.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Major-General Sir R.B. Lane 'Rowdy Lane' (pub. 1906), Military Officer, began his career in the Rifle Brigade, becoming a Captain in 1878. He served with distinction in the Zulu War (1879) and in the First Boer War (1880-1). After being made Commander-in-Chief, he retired from the Rifle Brigade, and afterwards joined the Foreign Office as Assistant Military Secretary, a post he held for six years.
Of his coolness and humour those who were in the Zulu War have still a story to tell. A certain war correspondent of assurance and reputation had declared that if the Zulus were crushed, that they would not fight again. Lane held a contrary opinion, and a bet of a tenner was the result. The battle of Ulundi followed. The firing had been a trifle wild. The Zulus were within two hundred yards and coming on fast. An order was given to resume volley firing. In the few seconds pause Lane was heard to call out cheerily to the correspondent, 'I say, ...., as we don't seem likely to get out of this square, I'll trouble you to hand over that tenner now'.... He is now Lieutenant-Governor of the Chelsea Hospital and his old friends still call him 'Rowdy Lane'.
Vanity Fair, 'Men of the Day', No. 1007, 1906.
Of his coolness and humour those who were in the Zulu War have still a story to tell. A certain war correspondent of assurance and reputation had declared that if the Zulus were crushed, that they would not fight again. Lane held a contrary opinion, and a bet of a tenner was the result. The battle of Ulundi followed. The firing had been a trifle wild. The Zulus were within two hundred yards and coming on fast. An order was given to resume volley firing. In the few seconds pause Lane was heard to call out cheerily to the correspondent, 'I say, ...., as we don't seem likely to get out of this square, I'll trouble you to hand over that tenner now'.... He is now Lieutenant-Governor of the Chelsea Hospital and his old friends still call him 'Rowdy Lane'.
Vanity Fair, 'Men of the Day', No. 1007, 1906.