LORD RAWLIN S ON T HERE are perhaps few emotions to which exile
does not add something of poignancy, and to those who in Delhi, or even in India; kept the vigil through the last days of Lord Rawlinson's life the impression is unforget- table. Intimacy, even affection, apart, never before had his personality stood so clear, made itself so felt. It was as if the threads of his influence, loosely flung over what is after all a continent rather than a country; had suddenly been drawn taut. It was more than anxiety, past anxiety, rather a suspension of time that merged day into day • and left them unnumbered. And when the curtain fell, on a heart so young, on a personality so vivid and challenging, the community amongst Whom he had spent the last four years of his life stood appalled and un- believing. Death they curiously felt might well threaten each and any amongst them but surely not the " Chief." And they mourned as men mourn for youth and the promise of life and yet doubly, as also for one to whom the gathered years had brought only an enriched humanity. It is in this dual capacity that they will remember him. A spirit so fresh and gallant, informed of youth, never tainted by doubt or fear, never saddened by the inevitable shadow of time, and yet a man who to the long service of his country had brought all the ripeness of experience, all those qualities of heart and mind which to-day remain still the foundation of her strength.
Of Lord Rawlinson's public services many have spoken, many have yet to speak, and perhaps the future alone can reveal his full significance in the long roll of India's soldiers. A military tradition such as she can boast is no mean heritage, and, if the task to which Lord Rawlinson was called was in some ways different from that of his predecessors, no man could have come to India at a more critical moment in her history, none could have given her more heart-whole and devoted service. He had known her when as a young man he had served on Lord Roberts' Staff ; he returned to her with his love of the Army deepened by the long experience that had made him step by step its leader. But he brought to India, too, a real appreciation of, and a loyal regard for, the new difficulties and problems which beset her. He worked with faith and courage and a force of example which could not but hearten all those with whom he came in contact.
Yet the commonplace of life is perhaps more the ulti- mate test of the individual than all the panoply of a great position and if, on Lord Rawlinson's death, the Comman- der-in-Chief was for a time lost sight of, surely, inasmuch as it came as a profound and personal shock to so many, therein lay only the better tribute. For it was his great- ness of character rather than any greatness of achievement they mourned ; a loss to a close knit community of race into every aspect and activity of which his influence had penetrated. To play he brought the same happiness of spirit, the same wideflung interest, and the same enthu- siasm as he -gave to his profession. Youth turned to him instinctively, I- think; and whether at polo, pigsticking, big game shooting or on long and often arduous treks in the hills, -he was not only and undoubtedly their leader . but also their equal and companion. True he gave freely of the affection he inspired. For he loved youth, the games of youth, the adventures of youth and brought to its interests the heart of a boy. He stood for hard work and hard play and his own life was the text and the sermon in one. Characteristically at polo he neither spared nor was spared, and often enough after the hot -weather had set in the Chiefs place in 'the. game, as he battled with some hard riding subaltern, • was marked only by a cloud of dust from which issued- a:dialogue as audible as it was trenchant. Then, too, there was -his painting—again so characteristic. Pictures done at top speed on some brief halt in his tours, sketches of his colleagues in the very sanctuary of their deliberations, the relaxations of pigsticking adorning the blotting paper of State Councils, all and equally a vivid diary of life and character, most of all perhaps his own. He seemed to vitalize everything he touched, his sense of humour and quick interest were unfailing and his presence alone stimulated the occupation of the moment, however trivial. Add to this the incomparable charm of per- sonality, the greatest and least definable of gifts.
His house was the inevitable reflection of his nature, and both he and Lady Rawlinson combined to make of it a centre of hospitality and welcome, entering so gener- ously into all the gaiety and fun to which indeed their presence was the one necessary -as it was the presiding factor. That hospitality is perhaps not the least part of the debt India owes them, certainly to the individual one of the greatest. Banishment from much that it so essentially represented gave it, of course, a special chann; but also a special value. Doomed at best to the peripatetic bungalow existence of the average soldier and official, the traditional atmosphere of Snowdon, the Commander- in-Chief's Simla home, informed as it was by the spirit of its host and hostess, became to the ex-patriated a source of real inspiration and refreshment. It was so markedly of England at England's best in meaning and essence.
Vitality is perhaps the most attractive human quality as personality is the most precious. Of both Lord Rawlinson had his full share, but the power and extent of his influence was, I think, founded on something more all embracing than these, something difficult to define except simply as a strong and definite faith, unhesitating though not unthinking, in God and man. It gave to his own nature a poise and reality which lesser men could not but feel though the cause went unrealized. To the last he loved life, yet fear was not in him. He had had to face none of the slow relinquishments of age ; still he looked forward not backward, and if ever there lived a spirit of which time and death itself cannot dim the 'memory it is his.
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