rorkesdriftvc.com :: View topic

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:40 pm

It must be ages since there has been a brain teaser here, so I'll offer the following:

On the slopes of different mountains two future generals survived a dishing up in style. Was the younger, perhaps, related to someone well versed in that particular impi? No such consanguinity links our fourth man with the elder, despite the latter's return visit to the decorated slopes.

Just name the four men for me, please. It really shouldn't take more than a few seconds, so I'll apologise in advance to our Antipodean contributors, who will wake up only after it is all done & dusted.

Peter

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:55 pm

Peter, I'll go for Smith Dorrien and Ian Hamilton for the first two, and leave the other two a while...... Ian

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:33 pm

Woody

Right, we've made a start. One of your answers is correct, being one of the four names I want. But which one? (Sorry, can't make it that easy!)

Keep going ...

P.

P.S. Once JY has locked up every GP in the metropolis, I'm sure you'll have some competition.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:43 pm

Hi, Peter, Along with Smith-Dorrien, how about William Penn-Symons of the 24th who was lucky enough to be away from the massacre at Isandlwana being with Chelmsford, and he, as a general, was later killed in the 2nd Boer War at Talana. Also Redvers Buller comes to mind being at the Hlobane debacle and later, as a general, didn't do so well in the 2nd Boer War. Ron Sheeley

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:02 pm

Hi Ron

Good to hear from you! Well, that's two going for Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, so it looks as if we're firming up on him. Excellent. Neither Penn Symons nor Buller will do, but you have noticed that I began with "different mountains."

I smell progress ... the rest of you over the pond have all day yet, but I suspect the 'Boks are now sleeping on it - we, too, soon. But is that the Kiwis and Aussies I hear stirring already?

Peter

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:03 am

"Different mountains" - one wonders if you're refering to Khambula as the other mountain? I can't offer names but was just wondering....

Dawn

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 8:38 am

Dawn

Thanks for your input. I'm not sure, however, that Khambula would be described as a mountain - more a collection of grassy mounds and hollows? It could be argued, of course, that nor is Isandlwana strictly a mountain, but it is certainly a recognisable crag and often referred to as a mountain.

Nevertheless, you and Ron do seem to be homing in fast on the elder and hardly need more than a nudge.

Peter

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:58 am

Smith-Dorrien, Wood and Woodgate, Black.

How's that - he said speculatively Question

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 12:20 pm

Mike

You have completed the pair of future generals, the elder being Wood. So we're half way there.

I'm tempted to provide a little clue to help things along, but suddenly I notice JY off duty and joining the fray, so perhaps not yet ...

P.

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:12 pm

Prince Imperial for a third?

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:26 pm

Mike

No, not he. Am I to take it that the words I have used to describe the defeat in my first sentence have gone entirely unrecognised by such a peerless group of Victorian military afficionados? Surely not!

P.

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:29 pm

'Well versed' - 'dishing up in style' sounds like Rudyard Kipling to me.

Now back to the theatre of operations! Or should that be the operation theatre?

By the way if anyone attempted to e-mail me over the last month, my computer crashed during my Grecian sojourn, but I was able to make some comments on the site via my mobile.

John Y.

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:51 pm

Well done, John. That's three out of the four, although the speculation I posed on any relationship has to be established yet, but I'm sure that will follow quickly from someone.

Get those handcuffs into action & then back here for the fourth man.

P.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:29 am

Lost all internet connection since yesterday afternoon but on re-connection I see that it would appear my clues are rather oblique for some - or should I say fuzzy?

Establish why I enquired about a potential connection/relationship between Smith-Dorrien and Kipling and the identity of the "fourth man" (sounds like the Cambridge spy ring!) will simply fall into your laps, although there are sufficient clues already to enable him to emerge without further assistance. And if that did happen, he and the elder general will, between them, immediately solve the "link" between S-D and RK anyway!

P.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 7:30 pm

Well, I certainly didn't expect this one to last two hours, let alone more than two days! Can't have you falling asleep over it, so I'll release another clue - and this one will clinch it very quickly for you all.

Right - here we go:

Among other things, the fourth man is a contributor to this forum.

If that doesn't bring a name in pretty quickly, I don't know what will. Everything will then - I hope! - fall into place, although I'll provide chapter & verse once the the fourth name comes in. There are around nine clues (many inter-linked and therefore worth "double") in the three short sentences already, plus the odd hints since Tuesday.

Pete

P.S. I'm going to bed around 11 or so!