Our Family History
The Genealogy of the Story Family
Lt. Col. Robert Story
1854 - 1924 (70 years)
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Lt. Col. Robert Story - Diary notes 1880
Diary of his campaign in India. Notes by MN D-W
Notes from Letts No 35 Rough Diary or Scribbling Diary 1880 a week in each opening of two pages interleaved with blotting paper 1s 6d. An Indian edition with information about Indian parcel post, under contract with P&O Steamship Co.
Robert started a diary on Aug 6 the day after he left Multan on his first campaign. Students of Indian military history may follow his daily notes. Here in condensed form is what happened in:
August 1880
Set off by train, crossed the River Indus near Jacobabad "currently swift, horse boxes towed by steam barges" and on to Sibi. The men's kits and Robert's tent went astray on the second day out. Both men and horses suffered from heat and a lack of water at Sibi. Some men dies of heat fever & Robert and others were ill with fever. After a week Robert was sent back be train to find the lost kit.
He was back at Multan on the 18th and found Floré looking very well. He also heard that the lost kit had been found. Neither he nor Floré remained well and he spent until the 26th at home with two doctors disagreeing abiut whether he was fit for active service or not. Then he returned to Sibi and on to Pir Choki where he first mentions his Arab horse Hafiz - "he fights with Col. Hogges' horse having got away from Suk Lal."
One camp follower was shoten route as he did not answer to a challenge. "Very badly managed march".
September 1880
At 8am on Sep 1st Robert at North Kirta after a march of 19½ miles from Pir Choti. Here there was a small fort garrisoned by 50 men. He could bath in the River Bolen nearby, this river he had forded 17 times during the night's march.
For a week they marched at night distances between 29 miles and 6 miles through Quetta to Killa Abdullah where he found 4 letters from Floré but "no food for the horses and the tribes sulky". Floré was giving him an account of "selling off goods rapidly" prior to her departure for England. His list of forces in Killa Abdulla is as follows
- Parts of 8th B.C.
- 2 guns RHA
- 2 guns mule battery
- 1st Madras Cavalry
- 2nd BLC
- 63rd Regt
- 23rd Bombay NI
- 2nd Sind horse & details
He stayed at Killa Abdulla for the next fortnight. He went on a raid after animals and horse fodder, and explored the neighbourhood on foot and horseback, sometimes shooting game. "Floré wrote to say she sails in the Himalaya on the 20th" and again to say that the ship's sailing was delayed for three weeks.
On the 21st he went on a raid for fodder and this was where the shooting of women and child happened (his letter of 24th Oct), By the end of the month he was back at Quetta.
October 1880
For the first 12 days of October Robert remained at Quetta. He suffered from bouts of diarrhoea, as did almost everyone. There we accounts of the previous month's raids in the papers to read, and he did a certain amount of dining in and out, and riding to meet incoming units. He got letters from Floré and home.
On the 12th he set of once more for Sibi, the usual routine of "Rouse 4am, march 5am" going on average 20 miles and then stopping at the next camp about 11am. It was on the 16th when he was only 2 miles from Sibi that his horse Hafiz was shot & wounded in the neck (see his letter 24th Oct). The next day they got the bullet out and Hafiz seemed for the next few days to be getting better in spite of the temperature of 100 - 102 in the tent where he was, Robert rode borrowed horses and went out with his gun.
Friday 22nd: "Hafiz taken worse in afternoon, rode off and got two vets but it was too late - the horse died about 6pm from sympathetic fever & gangrene of his wound.
Robert kept the 4 hooves & later had them mounted in silver to make an ink stand.
Robert stayed in Sibi for the rest of the month shooting, trying out horses (unsucessfully) and doing various military duties. On the 30th he noticed his top lip swollen and the next day worse and pain in his right side.
Nov. 1880
Robert's face continued to swell and the 'rheumatism' came & went sometimes preventing him from sleeping & even lying down. On the 4th his left wye was closed by swelling & he was put on the sick list. It was diagnosed as erysipelis and he was recommended for two years sick leave home plus embarkation leave.
With his face still swelling Robert set off in a dholi (or doolie) on the 9th and was put on the train for Multan which he reached two days later and was taken to the hospital. Here he was under Dr. Hara "12 leeches on my jaw did me some good. 7 years service today".
The rest of the month he spent in Multan hospital. Gradually mentions his swollen face less and the 'lumbago' pain in his back more. This was diagnosed as rheumatic fever and got so bad that he was given morphine injections and could not sit up or move at all. He had frequent visitors and managed to keep his diary, but by the end of the month his writing was large and shaky.
Dec. 1880
Robert spent the whole of December in Multan hospital. Sometimes he says "getting better" and his writing becomes firm again but then "pain very severe, cannot sit up at all". He records letters from Floré and from Gib. & Portsmouth and again the next week from Floré, Mother and Louisa, and on the 14th "letters from Floré and Mrs Bush in answer to mine from Sibi". He had visitors most days.
For the whole of the last week of Dec. he gave up trying to keep a daily record, simply scrawling "pain very severe. No home letters" across the page.
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