Only three or four senior officers and officials served continuously in the Crimea from the landing on 14 September 1854 to the Treaty of Paris in March 1856. One of them was William Govett Romaine. Born in 1816, he graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1839. After practising his profession in the courts for fifteen years he was appointed Deputy Judge-Advocate General 1 to the Army of the East, landed in Constantinople on 8 May 1854, and remained with the army in that post until the end of the war.
Romaine was the most senior civilian in Lord Raglan's headquarters. He was called 'the eye of the army' by Raglan, was quoted by Kinglake as his source for the chronology of the actions in the battle of the Alma, and was regarded by the editor of The Times as a better source of information than the official despatches.
A skilled administrator, Romaine was soon involved in matters beyond his proper role. Raglan relied on him for correspondence with the Sanitary Commissioners, and when he made suggestions to Quartermaster General Airey for improvements to the organisation of the Land Transport Corps and the running of the railway, Airey promptly turned their implementation over to him.
Throughout the war Romaine kept both a diary and a notebook, the former a review of the day's events written up in the evening in his hut, the latter carried in his pocket for on-the-spot notes of events as they occurred. After the war he copied these two sources into a single combined account which he passed to Kinglake. The volume presented here begins in early 1855. It contains a reference to an earlier volume for 1854, which does not appear to have survived.
Romaine took a keen interest in all aspects of the Crimean campaign, touring the field of operations and recording significant events. He was on familiar terms with Divisional Generals and with Headquarters staff, and recorded their comments along with his own observations. The journal includes his sometimes savage judgement on the conduct of the campaign and on the quality of individual officers. Some of his views came to the notice of Government Ministers and the press. A leading article in The Times of 6 November 1854, critical of both the speed and content of news from the Crimea, suggested "Let someone at headquarters - why not the Judge-Advocate, a most efficient penman? - be charged with the duty of preparing intelligible bulletins."
After the war Romaine was awarded the Order of the Bath, but his dream of a political career ended when he was defeated as Liberal candidate for Chatham in 1857. He was appointed as second secretary to the Admiralty. Later he served four years in India as Judge-Advocate General, and subsequently held appointments at the Egyptian Treasury. He retired in 1879 and died in England in 1893 at the age of 76.
Romaine's journal has never been published before. It gives a human dimension to the realities of war. A vivid picture emerges of Romaine's personal living conditions in a cold and leaking hut, of his walks around the battle area, dodging shot and shell, measuring the depth of shell craters with his umbrella, of his after-dinner talks with young officers who had premonitions of death in the morrow's action. He records not only the details of bombardments and assaults, of burials under truce, of casualties and damage, but also the gossip and rumours, the inside accounts of how decisions were made, and the old generals' reminiscences of Wellington and Waterloo. It is occasionally illustrated by Romaine's own pen sketches.
The notebook also contains an extract dated 19 January 1856 from Macaulay’s History of England, headed “Defence of Military Law.”
The journal is now in the collection of the Cambridge University Library. The reference is :- CUL Add.9554/4
Notes
1. The post of Judge-Advocate General was a political appointment with responsibilities for military law. Its incumbent was a member of the Government. The day to day routine work of the department was carried out by the Deputy Judge-Advocate General, a salaried civil servant.
Charles Pelham Villiers MP was Judge-Advocate General from 1852 to 1858, and S C Denison was his Deputy Judge-Advocate General in London.
Additional Deputy Judge-Advocates General could be appointed for armies in the field. Romaine's post was such an appointment for the Army of the East. (The army in India warranted its own Judge-Advocate General, a post which Romaine held later in his career.)
Only three or four senior officers and officials served continuously in the Crimea from the landing on 14 September 1854 to the Treaty of Paris in March 1856. One of them was William Govett Romaine. Born in 1816, he graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1839. After practising his profession in the courts for fifteen years he was appointed Deputy Judge-Advocate General 1 to the Army of the East, landed in Constantinople on 8 May 1854, and remained with the army in that post until the end of the war.
Romaine was the most senior civilian in Lord Raglan's headquarters. He was called 'the eye of the army' by Raglan, was quoted by Kinglake as his source for the chronology of the actions in the battle of the Alma, and was regarded by the editor of The Times as a better source of information than the official despatches.
A skilled administrator, Romaine was soon involved in matters beyond his proper role. Raglan relied on him for correspondence with the Sanitary Commissioners, and when he made suggestions to Quartermaster General Airey for improvements to the organisation of the Land Transport Corps and the running of the railway, Airey promptly turned their implementation over to him.
Throughout the war Romaine kept both a diary and a notebook, the former a review of the day's events written up in the evening in his hut, the latter carried in his pocket for on-the-spot notes of events as they occurred. After the war he copied these two sources into a single combined account which he passed to Kinglake. The volume presented here begins in early 1855. It contains a reference to an earlier volume for 1854, which does not appear to have survived.
Romaine took a keen interest in all aspects of the Crimean campaign, touring the field of operations and recording significant events. He was on familiar terms with Divisional Generals and with Headquarters staff, and recorded their comments along with his own observations. The journal includes his sometimes savage judgement on the conduct of the campaign and on the quality of individual officers. Some of his views came to the notice of Government Ministers and the press. A leading article in The Times of 6 November 1854, critical of both the speed and content of news from the Crimea, suggested "Let someone at headquarters - why not the Judge-Advocate, a most efficient penman? - be charged with the duty of preparing intelligible bulletins."
After the war Romaine was awarded the Order of the Bath, but his dream of a political career ended when he was defeated as Liberal candidate for Chatham in 1857. He was appointed as second secretary to the Admiralty. Later he served four years in India as Judge-Advocate General, and subsequently held appointments at the Egyptian Treasury. He retired in 1879 and died in England in 1893 at the age of 76.
Romaine's journal has never been published before. It gives a human dimension to the realities of war. A vivid picture emerges of Romaine's personal living conditions in a cold and leaking hut, of his walks around the battle area, dodging shot and shell, measuring the depth of shell craters with his umbrella, of his after-dinner talks with young officers who had premonitions of death in the morrow's action. He records not only the details of bombardments and assaults, of burials under truce, of casualties and damage, but also the gossip and rumours, the inside accounts of how decisions were made, and the old generals' reminiscences of Wellington and Waterloo. It is occasionally illustrated by Romaine's own pen sketches.
The notebook also contains an extract dated 19 January 1856 from Macaulay’s History of England, headed “Defence of Military Law.”
The journal is now in the collection of the Cambridge University Library. The reference is :- CUL Add.9554/4
Notes
1. The post of Judge-Advocate General was a political appointment with responsibilities for military law. Its incumbent was a member of the Government. The day to day routine work of the department was carried out by the Deputy Judge-Advocate General, a salaried civil servant.
Charles Pelham Villiers MP was Judge-Advocate General from 1852 to 1858, and S C Denison was his Deputy Judge-Advocate General in London.
Additional Deputy Judge-Advocates General could be appointed for armies in the field. Romaine's post was such an appointment for the Army of the East. (The army in India warranted its own Judge-Advocate General, a post which Romaine held later in his career.)