Beresford set his hand to the task of rebuilding a regiment, and his methods excited the admiration of the regimental surgeon, James McGrigor; himself later to achieve fame in the Peninsula.17 This early dedication to and demonstration of a professional approach to the welfare and training of the regiment was to be repeated frequently in his later life resulting in the appreciation and high regard held for his organisational skills by other officers.
William’s father’s fears of a carribean sojourn were nearly realised in the autumn of 1795. The 88th was part of a force destined for service in the West Indies later that year under Sir Ralph Abercromby, but the fleet, and indeed the regiment, became widely dispersed as a result of severe storms and as a consequence most of it returned home. Beresford was granted three months leave of absence in 1796.18 Between 1797 and 1798, the 88th and Beresford were stationed in Jersey for the defence of that island.19 It was a not unimportant posting as the French were once again rumoured to be threatening the Channel Isles, which they had invaded as recently as 1779 and 1781. In later life Beresford was Governor of the island, from 1821 to 1854, a thirty-year period that is still commemorated by a street named after him in the capital, St Helier.
In 1797, Richard Wellesley (then Earl of Mornington) was appointed Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William in India, an appointment which he was to hold until 1805.20 His younger brother, Arthur Wellesley, later to become the Duke of Wellington, took a leading military role in the ensuing Indian wars which effectively extinguished resurgent French ambitions in the subcontinent and laid the ground for the development of British power there.21 Beresford was sent to India with the 88th regiment to join a force under Sir David Baird, but he arrived at Bombay in June 1800 after the fall of Seringapatam (May 1799) had ended the resistance of Tipu Sultan, who was killed at that time.
Beresford’s career was to be linked with that of Baird rather than Arthur Wellesley for the next seven years, notwithstanding his request to the Governor-General of India to serve under Arthur following his arrival in India, a wish that Richard Wellesley was happy to accede to in circumstances which imply a good relationship between the two families.22 In late 1800, a British expedition from India under Arthur Wellesley was planned with two potentially rather different objectives; Batavia and/or Mauritius. However, following instructions received from England the destination was changed, and Marquess Wellesley, as Richard had now become, appointed Baird to command an expeditionary force to go to Egypt, much to his brother Arthur’s chagrin.
It was intended this expedition should assist and join with the army under Sir Ralph Abercromby, at that time engaged in an attempt to dislodge Napoleon’s army from Egypt. The Governor-General of India appointed his brother Arthur as second in command under Baird, but Arthur was taken ill with fever in Bombay and never joined Baird’s expeditionary force.23 Thus Beresford was denied the opportunity at this date to serve under Arthur Wellesley. In December 1800, Beresford, who had been appointed to command the first brigade, was ordered to prepare to sail with secret orders from Bombay. He arrived in Bombay ahead of Baird and by the time the latter reached Bombay, Beresford had himself sailed (before 3 April 1801) for Egypt with six transports containing troops and provisions. Wellesley, whose illness seems to have involved a recurrence of a previously debilitating fever, arrived in Bombay on 23 March and seems to have been actively involved in the preparations for the expedition.
Beresford’s force put in to Mocha (the Yemen) on 21 April and sailed again the following day, without disclosing his destination to the Resident, Mr Pringle. Clearly he was not going to breach his secret orders. Colonel John Murray, who was Quartermaster General on Baird’s staff, had also gone ahead of Baird with a separate detachment. Baird became concerned that Beresford and Murray would join up and attack Kosseir (Al Qusair) on the Red Sea coast of Egypt before they had adequate numbers to ensure success. A messenger was sent after Beresford to tell him to meet Baird at Jeddah on the Arabian coast, but the messenger did not find either Beresford or Murray. Baird’s concern rose because in May 1799 the French under Belliard had captured and subsequently garrisoned Kosseir, and in the following year driven off a British force which had inflicted considerable damage on the fort. In fact the French subsequently abandoned the fort, but not before attempting to poison the wells.
Richard Wellesley’s instructions to Baird were to conciliate the Arab chiefs (including the Sheriff of Mecca, the Imam of Sana and the Sultan of Aden) to ensure, if possible, their support for the British, or at the least to obtain their neutrality. This was no foregone conclusion, given the desire of at least some to see weakened Britain’s ally, the Ottoman Empire. Baird eventually reached Jeddah, having himself called at Mocha, on 18 May where he learnt that the British force under Sir Ralph Abercromby had won a signal victory against the French in Lower Egypt on 21 March, though Abercromby himself had lost his life in the engagement. He was told also that Murray and Beresford had headed up the Gulf of Suez. In fact they had already landed at Kosseir on 16 May and were making preparations to cross the desert with a view to reaching Cairo. While Baird was engaged in diplomacy with Arab leaders, Sir Home Popham arrived in Kosseir from the Cape of Good Hope with further reinforcements. Baird, Popham and Beresford were to be involved again in interesting circumstances some five years later.
Baird caught up with Beresford and Murray at Kosseir on 8 June. At that stage Murray and Romney had apparently already made one abortive attempt to cross the desert from Kosseir to Ghennah (also Ghenné, Kenné, or Qena) on the Nile. Kosseir and its immediate environs were pretty inhospitable, as described by the Count de Noé, an officer serving with the 10th Regiment of Foot: ‘I shall never forget the deep impression of melancholy made upon my mind by the first sight of this desolate coast. Such barrenness, such solitude, such a total and wretched absence of every thing like verdure or foliage, except indeed in the shape of a few blighted date trees. The heart shuddered at the idea of even a temporary residence upon its arid shores.’
The challenge of how to transport an army of in excess of 6,000 across 120 miles of desert in blistering heat was a considerable one.24 It involved the purchase of camels, horses and bullocks, but most importantly the securing of supplies of water.25 Baird sent out advance parties to dig new wells along the route and provided for each detachment to carry with it a large quantity of water sacks (mussacks), though these ultimately proved problematic as a number leaked.
The first corps ordered to begin the ‘perilous march’, being the 88th Regiment and the Bombay sepoys, was that commanded by Beresford, which set off to Moilah where there was water and provisions. However, the wells built at various points proved insufficient and Baird was forced to delay sending the second body of men while the camels carried further water supplies to Beresford and his men.26 Ultimately the entire force, less three who had died on the way, reached Ghennah (via Legeta), which Baird reported on 24 June was to be the intermediate destination of the 88th Regiment (Connaught Rangers), but not before Baird had been forced by the conditions to send his cannon back to Kosseir.27 The troops suffered from dysentery, and Baird was perhaps fortunate to lose only three men on a journey which had been described some twenty-five years earlier, by the explorer James Bruce, in the following terms:
Our road was all the way on an open plain, bounded by hillocks of sand and fine gravel, perfectly hard, and not perceptible above the level of the plain country of Egypt. About twelve miles distant there is a ridge of mountains, of no considerable height, perhaps the most barren in the world – between them our road lay, through plains near three miles broad, but without trees, shrubs, or herbs; there are not even the traces of any living creatures, neither serpent nor lizard, antelope nor ostrich, the usual inhabitants of the most dreary deserts; there is no sort of water on the surface, brackish or sweet; even the birds seem to avoid the place as pestilential, not having seen one of any kind so much as flying over. The sun was burning hot, and upon rubbing two sticks together, in half a minute they flamed.28
Once at Ghennah, Baird prepared to move his force by boat down the Nile with Cairo as his objective. Unbeknownst to Baird, Cairo had surrendered to the British on 27 June, as Baird’s army was