The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎303v] (109/154)

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OBITUARY.
pencil came freely into play, and of this particular expedition he did publish an
account, which is well worth study.* Here, too, he first made the acquaintance
of an officer who had been appointed quarter-master general of the force—C'olonel
Roberts, v.c.—and the friendship thus inaugurated lasted unbroken until Colonel
Roberts became commander-in-chief of the Indian army, under a much more
imposing title.
Not long after the Lushai expedition (in the late autumn of 1878), the outbreak
of war with Afghanistan gave Woodthorpe another opportunity of exhibiting his
peculiar qualifications, not only as an explorer and surveyor, but as a hard fighting
and determined soldier.
Captain Woodthorpe was placed in charge of the survey party attached to the
Kuram column under General Roberts. The geography of Afghanistan was in
those days mostly an unravelled mystery, and the art of carrying on a systematic
survey with a moving force in the field was an art which was then in its infancy.
Woodthorpe effected on the line of the Kuram what Tanner and others accom
plished on the Khyber. The field work which fell to him was both incessant and
rough, demanding all the physique of a trained mountaineer, added to the skill of
a trained triangulator. On one occasion I remember that there was question of
reaching the highest peak of the Sufed Koh range (Sikaram) from a position near
the Sbutar Gardan pass, in time to admit of a day’s work with the theodolite
before descending again to camp ere night fell, on a short winter’s day. The
ascent was one of about 7000 feet, four hours were barely sufficient for the obser
vations, and the descent had still to be included in the ten or twelve hours of
daylight that was all that could be reckoned on. At the first attempt Wood
thorpe was up to time, but his carriers were not; he had found the way up, but
they could not follow him. He punished them all for laziness, and started again
with the same men a little earlier next day. This time he scored a complete
success. In those days he was occasionally accompanied by another enthusiastic
mountaineer, one who was kind enough to assist him in keeping the record of his
observations. I lately found some pages of his “ angle books ” signed by “ George
White, Major 92nd Highlanders.” In fulness of time this gallant officer and most
capable climber of high places succeeded Lord Roberts as commander-in-chief in
India. But Captain Woodthorpe had his turn of fighting too. He was acting as
aide-de-camp to General Roberts during the memorable Peiwar Kotal action, when
he unwittingly made a most risky mistake. In taking a short cut back to the
staff from some remote corner of the field, he jumped straight into an Afghan
sungur, under the impression that it was held by our own troops. Fortunately,
he was himself wearing our Afghan pugri at the time, and he recognized his error
just a second or two before the Afghan defenders recognized the quality of their
casual visitor. Those few seconds gave him a few yards’ start out of the sungur
again; but a shot at close quarters caught him in the back, broke his revolver,
travelled round his ribs, and bowled him over as he retired hastily down the hill
“ like a rabbit,” as he said. But he was none the worse for it! He lost his rifle, but
recovered it again a few days afterwards, during the general Afghan retreat. His
work in the Kuram earned him a brevet majority, and when the second phase of
the war broke out after Cavagnari’s massacre, he was again to the front on the
same line of advance, and under the same general. This time we worked together
(I had previously been on the Kandahar line) after we had joined our respective
surveys at a point on the Bala Hissar hill, overlooking the city of Kabul. During
the memorable winter which followed Woodthorpe and I shared our quarters in
* ‘ Account of the Lushai Expedition, 1871-72.’ Hurst & Blackett.