Wheeling into line........2nd September 1898

"............I then heard the joggle of troops wheeling and looking back saw the Regiment wheeled into line and immediately conformed. I heard no order or trumpet to wheel into line or charge. We galloped over the snipers and then discovered a crowd of Dervishes in the wadi behind them....The Regiment presented a wonderful sight with lances down and with a better line than you could obtain in a practice charge nine times out of ten. I was lucky that my troop on the extreme left of the line hit the wadi on the straight where the water had not scooped out any steep banks....An instant before I glanced to my right and saw some brave little men on foot draw swords from their armpits and rush to certain deaths on the oncoming lances......I snatched out my .450 Webley and cleared a way for my Arab pony through the crowd....When I pulled up on the far bank of the wadi, there was my dear old Troop Serjeant at my elbow........"