, 
 and once when his father was at Eton for the afternoon 
 he found George and Cranborne were the leaders on 
 either side in the debate that evening, * Free Trade 
 versus Protection.' They asked him for some hints for 
 the discussion, which he distributed with absolute 
 impartiality. To George he gave unanswerable argu- 
 ments in favour of Free Trade, while to Cranborne he 
 suggested the replies to crush his opponent with incon- 
 trovertible facts. 
 
 A large family party met that Christmas at Seacox, 
 and the children had a wonderful time. Seacox, with 
 its big hall, the pillars wreathed with holly, made a 
 
 22 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 splendid place for games, and the season was always one 
 of the happiest times in the young lives. A big 
 Christmas-tree on Christmas Eve, where the little ones 
 waited hand-in-hand for the tinkling which announced 
 the opening of the doors, which were thrown open by 
 Peter Tickner, the house-carpenter for over thirty years, 
 who always helped both to decorate and also to dis- 
 mantle the tree. Small tables stood round with the 
 larger presents, and the elders found their share, whilst 
 the children wandered round with almost more treasures 
 than they could carry, until at last bedtime came. 
 
 After dinner there was a further ceremony, the 
 filling of the stockings, when the elders played the part 
 of the Christmas man, stealing into the darkened bed- 
 rooms by the light of a shaded candle, with oranges, 
 dried fruits and nuts, and a variety of small toys. 
 Delicious glimpses of rosy faces and tousled hair on the 
 pillows made the part a welcome one to play, and one 
 of the children, now grown up, admits she for one firmly 
 believed the Christmas man came, until one night when 
 she half woke up and saw her mother filling the stock- 
 ing. On Boxing Day the local band always came to 
 play in the outer hall, whilst the children danced and 
 marched round the pillars with their holly garlands 
 from 6 to 7.30. 
 
 The band played marvellously out of tune, and were 
 rather out of date, as when asked for ' The Merry 
 Widow Waltz,' then on every barrel-organ, the con- 
 
 23 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 ductor, an old grey-headed man, said, No, he did not 
 know that ; but that they had a very nice one called 
 the Mistletoe Bough ' ! 
 
 There was generally a dress-up tea during the 
 holidays, and in 1910 a large children's fancy-dress 
 party. The cousins Angela, Willie, Rosemary, and 
 Johnnie Goschen were enchanting as ' The Follies,' an 
 exact copy of the well-known Pelissier's troupe. 
 
 George was in a dress copied from a picture of his 
 grandfather when at school, with white trousers (rather 
 short), white socks and shoes, green Eton jacket and 
 buff waistcoat, and a soft shirt with a collar rather 
 like a Sir Thomas Lawrence picture. The likeness to 
 his grandfather in youth was very striking. The girls, 
 Phyllis and Cicely, wore their Bretonne costumes. 
 
 There was a cotillon, with quantities of paper caps 
 and ruffles and toys from Paris, and quite at the end 
 the children were led in a wild gallop through the 
 house, ending in the hall, when paper rose-leaves were 
 showered from the galleries, and the scene was almost 
 fairy-like. 
 
 Mr. S. G. Lubbock, who had that autumn taken over 
 Mr. Bowlby's house, was one of the guests, and about 
 seventy children came from the neighbourhood. 
 
 One of George's great delights was ' dressing up.' 
 He was clever at it, and wonderfully free from self- 
 consciousness, as he would often appear at dinner in 
 some strange and wonderful costume. An Incroyable, a 
 
 24 
 

GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Spanish Don, a Coolie taking the sisters, as Japanese 
 ladies, round the landing in an improvised jinrickshaw, 
 were some of his best dresses. 
 
 Also there were tableaux sometimes, and songs and 
 dances in costume ; the entertainment being generally 
 given for the household and outdoor employees, who 
 made an excellent audience. 
 
 In the December of 1910 George was confirmed at 
 Eton by the then Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Paget. A 
 beautiful and memorable service, which took place on a 
 dark, misty winter's day, was held in the Chapel, which 
 was filled with parents and boys. No one present on 
 that day and the early Sunday morning following, when 
 most of the boys made their first Communion, could 
 have watched unmoved those young figures going up to 
 the altar in the dim light and fail to wonder what the 
 future would bring to those bright spirits just then on 
 the threshold of life. Who could have foreseen what 
 the years would bring so soon ? And yet how won- 
 derful to think of the many there who, in the last two 
 years, have gone ' with the flame of their bright youth 
 unspent,' and died the noblest death a man can die, 
 before the ' contagion of the world's slow stain ' could 
 touch them or dim their radiance. 
 
 On May llth, 1911, Katharine Gathorne- Hardy, 
 George's aunt and godmother, died. He was at home 
 at the time owing to a very bad cut on the knee. 
 
 There had been a close bond between them, and the 
 
 25 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 children loved dearly the aunt whose selfless, radiant 
 nature brightened all who came near her, and who 
 never failed during her long illness to take the deepest 
 interest in their doings. 
 
 July, 1911, was the Coronation of King George V., 
 and George came up from Eton to be present in West- 
 minster Abbey, the splendid pageant appealing to him 
 greatly. He went by water from Chelsea Bridge with 
 his father and mother, a slight figure in his velvet Court 
 suit. His neighbour in the gallery said afterwards to 
 his mother, ' I liked sitting next your son at the 
 Coronation, he was so small and cool.' 
 
 That autumn, with his father and mother, George 
 went for a motor tour across France to the Pyrenees, a 
 wonderfully happy time, although it was cut rather 
 short owing to a motor accident, which resulted in a 
 dislocated arm to George's father, and postponed the 
 start from England for ten days. 
 
 The whole family went together as far as St. Malo, 
 where they parted, the girls staying with a French 
 family at St. Servan, whilst the others went on their 
 journey, reaching Angers the first night. 
 
 They had a few days at Tours, and then went to 
 Angouleme, a delightfully picturesque place, where they 
 stayed for a Sunday. After this they crossed the 
 Landes district by Pe'rigord, and stopped the night at 
 Mont de Marsan, where they had some difficulty in 
 getting rooms, as the town was occupied by troops on 
 
 26 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 autumn manoeuvres. They spent a somewhat perturbed 
 night, as the cavalry began to leave the town at 2 a.m., 
 and proceeded at a sharp trot, with jingling accoutre- 
 ments, down the cobbled streets, followed by the 
 infantry at 4 a.m., headed by a bugle band. 
 
 The tour next took them into the Pyrenees to 
 Argeles, passing through Lourdes, where lunch was 
 taken. 
 
 The charm of the expedition was the delightful 
 French villages and wonderful churches, and the 
 country inns where the party stopped for meals. 
 
 The boy loved every moment of the time, and the 
 glorious mountain scenery of the Pyrenees at Luz, 
 Cauterez, Gavarny, Luchon. At the last place, where 
 they had intended to stay some days, a telegram from 
 Eton, refusing the extra days asked on account of the 
 late start, caused the tour to be shortened by a week, 
 and was the reason of a remark of George's often quoted 
 by his family afterwards. He wrote on his return to 
 Eton, ' The Head ' (who had refused him leave) ' asked 
 after Daddy's arm. but I answered him with some 
 hauteur.' 
 
 Still, the whole trip left a memory of happy sunny 
 days, and a wonderful amount was got into the short 
 three weeks. 
 
 George's bright, appreciative nature made him a 
 capital travelling companion, and even three days of 
 rain in the valleys and snow on the mountains failed to 
 
 27 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 depress him, and he made himself happy writing and 
 illustrating long letters to his sisters and friends. His 
 pencil was a ready one, and the little sketches he made 
 were full of life. 
 
 1912 was George's last year at Eton, and he left 
 after the summer half. In the middle of this term 
 Oliver Lyttelton, who was Head of the House, left, and 
 was succeeded by George, who occupied this position for 
 half the term. 
 
 The early part of the autumn was spent in Scotland, 
 on the lovely west coast, where he paid one or two 
 visits, and had his first grouse-shooting at Kilninver, his 
 cousin Charles Goschen's moor near Oban, where all the 
 family stayed together. 
 
 In September George went up for his matriculation 
 to Oxford, and the same day Phyllis left for Paris for 
 three months with three girl friends. The night before, 
 brother and sister sat late talking over what was such a 
 great change in their lives, the first real separation. 
 
 Just a shadow fell across their happiness, it was the 
 last day of their childhood, so almost cloudless, and they 
 seemed to be stepping off into the unknown. 
 
 In 1912 George went up to Oxford, to Christ Church, 
 and was in his second year at the outbreak of war. 
 Among those who went up to Oxford with him, or were 
 already there, were several of his Eton friends. Cran- 
 borne and Barnett, who were both at Lubbock's with 
 him, were at Christ Church ; Jock Balfour was at New 
 
 28 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 College, and a constant visitor to their rooms ; Derrick. 
 Milner, son of Fred Milner, a very old friend of the 
 family, had rooms just opposite him in Canterbury 
 Quad, as also did Luly Palmer, who, like George, went 
 out to India with his regiment, where they met and 
 dined together, and doubtless talked of Christ Church 
 days and their many friends. 
 
 He would probably have regarded these as the 
 happiest two years of his life, for although he was 
 always very happy at Eton, where his sunny nature 
 made for him many friends, and his mental powers 
 enabled him rapidly to advance up the school, he 
 possessed one of those temperaments which seemed to 
 blossom in the free and intellectual air of the University. 
 For them the training at private and public school is 
 necessary to strengthen their character, to discipline 
 their mind, and to establish a strong foundation ready 
 for them to build on according to their fancy when they 
 reach the University. And then, like a plant freed from 
 the stakes to which it has been tied to make it grow 
 straight and strong, they seem at once to throw out new 
 branches and to grow with fresh vigour in the freedom 
 they have won. With him it was so. He seemed at 
 once to throw off much of the reserve which clothed and 
 hid his character from those who did not know him well. 
 While holding firmly to those friends with whom he 
 went up from Eton, he found kindred souls with whom 
 to form new friendships, and he soon realised with joy 
 
 29 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 that the artistic side of his nature, which the atmosphere 
 of school had stunted, would find encouragement among 
 men of his tastes at the 'Varsity. Many men when they 
 go up to the University form a little coterie of friends, 
 and know few men outside it. But George was too 
 interested in his fellow-creatures to be content with 
 this. He knew and liked all sorts and kinds of men in 
 different colleges, men who did not know one another, 
 but between whom George soon became a link. That 
 he was cosmopolitan in his surroundings was shown by 
 the varied nationality of his friends, for among them 
 was Raoul Mallet, a young Frenchman, to whom 
 George was greatly devoted, and whose sudden death in 
 Paris, at the beginning of the War, was one of his first 
 real sorrows ; Obolinsky, a Russian Prince ; Bieber- 
 stein, son of the late German Ambassador to England ; 
 and Prince Paul of Serbia. This little party, and the 
 others who have been mentioned, often met in George's 
 rooms. They must often have talked of the future, 
 with all its possibilities for them and their several 
 countries, but none could have foretold how suddenly 
 their lives were to be changed, and that the peaceful 
 tranquillity of the Oxford College was to be forsaken for 
 the noise and clamour of battle. When the trumpet- 
 call sounded they answered its summons, and literally 
 East and West and South and North, they hastened to 
 take up arms, and soon these friends were strung out 
 from Flanders to the Eastern front, on through the 
 
 30 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Balkans to India and far Mesopotamia, fighting for 
 their country. 
 
 In the history of Oxford many a college has sent 
 forth a little group of friends whom the call of some 
 special service has united together, but surely never 
 before has so unexpected a summons scattered them so 
 widely apart, impelled, not by a unanimous and con- 
 certed choice, but by a personal and immediate sense 
 of duty. 
 
 When he first went up to Oxford, George had 
 rooms in Peck Quad, close by the Porter's Lodge, 
 which he changed in the next year for some pleasanter 
 rooms on the first floor in Canterbury. 
 
 During the time he was up at Oxford, George 
 divided his time between reading and amusement. He 
 was very fond of riding, and used to ride about the 
 country round Oxford. He had joined the O. T. C., 
 and was in the cavalry section of it, and his descriptions 
 of their Field Days were always amusing. 
 
 Not every trooper was a born horseman, and not 
 every horse a trained charger. They varied in size from 
 polo-ponies to coach-horses, and in character from slugs 
 to bolters. A charge across Post Meadow often 
 resembled a battlefield and a sauve qui pent. 
 
 George took his share in the social life of his college 
 and the 'Varsity. He was a member of O. U. D. S. 
 and of the * Canning ' and other clubs, and did his 
 best to support them. Time never hung heavy on 
 
 31 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 his hands, and the day was too short to get in all he 
 wanted. 
 
 The Christmas of 1912 was shadowed somewhat by 
 the death of another, the last, of the Hemsted aunts, 
 and Phyllis, who was to have come out at a ball at 
 Hatfield, had to postpone her debut. George was to 
 have joined the rest of the family in Italy in March, 
 1913, when term was over. They had been in Sicily, 
 and were looking forward to his coming to join them, 
 and possibly spend Easter in Rome, but he had an 
 exam, and at the last moment could not leave England, 
 so the party went home, and he met them in the motor 
 at Dover on Easter Eve. In Easter week George and 
 Phyllis went to stay with some cousins for a ball, and 
 he went back to Oxford on April 10th, whilst she began 
 her first London season. Her father and mother gave 
 a ball for her at home in June, when Oxford had gone 
 down and George had finished his O. T. C. training, so 
 that he was able to be present. 
 
 He had intended to go abroad for a short time, but 
 he had one or two attacks of pain, and it was decided 
 he must be operated on for appendicitis. George took 
 this in the quiet way he accepted life as it came, never 
 complaining, even during the first days, and making 
 himself perfectly happy drawing and painting, his bed 
 by the open window being covered with his pictures. 
 
 As soon as he was well enough, the whole party 
 motored to Seacox, where he quickly recovered in the 
 
 32 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 summer sunshine, although he could not dance at the 
 birthday party given for Phyllis on August 5th, or go 
 to the Kiplings' ball the same week. Still, it was a 
 merry, happy party of friends, who little thought what 
 the next August was to bring forth as they made plans 
 for another meeting in 1914. 
 
 Radiant summer days, and radiant youth their 
 memory shines through the mist of sorrow and tears 
 that has come between : 
 
 ' They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old, 
 Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 
 At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
 We will remember them.' . . . 
 
 In September, George joined his father, mother, and 
 Phyllis at Loch Carron, and then went to shoot with a 
 friend, Derrick Milner, in Perthshire, before going back 
 to Oxford. The usual happy party assembled for Christ- 
 inas, the last the whole family were to spend together. 
 George was always specially beloved by all the small 
 cousins. He was never impatient, but always ready to 
 play with them, and often he would be seen surrounded 
 by the smallest members of the party, sitting on his 
 knee or climbing over him, and his wonderfully even 
 temper always made for peace, and turned anything 
 like a squabble amongst the children into a joke. He 
 always had the heart of a child, and to the end he kept 
 a child's clear vision and power of idealization. 
 
 33 D 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 He had singing lessons at Oxford, and his master 
 thought very well of his voice ; and a great deal of time 
 was spent at the piano with his sisters. He sang in the 
 choir in church. He loved paper games, and some of 
 his verses were really excellent, but, alas ! none were 
 preserved. 
 
 It was an old custom to have topical charades on 
 Boxing Day, and the last two years George took part 
 with his father and uncle. 
 
 He loved acting, and had looked forward to taking 
 a small part with his uncle, Willie Goschen, with the 
 Old Stagers in 1914 at Windsor, that year which began 
 in sunshine and gladness, and ended in storm and 
 stress. 
 
 Until the fateful August, 1914 was an especially 
 happy year for the young ones. In January there was 
 a party at Seacox for a neighbouring dance, and in 
 April, just after Easter, another delightful one in 
 glorious spring weather, when there was much tennis 
 all day, and dancing in the evenings. But George did 
 not spend all the Easter recess in England, going, after 
 a week, to the Chateau des Tourelles, near Blois, to 
 study French until term began. In June, his sister 
 Phyllis went with a party to Oxford for Commemora- 
 tion, and brother and sister had an almost perfect time 
 of happiness together. Dances every night, of which 
 the New College ball and the Gridiron Club were par- 
 ticularly good ; and by day boating on the river with 
 
 34 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 George and his friends in the summer sunshine ; or 
 the two would slip away for the intimate talks that both 
 loved, and at the balls many dances were kept for the 
 beloved brother. 
 
 When George went up to Oxford he decided he 
 would like to go into the Foreign Office as a career. 
 He had a natural talent for languages, and hoped he 
 might be able to pass the necessary examination. He 
 therefore determined always to pass part of his Long 
 Vacation abroad. He had been to stay with the family 
 of a Mons. de Seze, at Les Tourelles, in the Easter 
 vacation of 1913, and on July 16th he returned there 
 again. 
 
 When war broke out, George was still in France, 
 and his father telegraphed to him at once to come 
 home. He had an exciting journey through France, 
 which began with the difficulty of getting to the 
 station. 
 
 All the motors and horses had been commandeered 
 for the army, but at last he found a donkey and cart, 
 which conveyed him and his luggage to the train. He 
 had to pass through Paris and obtain money there, and 
 it was only by consenting to pay an exorbitant sum 
 that he could persuade a taxi to convey him and his 
 luggage from one station to the other. Arriving at last 
 at the Gare du Nord, he found wild confusion and a 
 surging crowd of people endeavouring to get away from 
 Paris and France. Men, women, and children were 
 
 35 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 struggling and pushing to find seats in the train, and 
 many were left behind. George, being alone with no 
 one to look after, soon managed to secure a seat in the 
 train, but gave it up to an old lady whom he found 
 travelling by herself, and stood wedged tight in the 
 corridor from Paris to Calais. Here matters were 
 worse, as there was a large crowd already waiting for 
 the boat, to which the passengers of the overloaded 
 train were added. When the boat arrived, not half of 
 the waiting throng was able to find room on board, but 
 George, thanks to his height and agility, was one of 
 them. He often recalled the pathos of the picture as 
 the boat steamed out of the harbour, leaving the quay 
 packed with a crowd of people, many of whom seemed 
 stunned by the suddenness of the blow, and all of 
 whom were anxious and bewildered, and unable in the 
 hurry and confusion of the journey to find their bear- 
 ings. It is curious now, after two years of war, when 
 one sees the calmness and fortitude with which the 
 sorrows and sufferings and hardships are borne by all 
 classes, when one sees the Channel still open for the 
 transport of troops and passengers and stores, to recall 
 the description George gave of his journey, when people 
 hastening to England were haunted by the fear that 
 each boat that sailed might be the last. 
 
 On his arrival in England, George joined the family 
 at Seacox, but he had not been there many days before 
 he became restless to join some branch of the Army, 
 
 36 
 


GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 and he could not settle down until he had achieved 
 his desire. His father had hoped in the early days 
 of George's boyhood that he might have chosen the 
 Army as a profession, but when he realised that 
 George had no leanings towards it, he did not en- 
 deavour to influence him to adopt it. George never 
 showed any desire to be a soldier, and the short time 
 he was quartered in England after he had received his 
 commission only served to convince him that he never 
 would have liked a soldier's life in times of peace ; and 
 so it was to gratify no long-cherished wish, it was from 
 no love of adventure, that at the very beginning of the 
 War he was determined to join up at once, but because 
 to him, as to many others, the call of duty was in- 
 sistent. For one so young, he was imbued with an 
 extraordinary sense of patriotism, to which the Dean 
 of Christ Church bore eloquent testimony in a letter of 
 sympathy to his father after George's death. 
 
 In the early days of September, 1915, George ob- 
 tained a con.' mission in the 5th Battalion East Kent 
 Regiment, a battalion in which his father had served 
 for twenty-six years and had commanded from 1902 
 to 1908, and with which he was now again to serve, 
 as he volunteered to join it as Junior Major and was 
 accepted. 
 
 On September 3rd George and his father left Seacox 
 and motored to Sandwich to join their regiment. They 
 were quartered in the old town at the Bell Hotel, 
 
 37 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 which became the Regimental Mess. Sandwich was a 
 very dull place, and as it was on the South-East Coast 
 very little leave was allowed. The only amusement 
 was riding, and George and his father often rode to 
 the seashore in the afternoons for a gallop on the 
 sand at low tide. George's mother and sisters came 
 down several times to Sandwich while he was there, 
 and stayed at the hotel by the sea. They happened 
 to be there towards the end of September, when the 
 regiment was asked to volunteer for foreign service. 
 A parade was held, and officers and men were asked 
 to volunteer. George and his father and nearly all the 
 officers, and a large number of the men, responded. It 
 was understood at the time that the regiment was going 
 to France, and all ranks were very much disappointed 
 when shortly afterwards it was understood that India 
 was to be their destination. On October 14th George 
 and his father went to Seacox on four days' em- 
 barkation leave, and the family spent a very happy 
 time together. This was the last time they were all 
 together at Seacox. 
 
 On returning to Sandwich, George and his father 
 were both medically examined, but the latter was not 
 allowed to go to a hot climate. The regiment received 
 orders to embark on October 29th, and George's mother 
 and sisters came to spend a few of his last days with 
 him, but returned home some days before he left. 
 
 On Thursday, October 22nd, they all met at 8 
 
 38 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 o'clock at the fine old church of St. Clement's, dis- 
 tinguished by the exceptionally beautiful Norman 
 tower, for the celebration of the Holy Communion 
 the last time the family were to kneel side by side on 
 earth. 
 
 On October 27th he motored over to Seacox to lunch 
 and dine and say good-bye. The regiment left Sandwich 
 on the morning of the 29th, and George's father went 
 with it to Southampton. The officers and men all 
 wore their Indian helmets, and were loudly cheered at 
 the stations they passed through and by people working 
 in the fields. At that time troop trains had not yet 
 become common, and the men appreciated the patriotic 
 enthusiasm which their journey aroused, especially in 
 their own county of Kent, where the houses near the 
 railways were decorated with flags. It was dark by the 
 time Southampton was reached, and by eight o'clock 
 all were on board the Corsican, the ship which was to 
 carry them to India. George shared a small cabin 
 with George Jessel, and after he had put his things 
 in it he came on deck and said good-bye to his 
 father. 
 
 That night the ship moved out into the stream 
 and on the next night sailed for India. Both officers 
 and men were very crowded on the ship, and were 
 very glad, after an uneventful voyage, to arrive at 
 Bombay. 
 
 On the day that George embarked both his father 
 
 39 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 and mother realised that they were offering their son 
 to their country, and that they must be prepared wil- 
 lingly to sacrifice him for it. The sacrifice has been 
 made, and in their sorrow they are thankful to re- 
 member that George never hesitated in obeying the 
 call of duty, or they in willingly speeding him on his 
 way. 
 
 During the year that he was in India, George was 
 quartered at Kamptee, in the Central Provinces, one of 
 the hottest stations in India, where he remained all 
 the time except for a short tour he made with Hugh 
 Marchant a brother officer, and a son of a very old 
 friend of his father's during their leave. 
 
 Those officers and men of the regiment who were 
 under twenty-one, and all who fell sick or were unduly 
 tried by the heat, were sent up to the hills during 
 the hottest months. George, however, was just over 
 twenty-one, and kept fit, so he never went up to the 
 hills for a change. But he made himself happy, as 
 he always did wherever he was. His military training 
 took up a considerable portion of each day. He played 
 polo for his regiment, went shooting when he had the 
 opportunity, and with the other officers did his best to 
 keep things going in what must have been a dull 
 station. In July, 1915, he and a brother officer obtained 
 leave and went for a very short tour to see some of 
 the historic towns in India, and, as his letter shows, 
 enjoyed themselves immensely : 
 
 40 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 * Hotel de Paris, 
 
 ' Benares, India, 
 
 'July 20th, 1915. 
 ' My dearest Mother, 
 
 ' I got all your letters as the mail was sent on 
 here. The photographs I expect await me at Kamptee, 
 so I have not seen them yet. 
 
 * It is very hot here, so I thought as we were doing 
 nothing this morning I could begin my letter telling 
 you of our travels. I have had no time during our 
 journeys to write a long letter before, as we have been 
 rushing about. I think the best thing I can do is to 
 write a sort of diary of the days we have spent, as that 
 will give you a better idea of our doings. 
 
 * Thursday, July 8. I joined Hugh Marchant at 
 Itarsi Junction from Jubbulpore and we went to 
 Gwalior, the capital of the native State of that name. 
 Here we spent the night. We saw the Fort, which is 
 really a very fine specimen of the early Indian massive 
 architecture, and is beautifully ornamented in places 
 with mosaics. There are also some very extraordinary 
 carvings in the rocks there, as the Fort is built on the 
 top of some very high rocks and has a circuit of about 
 four miles round. It was worth seeing and has a fine 
 view from the top. We left Gwalior at 5 o'clock on 
 Friday and reached Agra at 9.30, where we put up very 
 comfortably at Lamies Hotel, the only decent one we 
 
 41 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 have met on our journey, all the big and good ones 
 being shut, as their staff goes up to the hills in the 
 summer months. 
 
 * We had breakfast and received a state visit from 
 Luly Palmer, who invited us to dine with himself and 
 his brother .at the Club that evening, which we did. In 
 the evening we went to see the Taj Mahal and the 
 Fort. The Taj Mahal is the most wonderful building 
 of its kind in all the world, I imagine. Pure white, 
 with the most beautiful inlay work in precious stones 
 such as coral, jasper, cornelian, malachite and lapis 
 lazuli. It is really impossible to describe, but it did 
 impress me very much. Its gardens are very fine, and 
 it is beautifully proportioned, perfect in its way, nothing 
 is out of place. The inside is as fine as the exterior ; 
 all white marble inlaid with precious stones in most 
 beautiful designs. The two tombs of the Emperor 
 Shah Jehan and his wife, for whom he built the Taj, 
 are also marvellous. It is worth while coming to 
 India if only to see the Taj. It is so lovely that it 
 looks well in any light or weather, but I believe best 
 by moonlight, though unfortunately there was no moon 
 when we were there. But we went to see it every day 
 we were there, as it is a thing one would never be tired 
 of looking at. I enclose some photos I took of it, they 
 are a little over-exposed, but they give you an idea of 
 it, especially the one taken from a boat on the river 
 Jumna. There are also a few photos of Fatehpur 
 
 42 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Sikri where we went on the Sunday, but that was the 
 day the camera broke, so they are not very good, I'm 
 afraid. After the Taj we went over the Fort which is 
 really very good, with the same beautiful inlay work, 
 and some fine buildings. It is high up over the river 
 and looks towards the Taj I also enclose some photo 
 postcards of it the bath-room of which is lined with 
 glass and talc and was lit by coloured lamps : and now 
 a man strikes coloured matches which just gives one an 
 idea of how fine it must have been. The Pearl Mosque 
 is lined entirely inside and out with pearl-grey and 
 white marble, very simple, and it well deserves its 
 name. There is also one at Delhi but smaller, and 
 already under the later Moghul Kings the architecture 
 has deteriorated (at Delhi) and is less delicate ; more 
 heavy and ornate. All these are Mohammedan build- 
 ings. The next day, Saturday, we drove out in the 
 morning to Secundra, about six miles, to see the tomb 
 of Akbar. Very attractive too, of white marble. The 
 tomb is right up on the roof I think I enclose a post- 
 card of it surrounded by screens of white marble 
 trellis-work, very beautiful ; high up in the air, the wind 
 blows through the trellis-work with a curious moaning 
 sound, as if playing a continual requiem over the dead 
 King's tomb. It is quite impressive. Then we drove 
 on to see the tombs of Itmad ed Daula and Chini Ko 
 Ranza. Both quite worth seeing, though the latter is 
 in rather ruined condition ; but once it was covered 
 
 43 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 with blue and yellow mosaics and must have been 
 rather fine. But very few of the mosaics are left. 
 
 * They are both on the river bank, about two or three 
 miles out. On Saturday night we gave Lilly and his 
 brother dinner at our hotel. On Sunday we spent the 
 day at the deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri, about 
 23 miles from Agra. We started at 7 by train and 
 arrived back about 9 o'clock in the evening. It was, 
 after the Taj, the next best thing I have seen. It is in 
 a state of complete preservation, but quite deserted. 
 All built of red sandstone and very well. It was a 
 most delightful place to spend a day at. There was a 
 very good Dak bungalow there, where we spent an hour 
 or two resting. It takes quite a day to see it properly. 
 The best things were the gate, the mosque, and the 
 white marble tomb of the saint, Sheik Salim. Inside 
 over his tomb is a canopy entirely made of mother-of- 
 pearl. It is a most beautiful thing and quite large. It 
 is a curious place, as the people (natives) come and 
 hang little bits of rag or flowers round the tomb and 
 are supposed to be granted their wishes. And especially 
 from all parts of India native women both Hindoo and 
 Mohammedan, who are childless come to pray for 
 children. One rather curious thing is that on the gate 
 is an inscription in Arabic of one of our Lord's sayings 
 which does not appear in the Bible. This is as follows : 
 " Isa (Jesus), on whom be peace, said : ' The world is a 
 bridge, pass over it ; but build no house upon it ; the 
 
 44 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 world endures but an hour, spend it in devotion.' ' The 
 big gate is supposed to be the finest of its kind in India, 
 at the top of a huge flight of steps. 
 
 ' On Monday at Agra we visited again the Fort in 
 the morning and also the Taj, where we sat for some 
 time, and that evening at 6 we left, and reached Delhi 
 at 9. The first hotel we went to was a bad one, and we 
 only stayed one night and then went on to another 
 hotel which was quite fair. In the morning we went 
 for a drive in the native bazaar which was quite amus- 
 ing, and bought some things. There was a curious 
 swarm of locusts over the street while we were there. 
 In the afternoon we went to see the Delhi Fort. After 
 the beauties of Agra we found it disappointing. The 
 architecture had much deteriorated and become more 
 florid. And also it was not in so good a state of 
 preservation owing to the Mutiny. Lord Curzon did 
 what he could to restore the buildings, and there is 
 some fine inlay work as at Agra, but a great deal of it 
 has been picked out by the mutineers ; and once when 
 they gave a Ball to King Edward they had the 
 vandalism to fill them in with pink and blue sealing- 
 wax ! So much for the artistic English of the time ! 
 There are some very fine inlay panels of birds and fruit 
 done by Austin of Bordeaux. And some of them were 
 later restored by an Italian under Lord Curzon's orders. 
 With regard to the latter he does seem to have done a 
 lot in the way of restoring and repairing these old 
 
 45 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 buildings and done it very well. There is also an 
 interesting museum in the Fort containing Mutiny and 
 other relics, and also some good Indian miniatures of 
 the Moghul Emperors. The next day we hired a car 
 and drove out to see various old mosques and ruins. 
 We climbed up the Kutab Tower, about 230 ft. high, 
 from which a good view is obtained, and we visited 
 the ruined city of Tuglakabad which was put under 
 a curse. We went for a walk in the evening and 
 dined at the Club with a friend of Hugh's, who was 
 there. 
 
 'On Thursday, the 15th, we drove round in the 
 morning and saw the old places of interest in the Mutiny 
 and went up on to the Ridge, where you can see the 
 Durbar place and also the start of the new city. In the 
 evening we went round and saw Boxall who was there 
 and arranged to meet him at Benares. We also saw the 
 Jama Masjid, and went to a fascinating shop where 
 they sold ivory and things, which is one of the industries 
 of Delhi. We left at one o'clock that night and arrived 
 at Cawnpore the next morning at 9, where we waited 
 three or four hours. We took a carriage and drove 
 round, but there was not much to see except the monu- 
 ment over the well where the women and children were 
 thrown in the Mutiny. And the monument was in 
 execrable taste and very ugly. We reached Lucknow 
 about 3.15, put up at the Imperial Hotel. It was fairly 
 comfortable, but no electric light or fans ; the latter make 
 
 46 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCIIEN. 
 
 a lot of difference. Lucknow as a town is all right, but 
 not much for sight-seeing. We took a drive round the 
 first evening, but there was not very much to see. But 
 it is a well-laid-out town and it was beautifully green ; 
 not that very brilliant green one sees at Kamptee after 
 the rains, but a proper kind of green like England. They 
 had a nice golf course and grass tennis courts. The 
 next morning we went and saw the Residency, and that 
 was quite worth seeing and interesting, from the famous 
 defence in the Mutiny. An old soldier there took us 
 round. One humorous thing was that this old soldier 
 was an important and pompous-looking old man, so we 
 thought tipping was out of the question. So we bade 
 him farewell and went to see the graveyard in another 
 part of the grounds. But the old boy sent his chaprassi 
 to say that we had not given him anything ! Appear- 
 ances are deceptive ! So back we had to go, feeling 
 rather foolish as we said, " What a pretty place. I don't 
 know whether you'll er hem haw mmm " and 
 pressed a rupee into his hand. He took it like a hungry 
 tiger, and was most genial after. I thought his first 
 farewell had been a little cold ! That morning we also 
 saw some fearfully tawdry little palaces. Dreadful after 
 the magnificent simplicity of Agra and Delhi. There 
 was one that the White City or Earl's Court could have 
 given points to in the matter of beauty ! In the 
 evening (facilis descensm Averni] we went to a cinema, 
 which we much enjoyed ! The next morning we rose 
 
 47 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 at 4.30 and intended to go by the 6.30 train to Benares, 
 but at the station we found that our train was not 
 a mail train and one could get no breakfast on board, 
 and nothing till 10.30. As we had had a small chota 
 hazri at 5 we could not wait till then, so we sat in the 
 station and breakfasted, and caught the 9.40 mail, 
 which arrived just as soon as the other, and we reached 
 Benares about 3. 
 
 * We stayed at the Hotel de Paris, where I am writing 
 this. Not as high class as one would judge from its 
 name, but quite comfortable enough, though again no 
 fans or electric light, only punkahs. We got here on 
 Sunday at 8, and took a drive round to get our mail at 
 the post-office, and see a glimpse of the town. Boxall 
 arrived at 5, and we all went to the English Church here 
 at 6.30. He was in the Sussex R.F.A., and travelled 
 out with us on the Coj'sican, and was also at Kamptee 
 for a time. And he was glad of our company, I think, 
 as he was alone, and he is a very nice man. He was in 
 the eleven at Eton once, and was also at Oxford. From 
 the point of view of interest I think Benares comes 
 easily first. Of course, Agra is the most beautiful, and 
 nothing could hope to equal it, and here at Benares 
 there are no historical buildings or anything of that sort 
 at all. But you see the native life much more closely 
 than anywhere else. And I must say it has interested 
 me more than any of the others, though as I say for 
 pure beauty and historical interest Agra comes first. 
 
 48 
 
GEORGE, PHYLLIS, AND CICELY, 
 1903. 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Benares is of course the holiest city almost in India, 
 and the great northern centre of Hindoo worship. The 
 first morning we got a boat from a man called the Hon. 
 Babu Moti Chand, which he places free at the disposal 
 of visitors, and went right along the river front about 7 
 in the morning, which is the hour when all the holy 
 population come and bathe and drink the water of the 
 holy river, the Ganges. It was a most weird and 
 extraordinary sight to see them all gibbering, and 
 splashing and throwing flowers and things in the water. 
 All under huge straw umbrellas like great mushrooms. 
 The whole river front is very fine, with thousands of 
 little Hindoo temples and other fine buildings, and the 
 many ghats and landing places with great flights of 
 steps leading up to the city from the river's edge. 
 
 ' After that we went and saw the Monkey Temple, so 
 called from the numbers of monkeys about. We fed 
 them with nuts and grain from our hands. Of course, 
 the Hindoo won't let you into his temple, but you can 
 go up to a gallery, if there is one overlooking it, and 
 see in from there. Then we came back to breakfast, 
 and as it turned rather warm we did not go out again in 
 the morning, but rested, and in the evening we went for 
 a drive in the bazaar, and also saw the Golden Temple. 
 The little narrow streets of Benares where you can only 
 walk are marvellous, with temples in odd places. There 
 is one at the Golden Temple where you can see through 
 a hole in the wall into the temple, and watch the 
 
 49 E 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 worshippers casting their gifts of food, flowers, images, 
 and so on into a sacred well inside. You see most 
 curious people also, religious ascetics, and fakirs and 
 most weird creatures. We then went into the street 
 where they sell brass, which together with embroidery is 
 the great manufacture here. Boxall is very keen on 
 brass, and we are not, and he stayed on and on bargain- 
 ing in a shop where they were cooking their evening 
 meal, which in India is a singularly malodorous one ! 
 Hugh and I could have screamed with the boredom 
 and the evil smells ! But we stayed about l hours ! 
 Hugh and I bought some little brass pots and lamps 
 for a few rupees just to say we had got some from here. 
 The next day was very hot, and we did nothing in the 
 morning. About 2 o'clock I went across to the Club 
 with a man from Allahabad who is staying here and was 
 a member. There was a very nice swimming bath 
 there, and I had a very pleasant bathe. About 5.30 we 
 started out and drove to the ghats, where we hired a 
 boat and were rowed, and towed and sailed alternately 
 up to Ramnagar, which is the Maharaja of Benares' 
 palace. We took l hours to get up the river, as 
 the current is very strong, and there was no wind. But 
 it was very pleasant, and the fine stormy sunset over 
 Benares was very fine. There was an amusing tiger 
 outside the palace, which was very fierce, but did sort 
 of little tricks with its keeper, who kept well outside 
 its cage ! We went over the palace, which is quite 
 
 50 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 modern, with fans and electric light, and is a strange 
 mixture of the majestic, and tawdry and commonplace. 
 For instance, his durbar place of white marble over- 
 looking the river was really fine, while inside was a 
 hideous room with framed coloured prints (I should 
 say from the Christmas number of the Graphic], and a 
 set of kitchen chairs, and yet a fine marble floor and 
 inlaid walls ! However, it was worth seeing from 
 interest. We had a pleasant journey back by dark, 
 very cool, and drove back to the hotel. That was 
 yesterday. 
 
 'July 21. To-day we went to the mosque here, 
 which is near the river, and went up the minaret, 
 from which you can get a magnificent view of the city, 
 and then Hugh and I went after breakfast to the 
 Bank, and on to an embroidery factory, where we saw 
 the hand looms at work, and bought some embroidery. 
 Then we returned to lunch. Boxall left for Calcutta at 
 2 o'clock. This evening we go for another drive round 
 the city to see again the temples and the burning ghats 
 where the Hindoos burn their dead. 
 
 ' We leave here to-morrow at 8 o'clock and we reach 
 Jubbulpore at 6.30 to-morrow evening. Then we get a 
 train on to Kamptee which we reach about two o'clock 
 on Friday afternoon. Thus will end a very pleasant 
 trip. I have thoroughly enjoyed it in every way. And 
 we have seen a lot of India really. Hugh Marchant is 
 an excellent travelling companion, and a very keen 
 
 51 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 sight-seer and a very energetic one ! He has kept me 
 well up to the mark in that respect. We are both as 
 you know remarkable humorists, and contrive to keep 
 our spirits up to boiling point even in the agonising 
 throes of prickly heat which we have both had pretty 
 badly ! And one has often to stop in one of the alleys 
 of Benares where the smells are worse than any I have 
 ever met (especially as the sacred cows and goats 
 and dogs are allowed everywhere) and have a really 
 good scratch 1 
 
 ' The most tiresome thing is that wherever you go, 
 hotel, mosque, palace, tomb or what-not, there are always 
 about twenty people to demand " plenty backsheesh " 
 when you leave. It makes one very angry. Even the 
 servants in the rajah's palace do so, and matters came to 
 a head when in the Jama Mas] id at Delhi, one of the 
 biggest mosques in India, three priests, including the 
 high priest, whom one would imagine to be a very high 
 personage who only appeared on state occasions, came 
 forward salaaming and whining to demand, two, four 
 and eight rupees respectively ! ! We were angry ! And 
 I should think they were, too, when we left them with 
 rude and angry comments, and empty palms ! And it 
 is not as if they had done anything for us ! Even the 
 holy men in Benares come and demand backsheesh. It 
 all puts one's ideas of greatness on rather a low plane ! 
 And I think for the priests in the mosque it is a scandal ! 
 They axz fearful beggars, the Indians ! 
 
 52 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEtt. 
 
 * It will seem dull to go back to Kamptee to take up 
 the routine of " hard and earnest work, relieved and 
 sweetened by hearty play!" But still it is relief to have 
 been away for a fortnight. I believe the rest of the 
 battalion return soon from the hills. It has been pretty 
 hot here at Benares. I expect it will be cooler when 
 we get back to Kamptee as the rains have begun there 
 some time. I hope you are all flourishing, and that 
 Phyllis' throat is all right again. I am sending her a 
 letter for her birthday but it will arrive, I fear, a fort- 
 night or so after ! One never remembers to write 
 anything in time out here. I have made some rather 
 nice purchases of native ware on this trip which I will 
 bring home with me. I hope it may not be long but 
 the war seems endless and I fear we shall remain here. 
 I tried to see Hubert Elliot at Delhi, but think he 
 must have been away, as he never replied to my note. 
 I enjoyed seeing Luly Palmer. Best love to you all at 
 home. God bless you. 
 
 * Your loving, 
 
 'Joss.' 
 
 In the intense heat in the summer he found time 
 hung heavily on his hands during the hours when it was 
 not possible to be out of doors. So he determined to 
 learn ' Pushtu,' one of the most difficult of Indian lan- 
 guages. He obtained the services of a * Munshi,' or 
 native teacher, and set energetically to work. He soon 
 
 53 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 passed his preliminary examination, and encouraged by 
 this and the enthusiasm of his Munshi he worked 
 harder, often doing six hours a day in preparation for 
 the Final or Higher Examination. This took place at 
 Peshawar, and he went up there with a brother officer 
 a fortnight before the Examination, accompanied by the 
 Munshi, in order that they might have the opportunity 
 of talking in the vernacular to the natives, as conversa- 
 tion formed part of the Examination. The 'Munshi' 
 provided them with natives from the Bazaar for this 
 purpose, who were more distinguished for the purity 
 of their ' Pushtu ' than the probity of their character. 
 Most of them were thieves by nature and desire, and 
 the following amusing letter from George shows how 
 he gained their esteem rather by the vividness of his 
 imagination than by personal influence : 
 
 ' Dak Bungalow, Nowshera, 
 
 * N. W. Frontier Province, India. 
 
 18.10.15. 
 ' My dearest Mother, 
 
 * Alas ! my paper is somewhat dirty and 
 crumpled and I have only a pencil to write with. This 
 is a delightful place and so is Rawal Pindi, where 
 I and X arrived at 4 p.m. last Wednesday. We 
 were there till Monday and then came on here. We 
 
 54 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 are working fearfully hard at our Pushtu, and all the 
 Munshis up here say that they have never seen two 
 people who know so much in so little time. But I am 
 doubtful of the result, because this is war-time and the 
 Government wants to save money and must give all 
 who pass Rs. 800, a lot of money ! I believe there 
 are few entrants, as every one up here is engaged in 
 frontier warfare, so I am hopeful for the best ! At any 
 rate it is very nice up here, and doing me a lot of good, 
 I think. Very hot at mid-day but deliciously cool in the 
 early morning and evening. The bungalow here is very 
 comfortable and the food good. The hotel at Rawal 
 Pindi was small and dull, and the food rather dull and 
 always the same. But here it is much better. Yester- 
 day we went in to see Peshawar: the native city is a 
 wonderful sight as it is the Charing Cross of the East, 
 and all sorts of traders and merchants come in from 
 Persia and Baghdad and Cabul. It is exactly like a 
 scene from the Arabian Nights. We saw Cabuli traders 
 leading in strings of camels laden with merchandise, and 
 of course as we can talk Pushtu fairly fluently it makes 
 it all much more interesting. We sleep here with 
 loaded revolvers, as there are more thieves and budmash 
 than not round here ! It is very amusing, as we have 
 talked with men of nearly every Pathan tribe now ; they 
 all speak differently, like yokels from Yorkshire or 
 Sussex or Devonshire. They have few topics for con- 
 
 55 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 versation beyond raids, murders, thefts, refractory wives, 
 and wars and dealings with the Government ! Not any 
 of them dinner- table topics ! The other day the Munshi 
 brought three Mohmunds to talk to ; they are the worst 
 tribe by far. Always at war with the Government 
 they are just at this moment one can hear the guns all 
 day. They were awful villains, especially one. They 
 were simply in Pindi to steal rifles or money ; but they 
 were amusing to talk to ! They think if they kill a 
 sahib they will go to heaven, so X and I kept wea- 
 pons handy at night time ! But I told them that in 
 England X was a big thief and I was his babu or 
 clerk, and that when the War started there were 
 no rifles for our troops because X had stolen them 
 all ! All this they honestly believed, and looked on us 
 as brothers in the trade. The Munshi told us that 
 when they went away they said " It's no use going to 
 these sahibs to steal, for they are thieves like we are." 
 And also wanted to know if we had gone to that hotel 
 to steal from the landlady ! Our examination is on the 
 25th in Peshawar. I think we shall stay here till about 
 the 22nd or so, as it is cheaper than a hotel. I know I 
 shall never want to go back again to Kamptee after 
 this 1 I am very envious of the troops up here though 
 of course they are all regulars. We are doing from six 
 to eight hours a day at Pushtu, so you see we are not 
 being idle ! That ass of a mess-sergeant has not yet 
 forwarded our last two mails up here as I told him to, 
 
 56 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 so I have no news of you for some time, but they should 
 arrive soon. It makes one quite homesick up here to 
 see fir-trees and things and roses growing, but it is 
 very pleasant, and one forgets there are places like 
 Kamptee ! I wonder how you all are, well and flourish- 
 ing, I hope ! I am longing to get my mail. The 
 Munshi will pay 5 for his watch, as he did not mean 
 more, but he was delighted with it and wishes me to 
 thank you for your trouble. So I will send a cheque 
 anon he is going to get me a postheen, one of the 
 sheepskin coats they wear up here in the cold weather, 
 they are awfully nice, I saw one in a shop also a 
 Pathan costume. He is a nice man and I should like 
 to pass this exam, if only to satisfy him, as he is very 
 keen on it, and he has certainly taken a lot of trouble, 
 but he is sanguine himself for the above-mentioned 
 reasons. 
 
 I was very sorry to see in the last casualty list that 
 I saw, the name Capt. A. C. Gathorne-Hardy, of the 
 Cameronians, and fear this must be young Alfred, but 
 hope it may riot be so, but I am afraid it must be ! 
 Give my love and sympathy to Uncle Alfred and Aunt 
 Isabella if this is so. It is when one sees names that 
 one knows and loves like these that we out here feel we 
 are doing so little, and it seems very hard that we may 
 not do more ! At present it is only a lesson in disci- 
 pline, for we all want to go however, one can still 
 hope to do something, as I fear the War is not yet over, 
 
 57 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 though things are going better. Any news of Bunt, I 
 wonder ? We have had two cheerful letters from 
 Edgar Burns in the Gulf. Have you seen anything of 
 the Zeppelins ? They seem to have been having some 
 fun in England ! I am very well now and think this 
 change is good for me, as Nowshera is considered to be 
 the healthiest station in India for troops. It is sur- 
 rounded by lovely hills, and one had a fine view of this 
 end of the Himalayas coming up in the train, with some 
 fine snow peaks. It was a four days' journey from 
 Kamptee to Rawal Pindi. 2 p.m. from Kamptee on a 
 Monday, arrived Pindi 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Quite 
 enough train for me ! Give my best love to yourself 
 and all at home. God bless you all ! 
 
 * Your loving, 
 
 Moss.' 
 
 At the end of his fortnight, George went up for his 
 Examination and passed, although he did not learn this 
 until much later. He was the first Territorial Officer 
 who had ever passed this Examination, and the 
 examiners told him that he had learnt more in seven 
 months than most men in eighteen months. Not 
 content with this success, when he got back to Kamptee 
 he took up Persian with his Munshi and was studying 
 this when he left India. 
 
 In one of the last letters he wrote from Mesopotamia 
 he told his father and mother that he had just heard 
 
 58 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 that he had passed his Examination in Pushtu, and was 
 quite surprised at the pleasure his success gave to his 
 brother-officers, who regarded it as an honour to the 
 regiment. 
 
 George was, in fact, at Peshawar, and had just 
 finished his Examination when he was hastily recalled 
 by telegram, as the regiment had received orders to 
 mobilise at Kamptee and be ready to move immediately 
 for an unknown destination. He wrote home on 
 October 30th : 
 
 ' We are off at last and are mobilising here no- 
 body knows where or when, but I think it must be the 
 44 Gulf" ; there are better places, but still that is better 
 than nothing. I was recalled from Peshawar by 
 telegram and travelled since Tuesday, arriving last 
 night, Friday. Luckily the Exam, was over and I think 
 I passed, as I believe I did the papers and talking quite 
 well. It will be rather an achievement if 1 have, as it 
 was very hard. The examiners were amazed that I 
 knew so much in seven months, and most of the other 
 candidates had worked for several years. I am fearfully 
 busy, as I have to work all day as Mess President, 
 settling up all the accounts and putting everything 
 straight for the Regiment that takes over our quarters. 
 ... It is looking very pretty at Kamptee now with all 
 the blossom and green out. I shall be sorry to leave it 
 in a way. I have got quite attached to it. 1 was very 
 
 59 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 interested to hear of Bobbetty's engagement to Betty 
 Cavendish. It is very nice, as they are both such 
 dears.' 
 
 In his next letter, written on November 6th, he 
 begins : 
 
 * You will have heard by now that we are ordered 
 on active service, and I am sorry because I know you 
 will all feel it rather, but I am very glad for myself, and 
 of course all of us are mad with excitement here. We 
 do not know when or where we go, but I will wire as 
 soon as I know. 
 
 * I am absolutely worked to death with all the mess 
 kit to see to and my own and all the " Mess " affairs to 
 settle up. The men are all very n't and keen and I think 
 we should do well. 
 
 * Every one is back here now. I am learning up a 
 little Persian just in case we go to the Gulf. 1 talk it 
 sufficiently for that. Of course it is a great bore not 
 knowing where we are going to or when, as one does 
 not know what to do about kit and so on. However, I 
 expect we soon shall. I hope you won't worry about 
 me as I shall be quite all right, and we have remained 
 here inactive very long when there is so much to fight 
 
 60 
 
LORD GOSCHEN, GEORGE AND DENIS ROCHE, 
 Oxford, 1904. 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 for. Things seem to be going better at the Front, 
 though it is a long job. 
 
 * It is only just over a year that we left England, 
 and I hope it will be less than another year before we 
 are back again ! I never knew what it was to be really 
 busy until just this last week or so. 
 
 * I have not yet heard about my Pushtu Exam, but 
 hope I have passed. 
 
 * I do not suppose we shall move for another week or 
 so. No orders have come yet. 
 
 ' Best love to you all and God bless you. 
 
 * Remember me to all at Seacox.' 
 
 The regiment continued to live in a state of great 
 excitement, but still no orders to move came, and 
 George wrote by the next mail on November 1 4th : 
 
 ' Alas ! we are not off yet ! as we had a telegram 
 saying our mobilisation was only precautionary, but as 
 we are still mobilised I presume we shall move within 
 the next month or so. Every one is rather glum here 
 at the postponement of our departure.' 
 
 On November 19th he wrote what proved to be his 
 last letter from India, as the next was written on board 
 the transport : 
 
 ' No more news has come at present, and here we 
 
 61 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 still are. But we are still mobilised, so I have hopes 
 we shall be moved off before Christmas. 
 
 * The other night 1 went and dined in Hughes' 
 bungalow, and we had the Munshi to dinner, as he 
 wanted to learn how to use a knife and fork ! As a 
 matter of fact I was so tired and sleepy that I slept all 
 through dinner. And the next day the Munshi would 
 come and ask me what things he had done wrong, had 
 he held his spoon right ? and so on. Of course I could 
 not tell him, as I had been asleep all the time.' 
 
 At last Embarkation Orders came, and on November 
 27th the regiment embarked at Bombay. 
 
 They had been at Kamptee for about a year, and 
 the many friends they had made there and at Nagpur 
 soon began to miss them very much. 
 
 It had been a great disappointment to George that 
 the regiment had been sent to India, as he always had 
 hoped he might have gone to France, and during the 
 year he was at Kamptee he chafed very much at the 
 peaceful nature of their life, as he felt he was not doing 
 enough for his country. But with his usual cheerful- 
 ness he made the best of things, not only for himself 
 but for his brother-officers and men, and the many 
 
 62 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 letters which were received after his death all bore 
 tribute to his unfailing spirits, which had so much 
 contributed to the general happiness of the regiment. 
 
 Here again, as at Oxford, his cheerfulness, his love 
 of all forms of sport, his unselfishness, his modesty, and 
 his wide interest in all that surrounded him, attracted 
 to him men of varied characters and diverse tastes, and 
 so he became a medium through whom men, who 
 would otherwise have kept apart, began to be on 
 intimate terms with one another. George was quite 
 unaware of this influence which he possessed, but so 
 many of his friends have spoken of it with gratitude 
 that it cannot be doubted. 
 
 The voyage to Basra, where they arrived on Decem- 
 ber 7th and remained until the 18th, was without 
 incident and enjoyed by all ; but the journey up the 
 Tigris was their first experience of hardship and dis- 
 comfort. The weather was bitterly cold rations very 
 short and difficult to supplement. The boat was an old 
 paddle -steamer from the Irrawaddy, with two barges 
 full of men tied on each side of her. The officers slept 
 on the deck of the steamer. Progress was very slow as 
 the river was very shallow, and the boat constantly ran 
 aground. A brother-officer of George's wrote that they 
 had never appreciated his cheeriness more than on this 
 journey, as he laughed at all the discomforts and turned 
 them into a joke, and made all see the humorous side. 
 On December llth George wrote a long letter from 
 
 63 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 ' Somewhere in Mesopotamia on River Tigris,' describ- 
 ing his journey : 
 
 ' At Sea. 
 
 ' 2nd December, 1915. 
 
 * My dearest Mother, 
 
 * Here we are bound for the Gulf. We left 
 Kamptee on Saturday at midnight, having a hearty 
 send-off from every one. The last few days were a 
 nightmare, settling things up ! and all the mess accounts 
 to finish ! I was not done till 9 in the evening of the 
 day we left. We arrived in Bombay on the Tuesday 
 at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and Monday night we 
 spent at the Taj hotel in Bombay all free of charge, and 
 the men in camp. We just had time to rush round and 
 do a little shopping, and we went to a show in the 
 theatre, Winch, 1, Guy Baker and several others, and I 
 saw Dick Jessel off at the station, who had come to say 
 good-bye to George. Then we had a little supper at 
 the Taj, I, Winch, Collings, Cheesman, and Strettell, 
 who had come to meet his wife. We messed about in 
 the docks till 12.30 the next day loading up, and got 
 off at 5. 
 
 * The boat is quite comfortable, 3000 tons and only 
 ourselves, a mule corps, and one native Coy. of Sappers 
 and Miners on board. The men have plenty of room 
 and good food, a paradise to what it was when we came 
 out ! We should reach Basra on Sunday, and every 
 one seems to think we shall go straight up to the front. 
 
 64 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 The men are very fit, and we should do well. It will 
 not be very hot there, and at nights I believe it is 
 freezing ! None of our bearers would come, so we have 
 to have our own men as servants. The officers on this 
 boat are very nice and will do anything for us. There 
 are four officers of the Sappers and Miners on board and 
 three Colonels in the medical service, one of whom 
 plays the piano quite well. We have got a concert on 
 to-night which Ben Buss and I are getting up. I will 
 let you know as soon as I get ashore what there is 
 I want. 
 
 ' The address will be : 
 
 ' 5th The Buffs, 
 
 ' Indian Expeditionary Force " D," 
 ' C/o Postmaster General, 
 ' Bombay. 
 
 * I have left all my luggage at Cox's in Bombay, as 
 we shall be sure to return there before going back to 
 England, except one wooden case I have sent home. 
 It contains my heads and things like that. I have 
 had it sent to Cox's in London at Charing Cross, so 
 will you get it from there ? I said to be left till called 
 for. I got rid of my ponies at severe loss, but in a 
 short time one could only expect that. I hope you 
 are all quite well. Of course we just missed our last 
 
 65 F 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 mail, as it was late getting to Bombay. I suppose 
 we shall get it at Basra. I was quite sorry in a way 
 to leave old Kamptee after so long there. It seemed like 
 an old friend. It was very sudden our order to move, 
 though of course we're still mobilised only four days ! 
 It was a rush and very hot at Kamptee, too ! They 
 have rigged a sail plunge-bath for the men on board, who 
 are enjoying it ! I have not yet heard the result of my 
 Pushtu examination ! It is rather pleasant on the sea 
 after the heat in Bombay, and it hardly seems a year ago 
 we came out on the Corsican. I will write as soon as I 
 can when we land. I hope you got my cablegram 
 all right saying we were off. I expect you will be 
 at Seacox when you get this letter for Christmas ; it 
 seems funny to spend two Christmases away. This 
 one perhaps in the trenches, or whatever there is out 
 here. I don't know how the mails go from Basra, but I 
 hope this will reach you all right. 
 
 ' My very best love to you all at home. God bless 
 you all ! Remember me to all at home on the estate. 
 ' With best love to all, 
 
 * Your loving, 
 ' (Sgd.) Joss.' 
 
 66 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 * Somewhere in Mesopotamia on River Tigris, 
 
 '11/12.15. 
 
 ' Here we are on the Tigris on our way up the river. 
 Probably they will censor some of this letter, but I don't 
 know how particular they are here. We reached Basra 
 on the 7th, and remained there two or three days. I 
 was very busy getting the mess provisions to go up 
 the river, and also a few things for myself. We 
 remained on the steamer, and were quite comfortable. 
 We go up the river on an old paddle-steamer from the 
 Irrawaddy river with two barges tied one on each side. 
 One Company (mine) and the officers are in the steamer 
 and two companies and a half on the barges. 
 
 ' It is most bitterly cold here, and after a summer in 
 Central India we feel it rather, of course. We sleep in 
 everything on deck, as of course there is no cabin 
 accommodation except one for the C.O. We have our 
 Wolseley valises and sleep in those. There is no room 
 to turn round on board and we get rather stiff. We 
 had two marches, one of five miles yesterday and one of 
 three the day before, to cut off corners, where the river 
 is shallow. 
 
 ' It is the most winding river in the world, and very 
 shallow, and we are heavily overloaded, and I should 
 say once in every ten minutes we run into one bank 
 or the other, or get stuck. The slightest movement 
 of the men upsets the balance and it is not very com- 
 
 67 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Portable altogether. But still one might be worse off. 
 The cold is the worst, though personally at night I have 
 always been very warm, as I bagged a good place round 
 the funnel. 
 
 * We are still twenty-five miles off our destination and 
 only progress at the rate of about three knots an hour, 
 and that with frequent stops. We are going to a place 
 to await the rest of our brigade and pretty well going 
 straight into the thick of it, I think. Things have not, I 
 fear, been going quite as they are made out to be out 
 here. Ail the Kurds and people are very interesting out 
 here, though for dullness the scenery en route takes the 
 cake ! We should arrive at our destination to-morrow. 
 Of course now we are on Army rations, bully-beef and 
 dog-biscuits, supplemented by what we bought for our- 
 selves for the Mess. But the men are all very fit and 
 very cheerful. They are not, 1 fear, in very comfort- 
 able quarters on open barges on these freezing nights ; 
 we at least have an awning round us. 
 
 * It is the barest, bleakest country round here, 1 
 think, I have ever seen in my life ! Like the Golf 
 Links at Sandwich, only much barer ! The river is like 
 a corkscrew, from one bend to another, perhaps only 200 
 yards across by land, yet 5 miles round by water. It is 
 all absolutely flat all round, and nothing to look at. 
 The Arabs in the towns come and sell us eggs and 
 things, and chickens. We passed Ezra's tomb a day 
 ago, and Ezekiel's yesterday, and the Garden of Eden 
 
 68 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 the day before, so we are in quite biblical scenery. The 
 other day we ran down an Arab dhow, and knocked all 
 the inhabitants of it overboard. It would have been 
 very funny, only we hurt one of the Arab children's 
 hand, which got caught between the two boats ; however, 
 the doctor bandaged it, and not much harm was done. 
 But it was very funny to see the bedsteads and chickens 
 sitting on the water as they floated down the river. 
 The duties of the Mess President seem to me almost 
 more arduous on service than in time of peace. Every 
 one complains to me about the rather rough quality of 
 the food provided for our consumption by a beneficent 
 Government, quite forgetting that I have only the 
 extras such as jam to look after. I think I shall 
 write a book, called " Mess Presidents in Peace and 
 War."' 
 
 ' There are a lot of partridges about here, and this 
 morning Buss, Cheesman, and Collings went ashore, 
 and took a short cut across, and got three sandgrouse 
 and a peewit, or some sort of bird like that. They 
 would have got more if they had had a dog, though 
 after a few more dog biscuits I don't doubt some of 
 us could have deputised for them, as some officers 
 are beginning to bark quite well, especially in the early 
 mornings. 
 
 ' There are several little camps along the river here 
 of sappers and miners, and signallers, &c., making roads 
 and so forth mostly native troops. 
 
 69 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 ' Yesterday the old boat stuck for about 3 hours on 
 a mud bank without being able to get off. We were 
 about 4 hours on shore. It is very difficult to write 
 here, as something funny always happens just when you 
 begin, or some one interrupts, to tell you there are too 
 many men on one side of the boat, and you must move. 
 On the whole I think most people will be relieved when 
 we get off this boat. 
 
 ' I expect we shall go into camp when we get to our 
 destination, though there is a rumour that there are 
 barracks there. I hope you are all well, and I wonder 
 very much what you are all doing. 
 
 ' Of course, I have had no news of you for some time, 
 as we just missed our last mail at Kamptee, and I do not 
 know when we shall get our other letters. We have had 
 no war news either for almost a week, one quite loses 
 count of the days of the week. 
 
 ' I do believe it gets colder here, but still one would 
 rather have that than the heat which I should imagine 
 must be fearful in summer, as there is no water, and 
 such a lot of salt about. It must be fearful in the hot 
 weather. It is very pretty here in the evening with the 
 lights on the river and palm-trees. 
 
 * Here we are at , our camp. We arrived at 
 
 , and got all our tents up, and everything prepared. 
 The day after to-morrow we move off on a march of 60 
 miles, to be done in about 6 days, as one can't do more 
 than 10 miles a day out here, as the country is so bad, 
 
 70 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 and there are no roads. I do not know what our desti- 
 nation is. We shall get together there with our division 
 I imagine. It is bitterly cold. Last night, after work- 
 ing all day, I had to take a fatigue party of 100 men, 
 and unload a barge for a native regiment, about 100 
 tons of stuff. We worked from 8 till midnight, and it 
 was pretty cold, T tell you. Especially for me, as I had 
 to stand about and see it unloaded. I did not get to 
 bed till one, as I had to get the men some tea when I 
 got back, and see they were not swindled by the coffee- 
 shop. 
 
 ' The English mail arrives in to-day, I believe, so we 
 may get our letters. And one goes out to-day, so I 
 hope you will get this letter, if it is not all censored, 
 though the rank and file may only use post-cards, and 
 are allowed to send no letters. 
 
 ' Give my best love to all at home, and remember me 
 to all at Seacox. A happy Christmas to you all. God 
 bless you all. 
 
 ' Your loving, 
 
 Joss.' 
 
 'I.E.F. "D.," c/o Postmaster, Bombay, 
 1 Mesopotamia, 
 
 t Christmas Eve. 
 ' My dearest Mother, 
 
 ' In great haste to catch this mail, as we have 
 only been given J hour's warning it was off. I am very 
 
 71 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 fit and well. We have just finished our 60- mile march, 
 all very fit. And shall be here I suppose about a fort- 
 night and await our orders. I believe our Brigade is 
 a separate one, known as " Army Troops " and not 
 attached to any division, but under direct orders of the 
 C. in C. It seems funny to be spending Christmas 
 here. Turks and Arabs have begun sniping into our 
 camp. They fire at a range of about 2 miles by letting 
 their rifles off into the a^r. Results few and far be- 
 tween nil so far and it must be a prodigious waste of 
 ammunition. Just received a telegram from Manager 
 of Ottoman Bank, Basra, putting himself at my dis- 
 posal for cables, &c. Will be very useful. Could you 
 get me a Burberry Trench Warm and soft khaki 
 Brodrick Cap and send them out? It is very cold at 
 night here, though warm enough to bathe at midday 1 ! ! 
 though of course the water is very cold. 
 
 * No time for more will write again at once. 
 ' Best love to all. Remember me to all at Seacox. 
 * God bless you all. 
 
 * Yours lovingly, 
 
 (Sgd.) Joss. 
 ' P.S. The address is :- 
 5th Buffs, 
 
 'I.E.F. "D.," 
 
 * c/o Postmaster, Bombay.' 
 
 After leaving their paddle-steamer the regiment 
 
 72 
 
1905. 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 marched for sixty miles to their camp, where they 
 remained until the New Year. 
 
 The last letter George wrote was on January 1st, 
 just before the Regiment moved on. 
 
 ' 5th The Buff's, I.E.F. " Z>.," 
 
 * c/o Postmaster, Bombay, India, 
 t^ * * # 
 
 * 1st January, 1916. 
 
 ' My dearest Mother, 
 
 ' It was such a short letter I wrote last time 
 owing to my haste to catch the post that I write 
 another now. I have just heard to my joy that I 
 passed my higher Pushtu exam. ! It is late to hear 
 it, but still I am very pleased. And so is every one 
 in the battalion as it is an honour for the regiment, 
 as I am the first Territorial officer who has ever 
 passed. The munshi will be greatly delighted. It 
 was a great joy to get all your letters. More arrive 
 to-day I believe. 
 
 ' The day after to-morrow we move off up the river 
 and shall probably be in action in two or three days. I 
 shall be glad to move, as it is a bore being stuck in 
 camp here. We have been sniped at nearly every 
 night. It is very funny to be in one's tent and hear 
 the bullets whizzing over ! The snipers usually come 
 about three times a night for about ten or twenty 
 minutes, and fairly let you have it. But their aim is 
 
 73 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 inaccurate and most of the bullets go over the camp or 
 else fall short, and there have been no casualties, I am 
 glad to say. The other night I was with my platoon 
 on picket duty guarding the bridge head and two shots 
 dropped within 50 yards ! But they were not intended 
 for us, but the other side of the river heaven knows 
 where they came from ! But Arabs are not renowned for 
 their marksmanship ! I missed my Christmas at home, 
 it was poor fun out here ; but still we made the best of 
 things, though we had nothing stronger than lime juice 
 and a little rum to drink to each other in 1 And rum is 
 not my favourite beverage ! May we all be together 
 next Christmas ! We hear from to-day's telegrams 
 they are having conscription for young unmarried men, 
 and rightly too they should have joined before 1 I 
 wonder what you all did at Christmas and who was at 
 Seacox. Phyllis seems very busy with her nursing. I 
 am glad Daddy is getting the battalion filled up. I 
 suppose anyhow under Lord Derby's scheme it should 
 soon be made up. I do think this is a beastly country, 
 it must be unspeakable in hot weather. It is so bleak 
 and bare ! But we are having fine weather now and 
 bright, though dusty, and no more rain, thank goodness, 
 though unspeakably cold ! . . . All the men are very fit, 
 and their fine physique and appearance have elicited 
 much comment. They said in Bombay, when we 
 marched from the station, they had never seen a finer 
 battalion march through ! which is indeed a compli- 
 
 74 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 ment. They are very particular about censorship here, 
 and it is a point of honour not to mention any names of 
 places, troops, movements, and so on, as officers' letters 
 will then be stamped without being opened. The men 
 are only allowed to send postcards, and then they must 
 be franked by an officer. . . . George Jessel is Trans- 
 port Officer and has charge of our mules. Tiresome 
 creatures, all of them. There are usually dozens of them 
 flying wildly about without their syces (natives), who 
 seem quite incapable of holding on to them for more 
 than two minutes. Yesterday two ran away with a cart 
 full of rum, and without their driver dashed wildly over 
 the rough ground, till they hit a large ditch and all the 
 barrels flew out. I had a postcard of Christmas good 
 wishes from Mrs. Dick, of Nagpur, who said how much 
 they all missed us ; and we have had news from 
 Kamptee also, though nothing of much interest. I 
 hope you are all well at home. I have not very much 
 more news at present, as we have been doing very little 
 this last week or so. We are going to have a bomb- 
 throwing practice to-morrow. We have some dummy 
 ones, and the way they fly about the camp is far more 
 dangerous than the real ones ! 
 
 The dust here is really awful. It smothers every- 
 thing, and all one's eyes, ears, and nose get full of it. 
 Give my best love to all the family, and to all at 
 Seacox and Rutland Gate my best wishes for the New 
 Year. I shall probably have been in action before this 
 
 75 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 letter reaches you. I hope next year's fireworks will 
 come off the Christmas-tree at Seacox and not from 
 Arab snipers ! 
 
 ' God bless you all, 
 
 'Ever your loving, 
 
 '(Sgd.) Joss.' 
 
 The history of the subsequent movements of the 
 Regiment and of the part George took in the fighting 
 has been gathered chiefly from letters from his brother 
 officers and from non-commissioned officers and men. 
 There must always be considerable difficulty in learning 
 what actually took place from men in different parts of 
 the field performing different duties, but by carefully 
 piecing together their stories a fairly consecutive account 
 has been obtained. 
 
 On January 6th they came in touch with the enemy 
 and fighting took place, but the Buffs were in reserve 
 on that day. On the morning of the 7th they re- 
 ceived orders to advance and George's Company was 
 in the firing line. They advanced across the open with 
 no cover of any kind and soon came under rifle fire. 
 The Regiment behaved with remarkable steadiness, 
 although it was their first real experience of being 
 under heavy fire. 
 
 About 2.80 a bullet hit George and broke both his 
 wrists. George was lying down at the time, as the 
 Regiment was advancing by short rushes, lying down 
 
 70 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 after each rush. A Lance- Corporal bound up George's 
 arms and told him he could go no further, but must lie 
 where he was. The order to advance was given and 
 the platoon rushed on, but to their surprise in a moment 
 George had caught them up and continued to lead 
 them. He managed to get up after each rush by 
 leaning on his elbows and so raising himself up, as his 
 arms were broken below. 
 
 The men of his Company said he never murmured, 
 but continued to cheer them on, although he must have 
 suffered considerable pain. 
 
 Some hours after the Company came under heavy 
 machine-gun fire and George was hit in the head. His 
 men thought he was killed. Darkness almost imme- 
 diately fell, and the Battalion fell back a little way just 
 behind where George lay to dig themselves in for the 
 night. 
 
 One man went back for a stretcher to take George 
 to the First Aid Station, but when it arrived every one 
 thought George had been killed, and the stretcher was 
 given to some one else. Next morning Lance-Corporal 
 Robinson looking out from the trench thought he saw 
 George move, so he went out and gave him some water. 
 The Regiment remained all day (8th) in the trenches 
 under heavy fire. At dusk some men went out and 
 brought George in still alive and conscious, and laid 
 him down behind the trench. 
 
 Lieut. Leaf heard he was there and at once went off 
 
 77 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 from the other end of the line to him. He found 
 George conscious but very, very cold. Three men 
 volunteered to help Leaf carry George to the Casualty 
 Station, which they reached after a four hours' march 
 in the dark. There they had to leave him on his 
 stretcher. He knew them and was ahle to thank them 
 for all they had done for him. George remained on 
 his stretcher in the tent for five days, looked after hy 
 his servant Pentecost, who nursed him with great 
 devotion. 
 
 He was then taken down the river in a steamer with 
 a large number of wounded to the hospital at Amara. 
 It is probable that the reason why he was not removed 
 sooner was that it was thought that he could not pos- 
 sibly live for many hours, and the wounded were being 
 brought in in such numbers that some confusion was 
 inevitable. 
 
 Of the hardships and discomfort which the wounded 
 suffered in their voyage down the river and of the awful 
 condition of the ship no more shall be said. George 
 willingly gave his life for his country, and in accepting 
 the call for such a sacrifice his father and mother have 
 always wished that it should be offered with feelings of 
 pride in him, and of thankfulness that he was thought 
 worthy to die for his country, and that no other thought 
 should dim the brightness of the vision which was so 
 glorious and triumphant. As he who suffered bore all 
 that befell him without a murmur or word of regret, so 
 
 78 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 must they in all humbleness try to follow his bright 
 example. 
 
 George lived for five days after his arrival in hospital. 
 He did not suffer much owing to the nature of his 
 wound, but was often conscious and knew those who 
 were about him and asked after his brother officers and 
 men. 
 
 From the very first it was recognised that his case 
 was hopeless and it was marvellous that he lived so long. 
 
 On the morning of January 19th, 1916, he passed 
 away while his servant was washing him. He was buried 
 that afternoon in the little cemetery at Amara. His 
 coffin was carried to the grave by officers who were 
 doing duty at Amara, and some of the wounded officers 
 of his own Regiment were well enough to attend the 
 service. 
 
 George died as he had lived all his days, peacefully ; 
 peacefully because his nature was peaceful ; peacefully 
 because he was well content to have done his duty ; 
 peacefully because of the Faith that was in him. 
 
 But let all those who doubt their own courage 
 who are nervous as to their powers of endurance draw 
 comfort from his example. His physique was delicate, 
 his disposition nervous and highly strung ; he had a 
 horror of all that was violent and horrible. 
 
 As a small boy he was easily frightened, and for 
 many years he could not bear to sleep alone in the dark. 
 He was modest, retiring, and very unassertive, too much 
 
 79 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 so to do himself justice in his school-days, for there is no 
 doubt he would have made his weight more felt at Eton 
 had he asserted himself more. 
 
 He never grew out of his gentle ways, and none of 
 his family can ever remember seeing him out of temper 
 or selfish. 
 
 During the twenty-one years of his happy life his 
 father and mother can with heartfelt thankfulness to 
 him look back to no moment of anxiety or irritation. 
 He was always gentle, happy, contented unselfish. 
 
 But behind all this hidden even from those who 
 loved him most, except on a few rare occasions, when 
 an inflexibility of purpose for a moment drew aside 
 a corner of the veil, was a reserve of strength, strong 
 and vitalising. 
 
 It enabled him when badly wounded to lead his 
 men against the enemy's trenches, and inspire them 
 with his courage. It enabled him after lying out a night 
 and a day to forget himself, and think only of his friends 
 and his men. It enabled him with patience to bear his 
 sufferings ; it enabled him with courage and confidence 
 to pass to the Great Unknown. 
 
 It was not until a great crisis broke through his 
 reserve that his true character was seen in all its 
 strength. 
 
 And so for those who may read this Memoir, 
 George's life here on earth closes in the grave under the 
 
 80 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 palm-trees at Amara. And if to some in days to come 
 but not to us it seems a strange and distant land, 
 remember he and others have made ' a corner of it 
 England,' and that the crosses on their graves will 
 ever stand as witnesses to those of varying creeds and 
 races who pass by of the great sacrifice which Eng- 
 lishmen willingly made not only to conquer Germany 
 and her Allies, and to crush out the spirit of militarism 
 and lust of power for which they stood, but to establish 
 in their place a lasting peace, under whose wings the 
 nations purified by their blood may rise to a higher 
 humanity. 
 
 Their sacrifice was not negative, but creative. They 
 were carrying out a great purpose, and marching towards 
 high ideals. And so let us comfort ourselves with the 
 thought that their sacrifice cannot have been made in 
 vain they cannot have failed. It is we who may fail 
 if we hesitate to carry on with high purpose the work 
 they have left us to do, or halt on the journey towards 
 the ideals they had set before them. Let us, therefore, 
 not look back with sad regret, but forward with a 
 great hope in confidence that only thus can we pay 
 our tribute to those gallant Englishmen who, we believe, 
 have won for themselves Eternal Rest, and for their 
 country the hope of a Lasting Peace. 
 
 On January 26th, 1916, a Memorial Service was 
 held at St. Augustine's Church, Flimwell. The little 
 
 81 cj 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 church was very full with relatives, all the work- 
 people on the estate, and many neighbours and villagers. 
 The Battalion of the Buffs, which was commanded by 
 George's father, was represented by eight officers four 
 of whom had served in the ranks in George's Company 
 before he left for India arid had since received com- 
 missions and fifteen non-commissioned officers, who 
 formed a Guard of Honour. The band of the regiment 
 played the music for the service, and the regimental 
 buglers sounded the regimental call and * Last Post ' 
 from the belfry. 
 
 On either side of the altar were hung the Union 
 Jack and White Ensign. 
 
 George's name was mentioned in despatches for his 
 conduct at the battle of Sheikh Saad. 
 
 Of the six officers of the regiment mentioned in 
 despatches at this time, three were killed. 
 
LETTERS. 
 
 From COLONEL MUNN MACE, C.O. 5th Buffs. 
 
 * Mesopotamia. 
 
 We are all immensely proud of your son, whose 
 action on the 7th of January was one of the bravest of 
 many gallant things done that day in the face of 
 overwhelming odds. 
 
 ' Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 'J. MUNN MACE.' 
 
 From SIR GEORGE ARTHUR to SIR FREDERICK 
 
 MlLNER. 
 
 * Lord Kitchener scarcely likes to write direct to 
 Lady Goschen ; could you possibly tell her how deeply 
 touched he was to hear of the specially gallant circum- 
 stances in which her very gallant son met his death. 
 
 ' It is indeed a thrilling story, and one of which 
 those to whom he was dear may well be proud. 
 Perhaps you would convey with this very special 
 message Lord Kitchener's very sincere sympathy. 
 
 ' Yours, &c., 
 
 * GEORGE ARTHUR.' 
 
 88 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 * Hospital, A mar a, 
 
 ' 20th January, 1916. 
 ' Dear Lord Goschen, 
 
 * As you will long ago have heard by the time 
 this letter reaches you, Joss passed away this morning 
 here. I feel it is not presumptuous for me to write and 
 try and convey to you my sympathy, because for the last 
 t years I have lived continually with him, and he has 
 been the best friend I've ever had. 
 
 ' To you, of course, it is an unspeakable loss, but I 
 am sure you will be glad to hear his death was painless. 
 I never saw him wounded myself or in hospital here, as 
 I have rather a large wound in my leg which prevents 
 me stirring from my bed for some time to come. The 
 old 5th Buffs did splendidly, but at what sacrifice ! 
 * Please remember me to Lady Goschen. 
 ' Yours sincerely, 
 
 4 GEORGE JESSEL.' 
 
 * Byculla Club< 
 
 * Qth March. 
 ' Dear Lady Goschen, 
 
 ' My father told me in a letter that you were 
 enquiring how poor Jos met his death. 1 have already 
 written Lord Goschen in fact, six weeks ago from 
 hospital, the day after he died, but very likely the letter 
 
 84 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 never reached you. I myself never saw him after the 
 morning of the 6th, but understand that he was splendid 
 and should get mentioned in despatches at least. He 
 was first hit in the hand or wrist, but went on, and was 
 then hit in the head a terrible wound. He was semi- 
 conscious on the boat in which he went downstream, 
 and lived a few days in hospital, where they made on 
 him the operation of trepanning. I neVer saw him 
 myself, as I could not move, and indeed I knew it 
 would do no good. His servant, one Pentecost, looked 
 after him with great devotion, and was actually wash- 
 ing .Toss when the latter died. On the boat he slept 
 by his side, an eye-witness told me, and never left 
 him. 
 
 ' There is nothing for me to say, and I know exactly 
 what you must feel. For me who lived with him 
 almost continually for 1| years he was the best friend 
 I've ever had. He would have had a reputation in 
 whatever form of life he had taken up, and as you know 
 he heard just before Christmas that he had passed 
 higher Pushtu, in six months, a brilliant feat. I am 
 well but lame, and shall be for some months. Hoping 
 you and your family are well. 
 
 ' Yours, &c., 
 
 ' GEOBGE JESSEL.' 
 
 85 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 ' 5th Bait. " The Buffs" 
 
 ' Indian Expeditionary Force "/)," 
 ' C/o Tfo /Twfia O^re, 
 * Whitehall, S.W., 
 
 ' January 25th, 1916. 
 
 ' ON THE TIGRIS. 
 
 ' Dear Lord Goschen, 
 
 * I feel that you will forgive me for obeying an 
 irresistible impulse to write to tell you how much I feel 
 for you in what you have to bear. 
 
 * We all loved " Joss," as we called him, and he and 
 1 were always good friends. 
 
 Latterly he and poor Guy Baker had been in- 
 separable, and they were both killed in that fearful 
 Sheikh Saad affair on the 7th. 
 
 ' He was an absolute hero. Both his wrists had been 
 broken, and yet he raised himself on his arms and went 
 forward before he was killed. So his end was really 
 magnificent and his pluck marvellous. 
 
 ' May this be some solace to you. 
 
 * There are only a few of us poor Bufts left now. 
 ' With my deep sympathy, 
 
 * Yours sincerely, 
 
 ' H. MASSIE BLOMFIELD.' 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 ' Section Hospital, 
 
 ' Byculla Club, Bombay, 
 
 ' I4>tk March, 1916. 
 
 * My dear Lord Goschen, 
 
 * I'm afraid you will hardly remember me, as I 
 joined the Buffs so shortly before we left Sandwich, 
 but you will let me express my very deep sympathy 
 with you in the irreparable loss and suffering you have 
 sustained in the death of your dear son. 
 
 ' We are all so sad out here over the manner in 
 which our Battalion has been cut up and so many of 
 our best fellows taken from us for ever that one is 
 apt to forget the agony of those at home who have to 
 bear the loss of sons, brothers, and husbands. 
 
 ' Your boy and I were great friends the result of 
 our having been so much together for nearly eighteen 
 months, and his astonishing courage in the time of his 
 great trial was only what one had learnt to expect from 
 our knowledge of his charming personality. 
 
 ' We had a pretty rough time in Mesopotamia 
 during the few weeks before January 7th, but your son 
 was so cheery and unselfish at all times that we could 
 always treat the whole thing as a big joke ! And no 
 one showed greater bravery in action. The poor fellow 
 must have suffered terribly from his wounds, but he 
 
 87 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 never complained, and enquired only for his friends when 
 he was conscious. 
 
 * May God help you and your family to bear the loss. 
 
 ' Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' F. STUART FLEURET. 
 
 ' ' 
 
 ' P.S. You will be glad to hear the wounded are 
 progressing. A big draft of officers for the 5th Buffs 
 recently arrived out here.' 
 
 From Q.M. SERGT. WHALEY. 
 
 '113 Coy., 5th Buff's, 
 
 I.E. Force " D" 
 
 ' C/o Whitehall, London. 
 ' Dear Lady Goschen, 
 
 ' The N.C.O.'s and men of " D" Coy. wish me 
 to thank you for the parcels of clothing which you so 
 kindly sent out. They came at a most fortunate time, 
 as many of the men, having lost their kits in the last 
 battle, were greatly in need of a change of under- 
 clothing. 
 
 ' Our heartfelt sympathy is with you and Lord 
 Goschen in the loss of your son. We know that we 
 have lost a splendid officer, who by his kindness and 
 
 88 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 unselfish devotion to duty had endeared himself to all 
 ranks. Personally I feel his loss very keenly, as I have 
 been in the same Company with him ever since he joined 
 us at Sandwich. 
 
 ' We trust that your grief may he softened by the fact 
 that he died a true soldier's death, as he still led his men 
 on long after he had been wounded in both wrists, thus 
 setting a splendid example to every one. 
 
 * Again thanking you for your kindness. 
 
 * Your obedient servant, 
 
 'A. J. WHALEY 
 
 (C.Q.M.-Sergt.).' 
 
 ' D Coy., 5 Buffs, 
 
 ' Kamptee, C.I. 
 
 ' March 22nd. 
 * Dear Lord and Lady Goschen, 
 
 ' I am sure you will excuse this liberty, but I 
 thought you would like a few lines from me, concerning 
 your son's death. How well I know what great grief it 
 must have been to you both and to many others that 
 had the privilege of knowing him, although I can 
 hardly claim that, being one of the Wye Section, but I 
 do know he was always very greatly respected by all 
 the men. You have doubtless heard all particulars 
 about that sad day, but perhaps I can show you your 
 
 89 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 son's bravery better than some. About 1 p.m. on 7th 
 we were given order to advance in open order, D Com- 
 pany and C Company forming firing line, other two 
 companies in reserve. The Battalion advanced just 
 splendidly, like on parade, and our officers were just 
 superb every one of them. We very soon came under 
 Turkish rifle fire and began short rushes, this all having 
 to be done in open, and our General speaking to us 
 afterwards said : " No seasoned troops could have done 
 better," and that we were a credit to " The Buffs." 
 Somewhere about 2.30 p.m. I found myself next to 
 your son, and we exchanged greetings. He told me he 
 had just had a lucky escape, a bullet having gone 
 through one of his coat pockets, without touching him. 
 Next moment a bullet had gone through both his 
 wrists, and he said, " I have got it this time." Well, I 
 bound both his wrists up before order to advance was 
 given, and said, " Sir, you won't be able to come on any 
 further." As your husband will explain to you, it would 
 be almost impossible to come on advancing, with both 
 wrists hit, but it seemed your gallant son managed it, 
 and still came on leading his Platoon. I think it was 
 the act of a very gallant soldier, don't you ? When it 
 got too dark to advance any more that night we dug 
 ourselves in, and I was told Mr. Goschen was lying 
 very seriously wounded. That night one of the men 
 went back to get a stretcher for him, and so bring him 
 back to First Aid Station, some little way back. When 
 
 90 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 stretcher was brought back he was given up for dead, 
 and stretcher given to another wounded. Next morning 
 as we were lying in trenches we had dug, I saw your 
 son move, went out, gave him some water with another 
 man, and did what we could for him. He just said 
 water, water, when we held it to his lips. He seemed 
 then to be beyond all earthly pain, and feel sure did not 
 suffer much. I mention this to show you what wonder- 
 ful vitality that son ot yours must have had. That 
 night he was brought back, and a few days after we 
 heard he had passed peacefully away. 
 
 ' Of course I realised from the first there was no 
 hope for him, and we all marvelled he lived so long. 
 I suppose it was the same power in him, fighting to the 
 last, that made him go on leading his men after he was 
 first hit. You can imagine my surprise when told Mr. 
 Goschen was lying badly wounded close to where we 
 had dug our trenches, as I never expected he would 
 come on. Sir, when I started this letter 1 meant it for 
 his mother, but perhaps it would do her more harm than 
 good, so I address it to you, and if it would make her 
 happier please let her see it. 
 
 * I myself have been wounded three times altogether, 
 and am at present on two months' sick leave, but 
 Kamptee will always find me if you want to ask 
 anything more about your son. 
 
 * Please accept my most deepest sympathy. I also 
 have lost a dear dear brother in this cruel War. 
 
 91 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 * From one who will always think of your dear son 
 as a very gallant gentleman and soldier. 
 * Sincerely yours, 
 
 ' HENRY S. ROBINSON, 
 * L/cpl.' 
 
 'I.E.F. <D.\ 
 
 ' Mesopotamia. 
 
 * Dear Lady Goschen, 
 
 ' It is with the deepest sympathy for you in 
 your trouble that I write to tell you about your son's 
 death here from wounds. He was terribly wounded in 
 the head, and also on 'both hands ; and I think the 
 thigh as well, on January 7th. The Buffs got into a 
 very hot place almost as soon as they got under fire, 
 and were at once made a target for rifle and machine 
 gun, and shrapnel. 
 
 * Your son was carried first to a First Aid Post 
 behind the firing line, and then after getting the field 
 bandages on he was carried about four miles on a 
 stretcher to the Field Hospital by the river. He was 
 there for about five days in a tent with several Tommies, 
 still lying on his stretcher, as he was too bad to move. 
 The Tommies were awfully good to him, and did what 
 they could, although wounded themselves. I saw him 
 often, and spoke to him, and prayed with him he 
 
 92 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 couldn't speak, but he tried to smile, and let me know he 
 understood. I didn't think he would live for more 
 than a few hours, and when at last I got him on board a 
 steamer to go down the river, I hardly thought he would 
 live to get to Amara. I had to go up to the Front 
 then ; but on the 18th 1 got here Amara to look after 
 the wounded and dying, and found him still alive, and 
 even able to speak a little. But in spite of his wonderful 
 vitality he passed away quietly on the 19th, at 9 a.m. 
 I buried him the same afternoon at 4 p.m., in the little 
 military cemetery here, and three wounded officers of 
 his own regiment attended his funeral, as well as others 
 from the station, who carried his coffin to the grave. 
 The cemetery is a nice quiet spot near the Chaliala 
 Canal, with palm-trees round about it. 
 
 * I thought you might like these few particulars from 
 me, as I ministered to him during his last days. There 
 are still a lot of the Buffs here in the hospitals, and they 
 were very cut up at hearing of his death, as he seemed 
 well liked among the men. I will try and have a 
 little wooden cross put over his grave. 
 
 ' A man named Harries gave me your address. 
 ' Yours sincerely, 
 
 ' P. GRAYDON TIBBS, 
 
 * Chaplain to the Forces' 
 
 93 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Written to the mother of another officer in the 5th Bujfs, 
 Mrs. Alfred Hardcastle. 
 
 From LANCE-CORPORAL CHEESMAN, 5th Buffs. 
 
 * Lieut. Goschen commanded a platoon in the com- 
 pany I was in, and as you may easily imagine was soon 
 an immensely popular officer among all ranks, and 
 the fine dash he and his men made at Sheik Saad in 
 the face of such a fire may have been equalled, but 
 has never been beaten in the British Army. 
 
 ' Though wounded through both wrists he continued 
 to lead them, and when the last bullet struck him there 
 was no Englishman between him and Kut. It was, as it 
 happened, a merciful wound, as I feel sure from that 
 time until the time of his death it saved him a lot of 
 suffering, and numbed most if not all the pain. We 
 carried him behind the trench where we were digging in 
 for the night, and made him as comfortable as circum- 
 stances would permit ; and though he was quite able to 
 speak not a complaint or murmur escaped him, and 
 he would only drink water when I assured him that 
 no one else wanted it. We tried to get him away on 
 an improvised stretcher of rifles and a mule cloth, but 
 he was too severely wounded, and preferred to wait for a 
 stretcher. 
 
 * Later Goschen left the Field Hospital on one of the 
 
 94 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 river steamers. The news of his death was received 
 with much sorrow in the Buffs' Camp, and especially in 
 D Company.' 
 
 * Depot Office, Cavalry, F.F., 
 ' Kamptee, 
 
 ' 22nd January, 1916. 
 
 * Dear Lord Goschen, 
 
 * Excuse a perfect stranger writing to you, -but 
 I am sure you will under the circumstances. I am 
 writing to offer you my deepest sympathy on the loss 
 of your son, which I was terribly sorry to hear of 
 to-day. 
 
 * I met your boy here and have known him some six 
 months ; during that time we became great friends and 
 his death has been a great shock to me. 
 
 * We have no details yet, but I trust and pray that 
 he did not suffer much. He was one of the very best 
 cheery at all times keen on his work popular with 
 all and a fine specimen of an English gentleman. 
 
 * When I who knew him so little mourn his loss as I 
 do, I can most deeply sympathise with you, and trust 
 that under these circumstances you will forgive my 
 
 * Yours sincerely, 
 
 ' DASHWOOD STRETTELL. 
 
 95 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Extract from a tetter from a friend. 
 
 * ... I had watched George grow up since before 
 his Eton days, and even though one only saw him at 
 intervals it was impossible not to become attached to 
 him. Then one realised him, in a way, by reflection in 
 the devotion of his sisters to him. Your little group 
 always seemed to me quite the happiest and most 
 appreciative of one another of any family I ever knew. 
 It was a happiness to me at any time to think of you. 
 Yours was of all houses the one for whose security one 
 most fervently longed . . .' 
 
 From MILDRED UK LOTHBINIEKE. 
 
 ' It does seem sad that that young life, so full of 
 promise, should not have had its entire fulfilment in 
 this world ; and yet he could not have done more than 
 he has. You must be thankful that he gave his all so 
 nobly, and proud that you have given what was most 
 precious . . . 
 
 ' 1 have always thought that yours was the happiest 
 home I have known, and you have been on such de- 
 lightful, almost sisterly terms with your children. The 
 first time I stayed at Seacox, many years ago, George 
 was there, and 1 remember we were discussing schools 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 for Eddie, and I was so struck with the way he talked 
 of Ludgrove and life in general, and he helped me so 
 much. I hoped then that I could do for my boys what 
 you had done for him. 
 
 ' You must have so many precious memories his 
 young life was such a joyful one and so surrounded 
 by love.' 
 
 From VISCOUNT CRAXBOIINE. 
 
 ' My dear Lord Goschen, 
 
 * Words cannot express what one feels, but 
 what Mama has told me about George makes me proud 
 ever to have known him. All the time I knew him, 
 both at Oxford and Eton, what was so delightful in 
 him was that he was never excited or angry, and hated 
 all that was unpleasant. So that it must have been 
 especially hard for him, all the horror and beastliness of 
 war. It was wonderful of him to conquer his disgust 
 and to fight so magnificently. It must have been the 
 greatest help to his men to have any one like that to 
 lead them. Will you tell Lady Goschen how much I 
 sympathise with her in her terrible loss ? I cannot say 
 how much I admire George, or how wonderful I think 
 it was of him. 
 
 4 Y re ever, 
 
 ' CRANBORNE.' 
 97 H 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Extract from a letter from one of George's friend*. 
 
 * ... Somehow one finds it quite difficult to believe 
 that he has really gone. So little in his life was of this 
 world, so much was immortal. A good influence is 
 everlasting, for the spirit cannot die, and his character 
 and example remain and are with us still, aren't they ? 
 A few lines from Loyd (written from hospital) told me 
 of his wonderful death. He says in his letter : " Your 
 last message to Joss 1 could not give, for he passed 
 away here two days ago : it is a terrible loss to 
 us all.'" 
 
 From S. G. LUBBOCK, ESQ. 
 
 'Eton College, 
 
 ' Windsor, 
 
 < Feb. 20th, 1916. 
 ' Dear Lady Goschen, 
 
 * I fear you will think me very late in writing, 
 but at the time I hardly liked to write to you in 
 what must needs be a crushing grief. But I could not 
 have you think I had forgotten so dear and blameless a 
 boy, or that I did not feel with you more deeply than I 
 can possibly say in your great and overwhelming loss. 
 For I know how complete and intimate was the affec- 
 
 98 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 tion that united you all, and what a dear and devoted 
 son he was. I shall always remember him with his 
 gentleness and his quiet reserve of strength, and I feel I 
 know in some degree how immense must be your sense 
 of loss. 
 
 ' Very sincerely yours, 
 
 ' S. G. LUBBOCK.' 
 
 From the 'Eton Chronicle^ March 2nd, 1916. 
 
 ' GEORGE GOSCHEN. 
 
 * George Goschen left Eton in 1912, and at the time 
 had no idea of being a soldier. When the War broke 
 out he joined the 5th Buffs, going with them to India 
 in 1914. He was stationed in the Central Provinces for 
 more than a year, during which time he worked at his 
 profession, played in his regimental polo team, and 
 passed an examination in Pushtu, learning so said his 
 examiners in seven months what most people take 
 eighteen to learn. Last November his regiment left 
 for Mesopotamia ; he endured cheerfully the many 
 hardships of the journey up the Tigris, and in his first 
 battle he received the wounds of which he died in 
 hospital at Amara. He was " wounded in both wrists, 
 but continued gallantly to lead his platoon until he was 
 struck in the head by a shell." " One of the best," 
 
 99 I 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 wrote one who was with him in India ; " cheery at all 
 times, keen on his work, popular with all." 
 
 * No one who knew him in his Eton days could have 
 dreamed of that quiet, gentle boy leading his platoon 
 under heavy fire, himself severely wounded ; but those 
 who knew his great sense of duty and his quiet reserve 
 of strength, are not surprised at the event. It was a 
 noble ending to a blameless life.' 
 
 Copy of letter from GEORGE to DEAN OF 
 CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 ' 5th Buffs, E.K.R. 
 
 * Bell Hotel, Sandwich. 
 
 ' Sunday, October 25th. 
 ' Dear Mr. Dean, 
 
 * I must sincerely apologise for not having 
 answered your most kind letter before, but we have been 
 extremely busy with arrangements for our departure 
 and I have not had much time for writing lately. 
 
 ' It was most good of you to write and I was most 
 touched by your letter. Thank God I can say that I 
 have nothing on my mind with a clear conscience ; 
 although perhaps I have not made the most of the 
 many opportunities I have had, and of late have grown 
 rather slack in that way. 
 
 * I can feel now that I am at least making some use 
 
 100 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 of my hitherto rather valueless existence in serving my 
 country and I can feel more than those who have ties, 
 such as marriage and business, that I am completely 
 free to serve my country wherever it may choose to 
 send me and that in offering my services I am only 
 making but a poor return for the many advantages I 
 have had and perhaps not made use of in the best way. 
 ' I shall certainly hope to return to Oxford on my 
 return, though I quite think we shall be a year in India, 
 if not more. 
 
 ' Thanking you again for your letter, 
 * I remain, 
 
 * Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' GEORGE GOSCHEN.' 
 
 Copy of letter from the DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH 
 to LORD GOSCHEN. 
 
 ' Christ Church, 
 
 ' 22nd January, 1916. 
 ' My dear Lord Goschen, 
 
 ' I venture to write a line to express my deep 
 sympathy with you in the loss of your son. He was 
 one of those men whom I had always liked and admired, 
 but with whom I was brought into much closer and 
 more intimate sympathy by reason of the War. Since 
 
 101 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 he joined the Army I have had one or two letters from 
 him, which are very precious to me. They show how 
 high-minded and straight a man he was, and how simple 
 and direct and self- forgetful was his patriotism. Besides 
 all this that made him so lovable he had powers whicli 
 gave me high hopes of his future. I hope he knew how 
 sincerely I loved and trusted him. . . . Please forgive 
 my very halting words, and believe me. 
 ' Very faithfully yours, 
 
 'THOMAS B. STRONG/ 
 
 Letter from LIEUT. LEAF, 5th Buffs. 
 
 * 6, Sussex Place, 
 
 ' Regent's Park, N. W. 
 
 '24/10/16. 
 ' Dear Lady Goschen, 
 
 4 ... All through the 8th (the day after the 
 attack) we had crouched in our shallow trench to avoid 
 the heavy fire but about dusk it diminished. Word 
 was now passed down to me from " A " Company that 
 Lieut. Goschen had been brought in, still alive, and 
 was now lying behind their trench. I at once went off 
 and found him just conscious. He could speak and re- 
 cognised me : he did not complain of pain, but said he 
 was very cold and thirsty, so I gave him some water and 
 put a ' British Warm ' over him. I next went to Major 
 
 102 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 Fraser and got permission to carry him in. Three men 
 volunteered to help, but I cannot remember who they 
 were except that Private James, from Mr. Hardcastle's 
 platoon, was one. We had no stretcher, so improvised 
 one by putting rifles through the sleeves of our jackets. 
 After carrying him a quarter of a mile or so in this 
 way, we discovered a stretcher which we commandeered. 
 Joss still said that he was in no pain, but asked me to 
 put something under his head. So I rolled up my 
 jacket for a pillow, after which he was quite comfort- 
 able. About 8.30 p.m. we saw a light which proved 
 to be the Dogras' Aid Post. Here Captain Sinton, 
 I. M.S., bandaged Joss' head and gave him something to 
 drink, though he said there was no hope. So we 
 stumbled on through the darkness and finally reached 
 the river at about 10 p.m. We at once went to the 
 hospital, which we found already crowded. After much 
 trouble we got him into a tent and covered him with 
 blankets. There were only three other men in the tent, 
 so it was not crowded. Then we got a doctor to 
 examine him. We had heard that he had been 
 wounded in the waist, so we undressed him, but only 
 found a slight scratch near the neck. His right side 
 was paralysed, but he managed to swallow some brandy 
 and milk. He thanked us in the most touching way 
 for every little thing we did for him. We asked the 
 doctor how long he would live and he said he might 
 live for three or four days but that he could not possibly 
 
 103 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 get well. After doing all we could we said good-bye 
 to him, as we had to go back to the firing line . . . 
 
 We all loved your son officers and men as he 
 was so kind and gentle, and I think that his death was 
 the greatest sorrow that befell us that day. 
 4 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 4 CHARLES S. LEAF.' 
 
 GENERAL AYLMER'S ADDRESS TO THE 5TH BUFFS 
 (WEALD OF KENT REGT.). 
 
 * Officers, Non- Commissioned Officers, and Men 
 of the 5th Buffs- 
 
 * I come here now in the first place to thank you all 
 for the valuable assistance you have rendered to me as 
 your Brigade Commander in the Field. 
 
 ' In the second place to congratulate you on the 
 honour that you have brought to yourselves as a 
 Battalion and to the distinguished Regiment in the 
 Service. 
 
 ' There is no more distinguished Regiment in the 
 Service than the Buffs, and no more distinguished 
 Battalion now in it than the Weald of Kent Battalion. 
 
 ' No Battalion, no regular Battalion of seasoned 
 soldiers, could have done better than you have done, and 
 I cannot tell you how much I appreciate what you have 
 done for me and the Forces. 
 
 104 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 ' You are a credit to the Regiment you belong to, a 
 credit to your County, Country, and Empire, and I 
 thank you very much for all you have done for me.' 
 
 Letter from LORD AND LADY GOSCHEN to the 
 VILLAGERS OF FLIMWELL, thanking them for their 
 sympathy : 
 
 * Seacox Heath, 
 
 ' January, 1917. 
 
 'To OUR FRIENDS IN FLIMWELL. 
 
 ' We wish to offer our heartfelt thanks to all our 
 friends in Flimwell for the sympathy you have shown 
 to us during these sad days. We like to feel that you 
 are sharing in our loss, for Mr. George was known to you 
 all, and was devoted to his home and all its surround- 
 ings. He never wrote a letter without asking to be 
 remembered to all at home, and the last words he ever 
 wrote, written on the banks of the Tigris on Christmas 
 Eve, were : " Remember me to everybody at Seacox." 
 In our abiding sorrow we feel proud to think that he 
 has laid down his life for his King and Country, and 
 that he died a soldier's death, for though wounded in 
 both wrists he refused to stop, but continued gallantly 
 to lead his platoon until he was struck by a bullet. 
 
 ' We must keep our courage high in memory of 
 
 105 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 what he has done for us, and we would ask you with us 
 not to dwell on our loss, but on his triumphant end. 
 As the trumpets rang out the regimental call in the 
 church he loved so well, we felt it was just a call to him 
 to a higher service, and we could almost see him with 
 a smile on his face cheerfully answering to it. 
 
 ' He has gone, but he has left us a most happy 
 memory, and an example we may all wish to follow. 
 
 * His was the gentlest and happiest nature we ever 
 knew. In the twenty-one years of his life we can look 
 back to no hour of care and anxiety, to no moment 
 of selfishness or irritation. Always bright, always 
 cheery, loving life and all it brought him, he always 
 thought of others, and when the time came was ready 
 to lay down for them his young life so full of promise. 
 He never wanted to be a soldier, but when war broke 
 out, inspired by a feeling of ardent patriotism, his 
 immediate desire was to fight for his Country. The 
 one principle that guided his life was duty : quiet and 
 gentle as he was, when once he thought duty called 
 him, nothing could stop him from obeying that call. 
 
 * We think very reverently of that stainless young 
 life, but we feel sure that it has not been wasted. 
 
 * The memory of it and others will live for ever, and 
 we believe that he is still fulfilling its uncompleted 
 promise. If, as we hope, you will sometimes think of 
 him, we would ask you to remember him as a gallant 
 English gentleman, who tried to do his duty, and now 
 
 106 
 
GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN. 
 
 rests in peace, well content to have made the great 
 sacrifice for his Country. 
 
 ' We are sure he would like us to think of him in 
 these words : "If I should die, think only this of me, 
 that there's some corner of a foreign field which is for 
 ever England." 
 
 ' Your friends, 
 
 * EVELYN GOSCHEN, 
 
 * GOSCHEN.' 
 
 L'ENVOL 
 
 * " THEN" ' said he, "... My sword I give to him that 
 shall succeed me in my pilgrimage and my courage 
 and skill to him that can get it my marks and scars 
 I carry with me to be a witness that I have fought 
 His battles Who will now be my rewarder." When 
 the day that he must go hence was come many accom- 
 panied him to the river -side, into which as he went he 
 said, " Death, where is thy sting ? " And as he went 
 down deeper he said, " Grave, where is thy victory ? " 
 So he passed over and all the trumpets sounded on 
 the other side.' 
 
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