information and advice, and on the morning of the 26th went back to the shore with a fellow staff-officer, Captain Walford, and, on orders from General Hunter-Weston, took command of ‘V’ beach and of the attack on the village of Sedd-el-Bahr. Collecting remnants of the Munsters, Dublins, and Hampshires, he led a charge on the Old Castle, and captured it by 8 a.m. The village could only be approached through the castle, and here hand-to-hand fighting went on till noon, Doughty-Wylie, armed only with a cane, leading the rushes after Walford had been killed. Behind, on the left, lay the final objective, ‘Hill 141’, which commanded the beach. He went back to the shore to arrange for a preliminary bombardment of the hill by the ships. As soon as it ended he formed up his men, without waiting for reinforcements, and led them up in one rush through wire entanglements to the summit which was surrounded by a deep moat and crowned with a redoubt. The Turks fell back before his charge, and the hill, and with it the whole beach, were already won, when a bullet struck Doughty-Wylie in the head. He was buried where he fell, and to the end of the War at least the Turks respected his grave. Doughty-Wylie’s achievement in thus redressing a desperate situation at ‘V’ beach with previously shaken and dispirited troops almost deprived of officers, and the gallantry of his leadership and death were recognized by the posthumous award of the Victoria cross.
Tall, and slightly though vigorously built, Doughty-Wylie, with his fair complexion and keen blue eyes, was a typical officer of the old army, which had always held him in high esteem. He was an ardent sportsman, good rider, and good shot, who hunted big game as well as small, but he always retained the literary interests of a Winchester scholar. Simple, tenacious, chivalrous, and humorous, he quickly won sympathy and obedience, and was a born leader of fighting men.
A window and a tablet commemorate him in Theberton church, but no painted portrait is known to exist.
[The Times, 4 May 1915; The Bond of Sacrifice, vol. ii, n.d.; information from the Historical Section, Committee of Imperial Defence; private information.]
DOUGLAS, Sir CHARLES WHITTINGHAM HORSLEY (1850-1914), general, was born 17 July 1850 at the Cape of Good Hope, the second son of William Douglas, of Lansdown, near Bath, by his (second) wife, Caroline, daughter of Captain Joseph Hare. He entered the army (92nd Highlanders) in 1869, and became lieutenant two years later. He first saw active service as adjutant of his regiment in the Afghan War of 1879-1880. In this campaign he took part in (Earl) Roberts’s famous march from Kabul to Kandahar, and was present at the action of Kandahar on 1 September 1880. He served as captain with his regiment in the Boer War of 1880-1881, and was made brevet major in the latter year. His chief engagement in this campaign was the battle of Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881. Three years later he was given a staff appointment (deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general) for the Suakin expedition, and in 1885 was promoted to the substantive rank of major. In 1893 he was appointed brigade-major to the 1st infantry brigade, and two years later became lieutenant-colonel on his appointment as deputy assistant adjutant-general at Aldershot. He was promoted assistant adjutant-general, Aldershot, with brevet rank of colonel in 1898. In this year he was appointed aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria and made full colonel. He was engaged in the South African War (1899-1901), being at first assistant adjutant-general on the head-quarters staff of the South Africa field force, subsequently commanding the 9th brigade, and finally, in 1900, commanding a column of all arms of the South Africa field force, with the rank of major-general.
In 1901 Douglas was given the command of the 1st infantry brigade at Aldershot, and in the following year of the 2nd division of the first army corps. In 1904 he became adjutant-general at the War Office. He was one of the four generals who formed, with three civilian members and a secretary, the first Army Council under the system introduced by the Esher committee in 1904. In this appointment he was very closely associated with the many reforms effected by Viscount Haldane when secretary of state for war. His long experience in administrative posts made his services at the War Office, during this period of reorganization, of peculiar value; and, in 1909, when his term of duty there expired, he was made general officer commanding-in-chief, Southern command. In his second year as adjutant-general he was made lieutenant-general, and full general in 1910. He was created K.C.B. in 1907 and promoted G.C.B. in 1911. In 1912 he was appointed inspector-general, home forces, and carried out the duties of that
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