Captain Richard Nicholls Buckle and other casualties of the Anglo-Ashanti wars, 1873-1874
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Captain Richard Nicholls Buckle and other casualties of the Anglo-Ashanti wars
1873-1874
August 28, 1983
A window in the Presbytery is dedicated to Captain Richard Nicholls Buckle and other casualties of the Ashanti Expedition 1873-74 in what is now southern Ghana.
A plaque beneath the window records:
In memory of Richard Nicholls Buckle, Captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers, who at the Battle of Amoa ful, on the 31st January, 1874, was killed, gallantly opening a passage through a dense jungle in advance of the European Troops, with a party of unarmed Fanti labourers. Also in memory of Lance-Sergeant William Masters, Lance-Sergeant William Barthorpe, and Sapper William Stephens of the 28th Company, Royal Engineers, who during the Ashanti Expedition, 1873-4, died of fever contracted in the swamps of Africa.
Inserted by the Corps of Royal Engineers.
Captain R. N. Buckle was educated at Eton and was commissioned from the Royal Military Acadamy on 22nd June 1858, being fourth in his batch. He served in England and the Channel Islands until April 1862 and then in Gibraltar. In 1865 he went to China, serving in Japan and Hong Kong until 1868 when he was appointed Assistant Surveyor General of the Colony.
In 1871 he returned home and was given command of 18th Company at the School of Military Engineering. He then moved to Woolwich and on the 14th December 1871 was promoted Captain.
A portrait of Capt. Buckle in later life is in the Royal Collection Trust.
Photos of Captain Richard Nicholls Buckle in the scrapbook of R. J. Trett, Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library.
The Anglo-Ashanti wars were a series of five conflicts that took place between 1824 and 1900 between the Ashanti Empire—in the Akan interior of the Gold Coast—and the British Empire and its African allies. In 1873 a strong force of Ashanti tribesmen attacked Cape Coast at the instigation of King Coffee Kalkali, who resented the take-over of the port of Elmina by the British from the Dutch.
A punitive expedition was mounted in 1873 under the command of Major General Sir Garnet Wolseley, among whose troops was a small party of Royal Engineers under the command of Colonel Home (commemorated in the window next to this). Buckle was transferred to the R:E. train to take command of B troop in March 1873, but having volunteered, he was ordered to the West Coast of Africa to serve in the force commanded by Wolseley
Buckle remained at Cape Coast Castle except for the times when he went forward to put certain places in a state of defence.
The British troops suffered badly from disease, and when Major Home,* who commanded the Royal Engineers, was sent to the coast suffering from fever, Captain Buckle went to the front to take his place.
On 31 Jan. 1874 the force had feached Amoaful where the Ashanti forces were present in large numbers. It was extremely difficult for the British forces to find the enemy since the Ashantis were invisible in the thick bush. It was in an attempt to clear a way through the dense undergrowth that Capt. Buckle was killed.
On the advance to Amoaful.......... Having cut to the utmost limit in that direction, Captain Buckle R.E., in charge of the Engineer labourers, commenced cutting north, and endeav-ouring to urge his labourers on to keep pace with the rapid advance of the 42nd down to the hollow on the right. But so heavy a fire was brought to bear by the enemy on the head of the path thus being cut that its progress was much delayed. The labourers of the party began to fall rapidly and were only induced to continue the work by the noble example of Captain Buckle, who fell mortally wounded while urging them on.....
Many of the 42nd were lying badly wounded on the ground, and many more were returning wounded from the front. Captain Buckle was dying.
In despatches Colonel M°Leod brought to notice the gallantry of Captain Buckle.
From "The Ashanti War" by Henry Brackenbury Captain R.A. (later Major General) Assistant Military Secretary to Sir Garnet Wolseley.
Eventually the force broke out into the clearing before Amoaful and the village was taken.
The chief regiments were the 23rd and 42nd. The natives greatly outnumbered the British force but their ancient muskets were no match for the more modern rifles and artillery of their opponents. The expedition ended with the capture of Kumassi, the Ashanti Capital, but this was only achieved after very heavy bush fighting. It was found to have been the site of many revolting sacrifices and atrocities and was burnt to the ground.
The following is an extract from Major Home's despatch, dated Amoaful, 1st.Feb. 1874.
"I deeply regret that it becomes my painful duty to report the death of Captain Buckle R.E. who was shot through the heart yesterday while performing a difficult and dangerous duty, in a manner which excited the admiration of all who saw him. Captain Buchle's loss is a very serious one to the Corps and the Expedition. Ever cheery and in good spirits, he did his work with a will I have never seen sur-passed, and I shall always feel grateful for the support and assistance he has given me.
Extract from a letter from Colonel Greaves, Chief of Staff from Egimanna, received March 7th. 1874.
" I have often said to myself I will write but have never had time. Now I must find time, because I want to tell you about poor Buckle. I never knew him before; but no one could be associated with him without seeing at once what a fine, clever fellow he was, so modest and quiet too with it all.
Poor Buckle - the Army as well as the R.E. have sustained a great loss in him. I saw a great deal of him at times and never was more impressed with any man in my life. I did not see him shot, but immediately afterwards, and Colonel McLeod reports that he was behaving most gallantly at the time of receiving his wound."
The above information was taken from the R.E.Journal for 1874.
*Major Home, who commanded the Royal Engineers in the Ashanti War, is also commemorated in the Cathedral.
From the notebooks ‘The Naval and Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral’ (1979)
by Roy Trett, OBE, TD,
Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library
The medieval tombs of the Presbytery and Quire Transept have had a tortured history which many effigies apparently moved and several defaced along with the medieval memorials and brasses over the Early Modern period.
Rochester Cathedral features an exceptionally large collection of Colonial-era military memorials and artefacts. This series has begun to highlight the stories behind these collections and their place in our global heritage.
