Captain (Brevet Lieut-Colonel) Ernest Frederic David (1862-98)
/Captain (Brevet Lieut-Colonel) Ernest Frederic David is commemorated by a memorial in the North Quire Aisle.
During the re-conquest of the Sudan by General Kitchener Captain David now serving with the Egyptian Army was in command of the 4th Brigade of the Dongola Expeditionary Force, 1896.
The following extract from Winston Churchill's "River War" gives the account of the attempted ascent of the River Nile at the 4th Cataract on the 4th.August 1897.
On the 4th of August the gunboats El Teb and Tamaai approached the Fourth Cataract to ascend to the Abu Hamed- Berber reach of the river. Major David was in charge of the operation. Lieutenants Hood and Beatty (Royal Navy - later Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty) commanded the vessels. Two hundred men of the 7th Egyptians were towed in barges to assist in hauling the steamers in difficult places. The current was, however, too strong, and it was found necessary to leave three barges, containing 160 soldiers, at the foot of the rapids. Nevertheless, as the cataract was not considered a very formidable barrter, Major David determined to make the attempt.
Early on the 5th, therefore, the Tamaai tried the ascent. About 300 local Shaiggia tribesmen had been collected, and their efforts were directed - or as the results proved, misdirected- by those few of the Egyptian soldiers who had not been left behind.
The steamer, with her engines working at full speed, succeeded in mounting half the distance, but the rush of water was then so great that her bows were swept round, and, after a narrow escape of capsizing was carried swiftly downstream. After the El Teb had attempted the ascent and capsized, the operation was abandoned and a search for another passage was made. the passage upstream successfully accomplished.
This was found an ins brigade was promoted carraten; in 16 through the for after E.F. David became a Lieutenant in the Royal Merine Light Infantry on 1st September 1881, and was posted to the Chatham Division. He served in the Sudan 1884/5 and was part of the Naval Brigade which took part in the defence of Suakin. He took part in the battles of Hasheen and Tofrek*, at the engagement near Tofrek on 24th March 1885, and at the destruction of Tamaai. He received the Egypt Medal with clasps for Suakin 1885 and for Tofrek, together with The Khedive's Star. He was to see further action in the Sudan when it was re-conquered by Kitchener in 1896/8, by which time he was serving with the Egyptian Army.
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.
