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Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:03 pm

Sapper

I'm responding here to the question which you posed on another thread in a different section, where it would be lost among the TV and Film discussions.

As you probably know, HJ Degacher was born in France, at Saint-Omer. His mother was Mathilde Degacher, so the change of surnames you ask about involved his mother's maiden name.

According to a little piece by FWD Jackson in No 277, Vol LXIX (Spring 1991) of the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, "the Hitchcocks settled at Saint-Omer and in the 1870s adopted the name of Degacher." The timing of this name change might appear to be questionable as presumably their sons had carried the French surname long before that? However, it is not for me to question David Jackson, so someone can correct me there if I've erred.

The particularly interesting thing about David Jackson's piece is that he makes the fascinating point that Alphonse de Neuville (apparently properly Deneuville) was also a native of Saint-Omer, and that the Degacher brother who died at Isandlwana (William) had undergone part of his schooling in the town. Jackson again: "HJ Degacher is said [my italics] to have produced the sketches of R/Drift which Deneuville used for his famous painting." Other authorities are less tentative, as witness Ian Knight's caption to these coloured sketches in Nothing Remains But to Fight, so for the sake of argument we'll assume this point to be so. (See also below).

Jackson then writes: "..the presumption is irrestible that a personal relationship between the British colonel and the French artist was the picture's origin. It is noteworthy that the central figure in the painting is not Chard but Bromhead of the 24th." (Thanks to Martin Everett for providing me with a copy of this article some years ago).

Jackson appears to have hit the nail on the head, notwithstanding the connection between HJD and de Neuville being no more than a presumption on his part. In a 19-page description of de Neuville's painting (in what I take to be a brochure/catalogue published by the Fine Art Society accompanying the picture's exhibition, c1880?, but undated so I can't be certain) it is stated: "...he had the benefit of all forms of topographical record; official plans, Major Chard's sketches, the plans, drawings and notes made on the spot by Colonel Degacher (in whom Monsieur de Neuville recognised an old schoolfellow at the military school of St Omer) the day after the action."

This would appear to indicate that not only did HJ as well as William go to school in St Omer (Mac & Shad gives the Imperial College there for William) but that de Neuville was a school fellow of at least one of them.

In the Jackson piece, the writer records that Godwin-Austen advised the pronunciation was as in "D'gahsher."

Incidentally, besides Chard's and Degacher's sketches, the artist had sittings with Chard, Smith and Reynolds and contact with relatives of Bromhead and Dalton, along with photographs. He also studied soldiers of the 24th as they arrived at Portsmouth. In fact Smith, almost as central as Bromhead in the painting, is much nearer the foreground and therefore even more prominent. Reynolds and Dalton, even nearer, also get their reward for "assistance"! Coincidentally, Hitch VC was already employed by the Fine Art Society as a commisionaire at their gallery (assuming 1880 was the date of the painting's completion).

While I'm on, does anyone know where de Neuville lived while in England? I suspect he was soon in France again. And was Lady Butler's painting also completed in 1880?

Peter

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:26 pm

Thinking about Degacher again today, I realise I misread Mac & Shad's statement about Degacher's education at "Imperial College, St Omer and Rugby" as it surely means Imperial College and St Omer and Rugby - in other words, our Imperial College (i.e. in London).

His St Omer education is unaffected by this, as at least one source confirms he went to school there, and the brochure/catalogue I mentioned above states that the surviving brother also went to the military school there and had been a school fellow of de Neuville.

I'm sure you already know, Graham, that William Degacher was also grandfather of the great David Niven (as I think Julian Whybra and others pointed out on the forum some time back). William Degacher's daughter, Henriette Julia, who lost her father at Isandlwana and then her husband at Suvla, could hardly have been the poor victim of two more calamitous military disasters!

Peter

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:20 pm

Peter..good question on de Neuville's residence in London....if known could be a mention for the "blue plaque"??

I checked and found it interesting that de Neuville's famous Rorke's Drift painting is not in the UK or Wales but in Australia. Now the Australians had nothing to do with Rorke's Drift or the AZW for that matter but it appears that culturally it hit something in them and they had to have it paying 2000 pounds for it.