Hull Packet & East Riding Times
13 Feb 1880
'Everybody's Column'
OUR 4TH EAST YORK – "Once an Artilleryman" writes: –
Sir, – Will you allow me a bit of your space in which to ask – Can it possibly be true that the town has not yet heard the last of a squabble amongst a few of the officers (or ex-officers) of the 4th E.Y.A.V., and that the restless spirit of ambition which hankers in the brain of a certain "ex-Rifleman" continues to exhibit itself in so relentless a manner as to refuse to acknowledge without a dying struggle the crushing defeat which it so recently received at the hands of the War Office?
Although the manner in which the Colonel Commandant (assisted by his oldest commissioned and non-commissioned officers) carries out his duties as an officer has not only been highly approved of both at York and in London (as evidenced by the report of the recent official court of inquiry, and again more recently confirmed by the War Office), but also popularly accepted by the members (as proved by the exceptionally small number of retirements at the close of the year), the dissensions of a certain clique, so it is rumoured, will shortly form the subject of a question in Parliament.
If such is the case the object is no doubt either to place "unscrupulous ambition" "a stake higher up the ladder," or, failing that, to get the corps altogether disbanded; for the military authorities will not be continually pestered with the whimsical notions of a man who has tried two branches of the service and found neither of them (in the subordinate position which he has held) of sufficient magnitude for his ability!
Against either end being attained surely there is spirit enough to be found in Hull's townsmen to rally round a gentleman who has spent nearly half a lifetime in raising and bringing to perfection one of the finest brigades in the kingdom, a corps of which many towns twice the size of Hull would be proud. If the rumour to which I refer be well founded it is to be hoped the public will at once take the matter up, and not wait until irreparable mischief has been done. It has a right to do so, for the corps is partly kept going by the liberal subscriptions of private individuals.
My own opinion is that the more "further enquiries" are made the greater will be the victory of the present commanding officer. Of one thing I am quite certain, and that is that the "bone and sinew" of the regiment will stick to him to the last; and should he ever be replaced against his wish the flag which has so long proudly floated over his fine barracks will, literally speaking, ever afterwards hang "Half-mast high."
P.S. – I would respectfully suggest that if there is any "malcontent" in the brigade whose ambitions aim at a colonelcy he should apply for permission to form an Engineer Corps; plenty of room could be found for barracks on the Citadel site, and a two-fold object could be attained – the defence of the Humber and – its adjacent timber ponds.
Notes
- What were timber ponds, one might well wonder?
[The following text refers to the Clyde rather than the Humber, but the techniques were just the same]
The lines of wooden posts along the Clyde's southern shore between Langbank and Port Glasgow that can be seen sticking out of the sand at low tide date from the 18th century and are a remnant of the local shipbuilding industry.
These 'timber ponds' were where the numerous shipyards on the lower Clyde once stored the vast quantities of timber required for the construction of wooden vessels in order to season it.
The uncut logs were unloaded down-river, chained together and floated to the ponds where storage would be, depending on the type of wood, its owner and the stage of its
The tidal action over a period of time saturated the logs with salt water and prevented them from rotting or warping when they were subsequently used in ship construction and ensured watertight hulls.
By 1914 shipbuilders were increasingly turning to pre-cut timber and steel as the favoured construction materials and the uncut seasoned timber from the log ponds fell out of favour.
By 1919 the ponds had been all but abandoned. However, the salt water has preserved the posts just as it once preserved the logs they held.