Lt James Scott-Douglas
Lieutenant
James Henry Scott-Douglas, who was slain at KwaMagwasa, Zululand, on
June 30th 1879, was the eldest son of Sir George Henry
Scott-Douglas, of Springwood Park, Kelso, Baronet, M.P. for
Roxburghshire, and Dona Mariquita Juana Petronila Sanchez De Pina,
his wife. He was born at Edinburgh on May 27th 1853, and passed his
early years at Springwood Park. He was known as Jaime.
In 1864 he went to school at
Blackfriars, under Mr R C Powles, and thence proceeded to St
Leonards, where he was prepared by the Rev. J Wright for Winchester.
He entered Winchester early in 1869, and whilst there became a
member of the school Corps of Rifle Volunteers; thence he proceeded
to Llanwenorth, where he was prepared by Rev. G Faithfull for the
University. On February 29th 1872, he received from the Duke of
Buccleuch a commission as Lieutenant in the Queen's Regiment of
Light Infantry Militia, which he joined at Dalkeith for training of
that year. In October he began his studies at Trinity College
Cambridge, and in the following spring passed his previous
examination, thereby qualifying himself for a commission in the army
as university candidate; having, however, commenced to read the
historical Tripos, and being anxious to more effectually complete
his education, he abstained from availing himself of the
qualification. About this time he enrolled himself in the university
volunteers, and shortly afterwards became a Sergeant of that Corps.
At the close of the long vacation of 1875 he had the misfortune to
meet with a severs fall from his horse, which brought a concussion
of the brain; he was thereby prevented from taking part in the final
examination for the Tripos, but the examiners were so convinced, by
his previous work, of his attainments, that they conferred on him
the B.A. degree with honours.
On April the 1st 1875, he was
gazetted to the 19th Regiment, being anxious to serve with a Scotch
Corps, he was transferred to the 21st Royal North British Fusiliers,
joining that Regiment at Portsmouth in January 1876. Shortly
afterwards he passed most creditably through a course of garrison
instruction, his commanding officer testifying to the manner in
which he excelled in tactics and military law. From the School of
Musketry at Hythe he came out with an extra first-class certificate'
he also obtained a first-class instructor's certificate at the
school of army signalling at Aldershot; and on his return to his
regiment, performed the duty of Officer-Instructor to it.
Lieutenant Scott-Douglas, accompanying his Regiment, left Queenstown
for Zululand in February 1879, and arriving at Durban on March the
29th. Proceeding to the front, he was appointed chief of the
signalling staff of the 2nd Division of the Field Force, and,
applying himself ardently to his difficult and important duties, he
succeeded in a short time in establishing a line of communication.
By means of flags and the heliograph, from the most advanced post to
the rearmost. On the morning of June 30th, he was employed with his
signalling party at Entonganeni; before noon a mist came on which
obscured the sun and prevented the working of the heliograph, and
shortly afterwards an important message arrived which Lord
Chelmsford was desirous to have forwarded to Sir Garnet Wolseley.
Lieutenant Scott-Douglas, with his signalling party and an escort,
immediately set out to carry it to Fort Evelyn, twenty Miles
distant; but finding the condition of the horses to be so bad as to
preclude the possibility of escape in the event of the enemy being
met with in force. He decided not to risk the safety of so large a
party, and rode on with only his orderly, Corporal Cotter of the
17th Lancers. Upon his arrival at the fort the officer who commanded
it, observing the fatigued condition of the horses and the unsettled
appearance of the weather, urged him to pass the night there; but
knowing, by the nature of the messages he had forwarded, that the
army was to march for Ulundi at daybreak on the following morning,
he preferred to return. The start for Entonganeni was made at 3
p.m., and about an hour afterwards a dense fog came on and shrouded
the surrounding country. The track, at all times difficult to
follow, branches off towards the deserted mission-station of
KwaMagwasa; in the obscurity the two horsemen accidentally took the
wrong path, and it was not until after they arrived at the
mission-station that they discovered their mistake. Hard by this
spot, where they dismounted to refresh their horses, they were
observed and surprised by a body of some five hundred Zulus, who
were marching to join Cetshwayo at Ulundi. Lieutenant Scott-Douglas
was able to discharge five chambers of his revolver, and then fell
pierced to the heart by an assegai. His body was found some days
afterwards by Brigadier-General Wood, lying near to that of Corporal
Cotter, who had also stood his ground most gallantly: the two were
buried, with military honours, side by side, in marked graves by
crosses and sheltered by a luxuriant growth of the wild cactus.
'Of the soldierlike, manly bearing and social virtues of
Lieutenant Scott-Douglas,' wrote Colonel Collingwood, 21st Royal
Scots Fusiliers, 'I, his commanding officer, cannot speak too
highly. He was the ideal type of an officer and a gentleman in the
highest sense in which that term can be applied.'
Graves of Corporal Cotter & Lieutenant Scott-Douglas Graves,
Kwamagwasa, Zululand
An extract from : Zululand and Cetewayo; containing an account of
Zulu customs, manners, and habits, after a short residence in their
kraals, with portrait of Cetewayo, and 28 illustrations from
original drawings
"An Induna came in with Lieutenant
Douglas's sword, saddle bags, and watch ; also the helmet of the
trooper who was killed with him. It made one feel very melancholy to
look at the half rusty sword, with the marks of blood on the blade,
showing how gallantly its owner had defended himself. Lieutenant
Douglas, was riding from Ulundi with despatches to the coast after
the battle, when, losing his way in a fog, he was surrounded and
killed. Archibald Forbes, who rode the same night to Rorke's Drift,
luckily escaped."
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