South African War: Major Lord Edward Cecil

MAJOR LORD EDWARD CECIL, D.S.O.

LORD SALISBURY may well be proud of his soldier son, for there are few officers of the Brigade of Guards of his age and service who have had a wider experience, and none who are more universally popular. Lord Edward Herbert Cecil was born on July 12th, 1867, and obtained his Second Lieutenancy in the Grenadier Guards on April 30th, 1887. After doing regimental duty for four years, during which time there was no young officer more painstaking than himself, Lord Edward joined the Staff of Field Marshal Lord Wolseley, Commanding the Forces in Ireland, as Aide-de-Camp, on April 30th, 1891. On March 16th, 1892, he obtained his Lieutenancy, and on November 16th following left his lordship's staff. Shortly afterwards he was selected to accompany a diplomatic mission to Abyssinia, when he was decorated by King Menelik with the Third Class of the Star of Ethiopia.

The Expedition to Dongola, in 1896, gave the young Guardsman his first chance of seeing active service, for Major-General Sir Herbert Kitchener, who was selected to conduct the difficult enterprise, hearing that Lord Edward Cecil was desirous of wetting his spear, offered him the position of Aide-de-Camp on his Staff, which he readily accepted. Thus he served under most favourable auspices, took part in all the dangers and privations of what seemed at first a perilous enterprise, and came out of it unscathed, though he was on two occasions—on June 7th and September 19th—in the thick of the fighting, and bore himself so well that his distinguished chief took occasion, when forwarding his dispatches, to call attention to the marked ability he had displayed. His reward was a Brevet-Majority, the medal with two clasps, and the fourth class of the Medjidie.

Returning to England, he rejoined his battalion, with which he did duty during a great part of the following year. But the war fever had now attacked him, and when it was made known that an advance was to be made on Khartoum, he decided to obtain employment in Egypt so that he might not lose his chance of getting once more to the front. As a first step, he obtained employment with the Egyptian army in January, 1898, and as soon as the Staff of the Nile Expedition was formed, he rejoined Sir Herbert Kitchener's Head-Quarters as Aide-de-Camp. In this capacity he was present at the battles of Atbara and Khartoum, being afterwards “Mentioned in Dispatches” and decorated with the Distinguished Service Order.

He was in London when Colonel Baden-Powell was selected, in the summer of 1899, to proceed on special service to South Africa. This chance was too good to be lost, so Lord Edward offered himself for service and was accepted. He left England in July. remained with Colonel Baden-Powell all through the anxious period of the negotiations. eventually reached Mafeking and in due course found himself shut up there as Chief Staff Officer during the siege. What General Baden-Powell thinks of Lord Edward is well known, for he has already acknowledged how great were the services he rendered. The siege of Mafeking promises to be historic, and it is quite in the fitness of things that one of the principal actors in that brilliant achievement of arms should have been a son of the able statesman to whose vigorous policy it is due that the Union Jack now flies as a symbol of Imperialism over the Capitals of the late Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic.

Lady Sarah Wilson (a cousin of Winston Churchill) was at Mafeking during the siege. In her South African Memories (1909), she wrote about the beginning of the siege and was highly complimentary about Lord Edward Cecil who was second in command:

At last, at the end of September, a wire informed us that hostilities were expected to begin in Natal the following week, and I left for Mafeking, intending to proceed to Cape Town and home. On arrival at Mafeking everyone told us an attack on the town was imminent, and we found the inhabitants in a state of serious alarm. However, Baden-Powell's advent reassured them, and preparations for war proceeded apace; the townspeople flocked in to be enrolled in the town guard, spending the days in being drilled; the soldiers were busy throwing up such fortifications as were possible under the circumstances. On October 3 the armoured train arrived from the South, and took its first trip on the rails, which had been hastily flung down round the circumference of the town. This train proved afterwards to be absolutely useless when the Boers brought up their artillery. Night alarms occurred frequently; bells would ring, and the inhabitants, who mostly slept in their clothes, had to rush to their various stations. I must admit that these nocturnal incidents were somewhat unpleasant. Still war was not declared, and the large body of Boers, rumoured as awaiting the signal to advance on Mafeking, gave no sign of approaching any nearer.

We were, indeed, as jolly as the proverbial sandboys during those few days in Mafeking before the war commenced. If Colonel Baden-Powell had forebodings, he kept them to himself. Next to him in importance came Lord Edward Cecil, Grenadier Guards, D.S.O. I have often heard it said that if Lord Edward had been a member of any other family but that of the gifted Cecils he would have been marked as a genius, and that if he had not been a soldier he would surely have been a politician of note.

From: Lady Sarah Wilson, South African Memories, London: Edward Arnold, 1909.

		In 1923, Lord Edward Cecil wrote a humorous account of his days as a member of the Egyptian Government. In The Leisure of an Egyptian Official, he provides his own particular description of his service with Lord Kitchener.
		In 1902, Commander Charles N. Robinson, R.N., edited and published Celebrities of the Army, a collection of portraits and short biographies of senior offices and major heroes of the South African War. These include Baden-Powell and several officers with whom he served in India and Africa both before and during the war. The portraits are quite elegant and are presented along with biographical information.
		It was at the Siege and Defense of Mafeking during the South African (Anglo-Boer) War that Baden-Powell made his name and first gained public recognition. 1999-1902 marks the Centennial of the War. Developed as part of that observance, Perspectives on the South African War provides a collection of links to original and contemporary sources on the South African War.
		Robert Baden-Powell, Founder of the World Scout Movement, Chief Scout of the World. A Home Page for the Founder. Links Relating to Baden-Powell on the Pine Tree Web and elsewhere.

Return to the Pine Tree Web Home Page

Your feedback, comments and suggestions are appreciated.
Please write to: Lewis P. Orans