Colonel Richard Home (1837-1879)
/A window in the Presbytery is dedicated to Colonel Richard Home, leader of the Ashanti Expedition 1873-74 in what is now southern Ghana.
The memorial plaque to Colonel Robert Home is set in the south Quire Transept beneath a window representing the Roman centurion who was & man having authority, of whom Christ said, "I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." S.Luke VII. 9. Clayton & Bell, in place by 1883 (Palmer 1897, 106). The centurion's appeal to Christ for his servant's healing. The centurion dressed as a medieval knight, addresses Christ who is accompanied by two disciples. The scene is beneath an architectural canopy with lily flowers above.
In memory of Robert Home, C.B., Major, Royal Engineers, and Brevet Colonel, Assistant Quartermaster General, Intelligence Department, Who died 29th January, 1879 (aged 42) from illness Contracted while serving as Commissioner for The delimitation of the boundaries of Bulgaria.
He commanded the Royal Engineers In the Ashanti War, 1873-4.
Colonel Robert Home, C.B. obtained his commission in the Royal Engineers in 1856, having joined the Practical Class direct, by an open competition, in the previous year. He passed through Staff College with great distinetion in 1860, and in 1865 went to Canada.
Whilst on service in that country he drew up a report on the defence of the frontier against American invasion, which especially attracted the attention of the Commander-in-Chief, who noted its author for special employment." In 1867 he was appointed Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General at Aldershot, and in 1871 he was transferred to what was then know as the Topographical Department (now the Intelligence Branch). Whilst in that position he worked out all the details of the scheme for the mobilization of the army. In 1873 he accompanied Sir Garnet Wolseley, as his commanding Royal Engineer, in the Ashanti Campaign, for which he received the brevet of Ileutenant Colonel, the war medel, and a C.B. On his return from the Gold Coast, he resumed his duties at the Intelligence department. In 1876 he was sent to Constantinople, to draw up & scheme for its defence. His reports were considered so able that he was rewarded with the brevet of Colonel. The work he did in this quarter proved what a grasp he had of all the details of the much-vexed Eastern question, and he became in consequence the trusted adviser of the highest authorities on this subject. He served as Chief Commissioner for the delimitation of the Romanian Boundary. His health which had been undermined by his campaign on the Gold Coast, now broke down, and he succumbed to an attack of typhoid fever at the beginning of 1879.
Colonel Home was the author of "A Precis of Modern Tactics," which is universally considered the best tactical work in the English language.
Short as his career was, he had shown himself to be a man of extraordinary ability, and he impressed all those with whom he was brought in contact with a sense of his marvellous powers of organization, as well as grasp of detail.
The "Times" said of him:-
"It can very rarely happen that a man should have been so little before the nation, and should yet have performed for 1t such signal services as Colonel Home.
He was but forty-one years old, yet his reputation was solidly established among those who would certainly hereafter have entrusted him with more extended responsibility, and his name would probably then have become a household word among the thousands who have now never heard of him.
....de"For few men of those who knew him have predicted a more brilliant career, and many better known men could have been better spared by both State and Army.
The very energy with which he devoted himself to public work has deprived the nation of one of its most valuable servants."
The "Pall Mall Gazette" wrote of him:-
"A man died early on Thursday morning of whom it may truly be said that, though his services and his name were barely known to the public at all, yet during the last few years those services have been almost the first rank in political or military life."
A MProvisional Inventory of Royal Engineers, Ordnance Department Staff and Royal Engineer Department Staff, , Halifax, Nova Scotia", produced by J.Greenough, Jan.1978, states that Lieut. Robert Home served in Halifax 1857-61.
This geems to be at variance with the statement made in the biographical sketch given above and which was taken from the "History of the Corps of Royal Engineers" vol. II.
The history also says that he was a member of the Romanian Boundary Commission, whereas hig memorial gives his post as a member of the Bulgarian Commission.
From the notebooks ‘The Naval and Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral’ (1979)
by Roy Trett, OBE, TD,
Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library
Seventy-two brilliant stained glass windows were installed by prominent glaziers Clayton & Bell during the 1870s and 1880s.
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.
