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Commander Wyatt Rawson.
Oh! wheresoever Christians seek their Lord
And know Him in a life not idly poured,
But, at the desperate call that holds in fee
The bravest answer, poured unsparingly—
The cost unrecked, the hazard hardly scored,—
Obedience only waiting duty's word
To dare death's worst—who seek will meet with thee.
Fresh in the north's intolerable night,
Lending thy comrades thine own body's fire,
Or, in close commune with Egyptian stars,
The guide of moonless squadrons to the fight,
Thyself to fall—thy fame to mount up higher.
Commander Wyatt Rawson was wounded in the Ashantee War at Amoaful. With Captain Nares' expedition to the Arctic, he distinguished himself by giving up his own body's warmth, night after night, in a perilous sledge journey, to keep his frost-bitten comrades alive. He was shot down in the van of the English troops, as he led them through the night, guiding them by the stars, to the attack of Tel-el-Kebir.
The despatch of Sir Garnet Wolseley, dated Cairo, September 24, 1882, runs as follows:—
“Of my Aides-de-Camp I have to regret the loss of Lieutenant Rawson, of the Royal Navy, who was mortally wounded at Tel-el-Kebir. During the many journeys I made by night, I found him of great use in directing our line of march correctly, through his knowledge of the stars. On the 13th instant, I consequently selected him to conduct the Highland Brigade during the night, to the portion of the enemy's works where I explained to him I wished them to storm. This duty he performed with the utmost coolness and success, but lost his life in its execution. No man more gallant fell on that occasion.”
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