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Lot Essay
D.S.O. London Gazette 15.11.1898 'In recognition of services in Egypt and the Sudan, including the Battles of Atbara and Khartoum'.
The Reverend Robert Brindle, D.S.O., was born in November 1837 and studied for the Priesthood at Lisbon. Ordained in 1862, he carried out mission work at Plymouth prior to his appointment as a Military Chaplain in 1874. Following service at Woolwich; Halifax, Nova Scotia, for five years; and Aldershot, he accompanied the Expeditionary Force to Egypt in 1882, and served there and in the Sudan with the Royal Irish Regiment for the next four years, exercising 'over his flock a combination of the spiritual influence of the Pope and the earthly authority of a Regimental Sergeant-Major'.
Having missed Tel-el-Kebir due to cholera, he first took to the Field during the Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884-85 and immediately made a favourable impression on the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Wolseley, who out of his own pocket had put up a prize of £100 for the Regiment making the best time in negotiating the river. The prize was won by the Royal Irish, with Father Brindle personally captaining one of the Regiment's boats. During the withdrawal of the Expedition the Royal Irish were ordered across the Bayuda Desert, and Wolseley decided that to send the Regiment without its firebrand Padre was to reduce its rate of march and general fighting efficiency. Accordingly Father Brindle was supplied with a camel for the 100 mile march, but in the event he made the whole journey on foot. He further borrowed a horse and, though harrassed by skirmishers, helped the stragglers by allowing them to ride until they were sufficiently recovered to continue marching - 'Those of his flock whom he suspected of swinging the lead were threatened with ex-communication if they failed to keep going'. The Royal Irish completed the return journey in just 67 hours by which time the soles of Father Brindle's boots were gone and rags rolled about his feet, had replaced them. After participation in the Battle of Ginnis in December 1885, Father Brindle returned to England and served as Chaplain at Colchester and Aldershot.
In 1896, aged 59 years, Father Brindle sailed once more for Egypt and was attached to Kitchener's Expedition at Dongola. During the long period of inaction that ensued, Father Brindle proved instrumental in keeping the men on the straight and narrow - "The men", he reassured Lord Edward Cecil of the Grenadiers, "will do anything if they are going to have a good fight later on". When typhoid, dysentery and illness brought on by poor sanitation, bad water and the heat, took hold, it was Father Brindle who did as much as anyone to care for the sick of the rank and file. Caton-Woodville recalled, 'It was he who carried the Tommies out of their quarters in his arms, placed them in the ambulance to convey them to hospital when nobody else would come near, as the cholera was raging and the men were dying like flies, and even many of the Doctors themselves had died'. In March 1898, during Kitchener's halt at Atbara, Caton-Woodville witnessed another heroic deed:
'It was a Saturday night, and word came from another camp some nine miles away that a Catholic soldier was dying. Unarmed, Father Brindle set out at once and walked across the El-Teb, which was infested by the enemy. He administered the last rites to the dying man, and stayed with him to the end. He then tramped back without rest or food, and reached the camp in time to say Mass for his men on Sunday morning'.
Brindle was subsequently present in the fighting line at the Battles of Atbara and Omdurman, and following the latter crowning victory officiated at the Memorial Service for General Gordon that was held among the ruins of the Governor-General's Palace in Khartoum:
'Unfortunately the ceremony, or at any rate its form, was not unmarked by interdenominational controversy. The Church of England Padre, the Rev. A.W.B. Watson, objected to the participation of his colleagues (or rivals) representing the Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, on the grounds that, as Gordon was a member of the Church of England, their involvement would be both inappropriate and irrelevant. The Sirdar, who had an especially soft spot for Father Brindle, the Roman Catholic veteran of all the Sudan Campaigns, would have none of it. Striking an early blow for ecumenicalism, he told Watson that he had the choice of conducting a joint service with all his fellow clergy or of catching the next steamer back to Cairo. The service, in common with everything else which happened in the Sudan for some time to come, was duly held in accordance with the Sirdar's wishes. In the event it was extremely moving and even Kitchener is said to have wept'.
Awarded the D.S.O. at a Full Dress Parade of the Cairo Garrison, Father Brindle's original insignia was stolen from him at Rome. He thereafter acquired a replacement at his own expense and this was afterwards presented to him by Queen Victoria in May 1899.
Brindle retired from the Army in the same year and was consecrated Titular Bishop of Hermopolis by Cardinal Satolli at Rome. In 1901, however, he was posted to the See of Nottingham. In the Advent of 1911 he observed, 'There is a strange feeling of unrest everywhere; vast Armies stand ready for the bugle-call as though an enemy were at their gates; huge Navies armed with the most powerful engines of destruction the world has ever known keep watch and ward upon the seas; while mistrust of each other sits like a ghost at every council board; and this is eating into the daily life of the people'. Latterly Bishop of Liverpool, Brindle died in 1916, the year of great slaughter on the Somme.
For many years Bishop Brindle's photograph stood on the mantlepiece of Wolseley's office in London. One day a stranger noticed the portrait and asked the Field-Marshal who it was. He replied, 'That is one of the finest soldiers in the British Army, Father Brindle'.
The Reverend Robert Brindle, D.S.O., was born in November 1837 and studied for the Priesthood at Lisbon. Ordained in 1862, he carried out mission work at Plymouth prior to his appointment as a Military Chaplain in 1874. Following service at Woolwich; Halifax, Nova Scotia, for five years; and Aldershot, he accompanied the Expeditionary Force to Egypt in 1882, and served there and in the Sudan with the Royal Irish Regiment for the next four years, exercising 'over his flock a combination of the spiritual influence of the Pope and the earthly authority of a Regimental Sergeant-Major'.
Having missed Tel-el-Kebir due to cholera, he first took to the Field during the Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884-85 and immediately made a favourable impression on the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Wolseley, who out of his own pocket had put up a prize of £100 for the Regiment making the best time in negotiating the river. The prize was won by the Royal Irish, with Father Brindle personally captaining one of the Regiment's boats. During the withdrawal of the Expedition the Royal Irish were ordered across the Bayuda Desert, and Wolseley decided that to send the Regiment without its firebrand Padre was to reduce its rate of march and general fighting efficiency. Accordingly Father Brindle was supplied with a camel for the 100 mile march, but in the event he made the whole journey on foot. He further borrowed a horse and, though harrassed by skirmishers, helped the stragglers by allowing them to ride until they were sufficiently recovered to continue marching - 'Those of his flock whom he suspected of swinging the lead were threatened with ex-communication if they failed to keep going'. The Royal Irish completed the return journey in just 67 hours by which time the soles of Father Brindle's boots were gone and rags rolled about his feet, had replaced them. After participation in the Battle of Ginnis in December 1885, Father Brindle returned to England and served as Chaplain at Colchester and Aldershot.
In 1896, aged 59 years, Father Brindle sailed once more for Egypt and was attached to Kitchener's Expedition at Dongola. During the long period of inaction that ensued, Father Brindle proved instrumental in keeping the men on the straight and narrow - "The men", he reassured Lord Edward Cecil of the Grenadiers, "will do anything if they are going to have a good fight later on". When typhoid, dysentery and illness brought on by poor sanitation, bad water and the heat, took hold, it was Father Brindle who did as much as anyone to care for the sick of the rank and file. Caton-Woodville recalled, 'It was he who carried the Tommies out of their quarters in his arms, placed them in the ambulance to convey them to hospital when nobody else would come near, as the cholera was raging and the men were dying like flies, and even many of the Doctors themselves had died'. In March 1898, during Kitchener's halt at Atbara, Caton-Woodville witnessed another heroic deed:
'It was a Saturday night, and word came from another camp some nine miles away that a Catholic soldier was dying. Unarmed, Father Brindle set out at once and walked across the El-Teb, which was infested by the enemy. He administered the last rites to the dying man, and stayed with him to the end. He then tramped back without rest or food, and reached the camp in time to say Mass for his men on Sunday morning'.
Brindle was subsequently present in the fighting line at the Battles of Atbara and Omdurman, and following the latter crowning victory officiated at the Memorial Service for General Gordon that was held among the ruins of the Governor-General's Palace in Khartoum:
'Unfortunately the ceremony, or at any rate its form, was not unmarked by interdenominational controversy. The Church of England Padre, the Rev. A.W.B. Watson, objected to the participation of his colleagues (or rivals) representing the Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, on the grounds that, as Gordon was a member of the Church of England, their involvement would be both inappropriate and irrelevant. The Sirdar, who had an especially soft spot for Father Brindle, the Roman Catholic veteran of all the Sudan Campaigns, would have none of it. Striking an early blow for ecumenicalism, he told Watson that he had the choice of conducting a joint service with all his fellow clergy or of catching the next steamer back to Cairo. The service, in common with everything else which happened in the Sudan for some time to come, was duly held in accordance with the Sirdar's wishes. In the event it was extremely moving and even Kitchener is said to have wept'.
Awarded the D.S.O. at a Full Dress Parade of the Cairo Garrison, Father Brindle's original insignia was stolen from him at Rome. He thereafter acquired a replacement at his own expense and this was afterwards presented to him by Queen Victoria in May 1899.
Brindle retired from the Army in the same year and was consecrated Titular Bishop of Hermopolis by Cardinal Satolli at Rome. In 1901, however, he was posted to the See of Nottingham. In the Advent of 1911 he observed, 'There is a strange feeling of unrest everywhere; vast Armies stand ready for the bugle-call as though an enemy were at their gates; huge Navies armed with the most powerful engines of destruction the world has ever known keep watch and ward upon the seas; while mistrust of each other sits like a ghost at every council board; and this is eating into the daily life of the people'. Latterly Bishop of Liverpool, Brindle died in 1916, the year of great slaughter on the Somme.
For many years Bishop Brindle's photograph stood on the mantlepiece of Wolseley's office in London. One day a stranger noticed the portrait and asked the Field-Marshal who it was. He replied, 'That is one of the finest soldiers in the British Army, Father Brindle'.