Memoirs of Field marshal Sir Henry Wylie Norman

Front matter

L. Hg

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Preface

The question whether a man's biography is worth the writing depends upon the answer to be given on the following points : ' Does the study of his life conduce to our knowledge of history ? ' ' Does it teach us how to live ? ' Trusting that my readers will not ascribe to the materials left behind him by the late Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wylie Norman any such inadequacy of portraiture as is due to my treatment of the subject, I am bold enough to think that none will deny his claim to the study of his fellow-countrymen .

No one, dead or living, ever possessed so thorough a knowledge of the long-drawn agony of the siege of Delhi as the short-statured Lieutenant, gifted with a marvellous memory, who, owing to the death of Colonel Chester and then to the serious wound received by Colonel Neville Chamberlain, acted as Adjutant-General of the Delhi Field Force almost throughout the siege. No one who survived that peril took part in so many campaigns and engagements elsewhere until the Mutiny was quelled as Henry Norman. Earl Roberts has recently spoken of his later services rendered in civil employviii PREFACE

ment, attributing to him the reorganisation of the Indian Army, and the construction of the foundations upon which its efficiency has been maintained. Nor were his triumphs confined to fields of battle or military schemes in India. In Jamaica he introduced a new constitution ; in Queensland he changed the direction of a stormy wind of discontent into one of strong affection for himself and of good will towards his Sovereign. If it may be said of the life of such a man, ' non est historia sed particula historiae,' it is at least a section cut out of the solid foundation of the nineteenth century and not merely a scrap from the surface formed by the drift of camp gossip and hearsay report. And when it is remembered that no war correspondent was present in the besieged camp of the besiegers of Delhi, Norman's recollections and letters must be a most valuable contribution to the history of his times.

W. L-W.

Chapter I Page

Norman s title to fame — His birth, parentage, and education — Voyage to Calcutta — Warlike enthusiasm in India — Appointment to the Bengal Army — Joined 1st Regiment N.I. at Dinapore in 1844 — Transfer to 31st N.I. at Almora in 1845 — Adjutant of left wing of regiment at Bareilly — Joined Lahore garrison under Colin Campbell — Sickness, and change of air at Simla — Appointed Adjutant of the 31st N.I. and ordered on active service owing to the second Sikh war, 1848 — Admiration for Sir Hugh Gough — • History of services of the 31st N.I. before and after the mutiny . . 1

Chapter II

Lessons of the Sikh war — Ramnagar and the lost opportunity at Sadulapur — Chilianwala — Norman's criticisms on the battle — Brigade-Major at Peshawar — The Kohat expedition — The Momand and other frontier affairs — Appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to Peshawar division — Marriage in 1853 to Miss Davidson — General Roberts' opinion of Norman — Rejoins his regiment during Santal war — Returns to Peshawar divisional staff — Soon afterwards retraces his steps to Calcutta on the headquarters' staff as Assistant Adjutant-General — Tour with the Commander-in-Chief — Goes to Simla — His review of the causes of the mutiny 25 x CONTENTS

Chapter III On The Ridge At Delhi, 1857

PAGE

Value of Norman's services — Receipt of the signaller's telegram from Delhi — Action instantly taken by Anson — Norman goes to Ambala — Transport difficulties — Anson's death from cholera — Meerut and Ambala forces unite — Battle of Badli-ki-Serai — Chester's death — Capture of the Ridge, and its occupation — Arrival of the Guides — Metcalfe's house occupied — Spirit of confidence inspired by successes — Proposed assault on the city happily abandoned — Communications with the rest of India — Desperate attack by the rebels on June 19 on the rear of the camp — Jind contingent moved to Baghpat — Scanty resources of the General for meeting attacks — Appointment of Neville Chamberlain as Adjutant-General ... .52

Chapter IV A Month Of Disappointments, June 22-july 20

Public impatience at delay in the fall of Delhi — Norman's adventurous ride to Rhai — Jullundur mutineers take part in a severe attack, June 23 — Picquets established in Sabzi Mandi — Reinforcements arrive — Neville Chamberlain becomes Adjutant-General — Mutinous conduct of some of the 4th Sikhs — Second project of assault, July 2, abandoned — Norman's ride with a Bengal civilian — Sir H. Barnard's death, July 5. — Treachery of 9th Irregular Cavalry and heavy losses, July 9 — An unfortunate incident — Further severe action, July 14 — Chamberlain being wounded, Norman resumes duties of Adjutant-General — General Reed takes sick leave, July 1 7 — General Gowan undertakes duties of Commander-in-Chief — General Archdale Wilson chosen to command the Delhi field force — State of that force — News of the Cawnpore massacre — British defences strengthened . . 87

Chapter V Awaiting The Siege-train, July 2i-september 7

Norman's confidence in ultimate success — Constant petty attacks and false alarms — Wilson's letter to John Lawrence, July 18 — Lawrence's ignorance of death rate and disease —

CONTENTS xi

-NT- 1. 1 PAGE

JNicholson s arrival and results of his inspection — Continuous attacks, August 11-12 — Arrival of Nicholson's column, August 14 — Idea of assault revived and rejected — Hodson captures and shoots some mutineers — His action discussed — Mrs. Leeson's escape to camp — Battle of Najafgarh, August 25 — Attack from the city — Arrival of siegeguns, September 4 — Wilson's general order to the troops — Strength and spirit of the British force . . . 115

Chapter VI The Assault And Capture Of Delhi, September 8 To September 24

Divisions of the subject — Light battery placed in advance of the ridge — Choice of positions for the main siege batteries — No. 1 battery opposite the Mori Gate — No 2 in front of Ludlow Castle — No. 3, opposite Custom House — No. 4, Mortar battery in Koodsia bagh — The enemy's attacks — Breach declared practicable — The ' Council of War ' — The assault, September 14 — The explosion — Progress of the four columns — Orders issued to hold and strengthen positions — Norman's ride to the camp — A street fight — How he secured a Sepoy's medal — Counting up losses — Orders to the troops regarding street fighting — Progress of the force — The king captured, September 20 — Lamentations for the dead — Dinner in the palace to General Wilson — Capture of the princes by Hodson — Organisation of a column to proceed to Cawnpore . . . . 142

Chapter VII The Relief, And Capture Of Lucknow, 1857-1858

Norman's position between September 24 and November 9 — Political effect of the column's march — Fight at Agra, October 10 — Accident on the march — State of affairs at Lucknow — Kavanagh's dangerous mission — Fighting at Lucknow — Norman's action at the Shah Nujeef — Withdrawal of the women and children from the Residency — Evacuation of the city — Outram left at the Alumbagh — Convoy of women and sick to Cawnpore — Their despatch to Allahabad and defeat of rebels at Cawnpore — Beat up country — Battle of Khudaganj — Organisation of an army to capture Lucknow — Occupation of the Dilkusha — Outram's operations across the Goomtee — Sir Colin's attack xii CONTENTS on the defences — Hodson's mortal wound in the Begum Kothi— Narrow escapes, and capture of the Kaisarbagh, March 14 — Final expulsion of rebels, March 21 — State of Norman's health — His disappointments 173

Chapter VIII The Close Of The Mutiny And Its Sequel, 1858-1861

Strongholds of the mutineers — Rohilkhand campaign — Norman wounded in action at Bareilly — Takes short leave — His family go home — Appointed Adjutant-General of the Oudh field force — Plan of Oudh campaign — Dundia Kera engagement — Actions atBugudia, Mujidia, and on the Rapti — Services mentioned in despatch — Returns to Simla and becomes Acting Adjutant-General — The White mutiny — Takes furlough — Invested by the Queen with the C.B. — Joins a regiment at Dover — The first Levee at the Horse Guards' attended by Indian officers — Lord Clyde in the City — Norman appointed Assistant Military Secretary at the ' Horse Guards ' — Reasons for his return to India — Fever and work in Calcutta — Appointed Secretary to Government, and enters upon his career as a civilian . . 207

Chapter IX

Qualifications for success — Difficult task of reorganising the Army, both European and Native — The Staff Corps — Domestic troubles, and breakdown of health — Goes home, 1866 — Marriage with Miss Sandys — Appointed Member cf Viceroy's Council, 1870 — Tours — Independence of his views — His title to be heard on the Afghan question — His review of our past and present policy towards the Amir — His opinions on other matters of internal administration — Leaves India, 1877, and declines an offer of service in Egypt — Member of the Council of India in London — Views on the Afghan question, 1880 — Deputation to Egypt — Perils of a voyage to Iceland .... .... 236

Chapter X

Appointed Governor of Jamaica — Recent history of the Island — Tension of public mind on Norman's arrival — His firm and tactful attitude — Revulsion of feeling in his favour

CONTENTS xiii

PAGE

— The Gibbons case — Cruises to neighbouring islands — Trinidad inquiry — Results of his administration — Testimony of Sir Edward Noel-Walker, K.C.M.G. — His transfer to Queensland, 1888 — Contrast between Jamaica and Queensland — State of politics in the Dominion — Financial and trade crisis — Norman's accessibility to all — Views on the partition of Queensland, national defence, and federation — Secret of his popularity — Testimony to it from private and public sources — Acceptance of the appointment of Viceroy of India — Reasons for withdrawing it. . 267

Chapter XI The Close, 1896-i904

The family circle — Sugar Commission West India Colonies — Governor of Chelsea, 1 897 — Promotion to the rank of Field- Marshal, 1902 — South African War Commission — Peaceful death — Memorials — Estimate of his character by Earl Roberts 299

Appendix A. — List of Officers, survivors of the Delhi siege . 311

Appendix B. — Officers and men rewarded with the V.C. . . 314

Index 3 21

PORTRAITS

SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., CLE. Frontispiece From a photograph by Carl Vandyk

CLE. ... to face page 220

From a photograph

MAPS

MAP OF DELHI . . . . to face page 65

PLAN OF LUCKNOW .... page 174

Chapter I

Norman's title to fame — His birth, parentage, and education — Voyage to Calcutta — Warlike enthusiasm in India — Appointment to the Bengal Army — Joined 1st Regiment N.I. at Dinapore in 1844 — Transfer to 31st N.I. at Almora in 1845 — Adjutant of left wing of regiment at Bareilly — Joined Lahore garrison under Colin Campbell — Sickness, and change of air at Simla — Appointed adjutant of 31st N.I., and ordered on active service owing to the second Sikh war, 1848 — Admiration for Sir Hugh Gough — History of services of the 31st N.I. before and after the Mutiny.

The reader who would follow the career of Field- Marshal Sir Henry Norman from cradle to grave must not expect to have his imagination kindled by the fiery zeal of a Nicholson, or the dominating personality of a Marquis of Dalhousie, or of a John Lawrence. Norman was neither a man of extraordinary genius nor a ' born king/ as the citizens of Calcutta styled their great proconsul, Lord Dalhousie. Nor again did he draw to himself the hearts of men with the tenderness and love which Henry Lawrence inspired. No burning controversy surrounds his name, fanning into flame the party conflicts and jealousies of a past generation which current literature will not allow to die out. His career was very remarkable rather than brilliant.

B

He was endowed with a combination of many of the qualities which led the great men mentioned above to eminence. He possessed the nerve of Nicholson, the industry of Dalhousie, the high purpose of John Lawrence, and a gentleness which won the hearts of men if it did not succeed in attracting the full measure of love given to Henry Lawrence. But all his qualities and capacities were tempered by modesty. His claim upon the attention of his fellow-countrymen rests upon his achievement of the highest honours gained by the force of moral character without those advantages of wealth, interest, and social position by which others mount to exalted places. A brief statement of his public career will serve here to illustrate the variety as well as the eminence of the positions which he held. The son of an enterprising but not too fortunate a merchant, with no powerful relatives to advance his interests, without any special equipment as regards a liberal education — for he had not even the opportunities of study which Addiscombe College x afforded — Norman, at the age of seventeen, was appointed on March i, 1844, an officer of infantry on the Bengal Establishment of the East India Company, and almost immediately began to attract the notice of his superiors and the affection of his comrades. A passionate desire to serve the Crown either in the navy, for which he was in many ways well adapted, or in the army, for which it was feared that his slight build might prove a disqualification, a taste for reading and acquiring knowledge which compensated for the lack of scholarly training, a

1 The writer of the article in the Times of October 27, 1904, was mistaken in asserting that Sir Henry Norman was a cadet in the E.I. Company's college at Addiscombe.

remarkable memory, a winning modesty and cheerful courage that earned for him the nickname of ' the Smiler ' on the exposed and shot-riddled ridge of Delhi, an unflinching devotion to duty, and a strong belief in spiritual power — these were the moral qualities which overcame all obstacles, and in the long run gave him assured claim to the highest offices in the gift of the Crown. Although his strictly military career was interrupted at the age of thirty-six by transfer to the Secretariat of the Government of India, he had already seen more active service than often falls to the lot of those who are entrusted with the command of an army. The Sikh war, the Santal campaign, unbroken employment throughout the Mutiny in several posts of danger and honour, and the soldier's reward of a wound in action, had given him every title to military distinction. It was not surprising, therefore, that in 1885 his name was put forward in connection with the supreme command of Her Majesty's forces in India, and there is some reason to believe that if events had not removed Mr. Gladstone from office in that year, Henry Norman would have been the choice then made. Be that as it may, work was found for him in other spheres. He was sent to Jamaica as Governor in 1883, and thence transferred in 1889 to the same position in Queensland. While serving in Australia he received the crowning honour of his life, by his nomination in 1893 to be Viceroy and Governor-General of India. That he preferred, for reasons which will appear in the course of this narrative, to forego the appointment, does not detract from the evidence which the offer affords of the favour of his Sovereign and of the public confidence which he had inspired. Nor did his reluctance to take the tide of fortune at the flood leave his career in the shallows. Appointed Governor of Chelsea Hospital and a Field-Marshal, in 1902, he died as he would have preferred to live, a soldier amidst the military surroundings dearest to him.

1826. — Born in the parish of St. Luke's in London on December 2, 1826, he hardly even saw his father, James Norman, till landing in India in 1842. Perhaps had he at the outset of life been more subject to parental control and influence, he would never have served his country as a soldier, for his father on religious and other grounds obj ected to a military profession. But Henry was very much left to himself, and from boyish days his heart instinctively turned to the navy or the army as his fondest ambition. If a father's precept had no part in the dream of the child, heredity had something to say to it, as is evident from the following account written by the son :

My father was a sailor, and when only twenty-two years of age went as supercargo of a ship, eventually settling in Havana as a merchant. It was usual in those days for merchants to send a vessel on a sort of cruise, practically in charge of a supercargo who traded on his employer's account, and when he had a full cargo came home. I have read a diary of my father's of a voyage from Antwerp to Haiti and other West India islands, and of a journey across Haiti, in 1816, which resulted in a profitable interview with the Emperor, from whom he purchased a cargo of coffee. He had many adventures when trading, and once his vessel was in the hands of pirates, when he narrowly escaped with his life, and showed so much adroitness that the pirates left his ship without discovering a quantity of specie hidden on board. Two of his brothers perished in the Navy as lieutenants, and he himself to the last day of his life retained a deep affection for the sea, a sentiment which I have inherited,

The boy grew up not only without the advantage of his father's care, but even saw little of his mother, to whom he was devoted. She was a daughter of Henry Wylie, descended from a family settled in Dumfries, by his wife, Charlotte Merry, of Limerick. Mrs. James Norman followed her husband to Cuba and other places in the West Indies, only revisiting her native country at rare intervals. Meanwhile her son was left in charge of her parents, spending his holidays sometimes at Bridlington Quay, in Yorkshire, and at other times in Ireland. His education, if it deserves the name, was entrusted to three private schools, with a finish to it imparted at Ipswich by the Reverend E. Harston, Vicar of St. Stephen's. Fortunately, however, the boy, who was chastised at school for disinclination to study, was passionately fond of reading by himself. So the formation of his character on lines of his own choice proceeded without the interference of affectionate but misguided relatives, or the opposition of unsympathetic masters. Everything went to fan the flame of his cherished ambitions, the books he read, the sights he saw in the metropolis, and the scenes he witnessed in his visits to friends.

I read [he writes] during my early years every minute I could find to do so, but my favourite subjects, even when I was very young, were naval and military history, voyages, and biographies. I was also devoted to Scott's poems, and though anxious to be a soldier had a great liking for James's naval history and Marryat's and Chamier's novels.

Stirring scenes of every kind had a great charm for the boy and imprinted themselves on his imagination with a vivid and unfading force. He witnessed the Coronation processions of King William the Fourth and Queen Adelaide, and later on the festivities at the accession of Queen Victoria. Of the Review on the latter occasion he writes :

The force paraded was splendid, and I rejoiced to see with my own eyes the Great Duke, Marshal Soult, Lord Lynedoch and others well known to me— from my reading. On one occasion I used a holiday to go to Apsley House and see the Waterloo heroes alight, on June 18, for their annual banquet.

He was a spectator at the burning of the Houses of Parliament and of a fire at the Tower of London. In the Tower the sight which most interested him was the effect of the flames upon the gun-barrels in the armoury ; and the presence of forty Greenwich pensioners who had taken part in the battle of the Nile was the absorbing incident of a meeting in the city in aid of the fund for Nelson's monument. During his visits to Ireland he treasured up the recollection of several similar experiences. The embarkation of the 43rd Regiment at Queenstown for Canada, the parades at Limerick, and the faction fights at Roscrea, in Tipperary, were the subjects of many an anecdote to be recounted to his school friends. Even then he had the gift of remembering names and of associating them with historic events of which he had read, and his letters show the impression made on him by General Sir John Douglas, who commanded the troops at Limerick, and by Sir J. C. Chatterton, Colonel of the 4th Dragoon Guards, who lived to carry the Duke of Wellington's standard at his funeral in 1852.

1842.— On June 2, 1842, his mother, having spent a year or two at home, left England for Calcutta, to which his father had now moved from Cuba, and although Henry was not sixteen years of age, he accompanied her on the Ellenborough, a frigate which weighed anchor from Spithead under the command of Captain Close. With the long voyage round the Cape to Madras before him, Norman's characteristic desire to be up and doing quickly showed itself in his asking leave of the Captain to enter upon the duties of midshipman; and as soon as he had learned the process of taking observations to determine the longitude and latitude, the volunteer apprentice was given the middle watch day and night. It was perhaps fortunate for him that he found regular occupation, for, as he writes :

We had ten ladies, twenty-four gentlemen, mostly civil and military officers, and eight cadets. Thus thrown together for three and a half months, and touching nowhere till we reached Madras, it can be understood that there were lovemakings and quarrels and the usual incidents of a long voyage in a passenger ship.

Happily they escaped the duels that marred the harmony of Lady Nugent' s passage to India, 1 and the more serious risks of navigation up the river Hugh, though of the latter by a narrow margin.

Off the Sandheads we were tossing about on a dark night looking out for a pilot, with a high sea running, when during my watch I saw a dark mass without a light rising on the top of a high wave on our beam, and before there was time to do more than shout she crashed into us abaft of our main chains, and then drifted aft, smashing us in various ways and carrying away her own jibboom. After she had drifted clear there seemed to be a magnetic attraction, and it looked as if we should again be locked together, as there was little breeze to enable us to separate although the seas were high. No material damage was, however, done.

The vessel in collision, the Ricardo, was less fortunate, for she struck on the dreaded James and

1 See Journal of a Voyage and Residence in India, by Lady Nugent. Vol. I. p. 64. London. 1839.

Mary sands, and some of the survivors were brought on board the Ellenborough. We shall see hereafter that at a later stage in his life he had a still narrower escape from shipwreck on a voyage to Iceland in 1883.

On leaving his ship Norman regretted that he could not join the mercantile marine, but this mood soon gave way to other feelings when, on reaching Calcutta, he found himself in an atmosphere of war. He followed with eager interest the accounts given in the daily Press of the advance of Pollock and Nott from Jalalabad and Kandahar, the rescue of the prisoners at Kabul, and the impressive review of the troops at Ferozepore. The following year brought fresh news of exciting events ; with the victory won by Sir Charles Napier at Miani over the Mirs of Sind on February 17, and that of Sir Hugh Gough over the Gwalior troops at Maharajpur on December 29, 1843. The ovations of the Governor- General, like those of Pericles, fanned the public enthusiasm, and quickened in Norman's heart the desire to serve his country as a soldier.

I longed [he writes] from hour to hour to join the army and to take part in those exploits which the Governor- General, Lord EUenborough, always eulogised in such glowing terms. To add to my enthusiasm a part of the force employed in the China expedition returned to Calcutta, and Colonel Powney, of the Bengal Artillery, gave a grand entertainment in Fort William with splendid illuminations, among which were the sentences ' Peace in Asia,' ' Pollock, Nott and Sale,' ' Gough, Pottinger and Parker.'

It was a long and dreary wait of eighteen months before Norman's aspirations were realised. During this period he had no regular occupation, but he studied Hindustani, borrowed books from his father's friends bearing upon military subjects, such as ' Wellington's Despatches/ Bourrienne's ' Napoleon/ and Napier's ' Peninsular War/ and constantly attended the parades of the 10th Foot quartered at Fort William, with occasional excursions to Barrackpore, where he watched the drills of the native regiments.

1844. — At last a Director, Mr. Charles Mills, who had never even seen Norman or his parents, was induced, on the recommendation of Mrs. Crosbie, to give him a nomination, which, although dated February 14, 1844, did not reach Calcutta till April of that year. 1 The preliminaries were soon completed. A bare inquiry into the nominee's educational qualifications was satisfied by the answer that he had attended school, and if the medical examiners were a little more critical, they satisfied their consciences with the injunction, ' You are thin and must fill out.' 2 That this advice was sound may be inferred from the fact that his weight at the time was under seven and a half stone. All that then remained was for the new cadet to choose his regiment until a vacancy should occur. The reasons which determined his

1 It was not until i860, when Henry Norman had covered himself with glory, that he was introduced to his patron, and then learnt that the same discreet Director had also nominated Sir Henry Durand in 1827. His appointment as a cadet was dated March 1, 1844, and as an ensign, April 26.

2 Norman never complied with this direction, and it was a subject of good-natured banter in his family circle. His aunt, Mrs. Wylie, writing to his mother in 1857 on receipt of the news of the massacre at Cawnpore, referred to it in these words : ' I am sure you would feel for poor Mrs. Battine ; her poor Charlie was in one of those boats hunted down and killed. How stricken she has been ! Kate Boyes and her husband, too, and how many that we have known. What a blessing that so far all your dear ones have been spared ! I tell dear Mac that with dear Henry he is so active and slight that he seems to escape all the balls in the most wonderful manner — another advantage in being thin ! '

io SIR HENRY NORMAN

choice of the ist Bengal N.I. throw light upon his character.

In those days appointments were often made to the service in excess of regimental establishments, and the junior ensigns or cornets were attached to regiments for duty until finally posted to vacancies. These temporary appointments were usually made to regiments at no great distance from the presidency towns, and young officers were allowed to choose their regiments. I chose the ist Regiment, because it was the senior native corps at the largest garrison to which young officers were usually sent, and because it was the only garrison within the distance for which travelling expenses were allowed at which there was a Queen's regiment. I thought I should learn my duties best at a large station at which European and Indian troops were brigaded together.

1844. — On June 2 Norman, not yet eighteen years of age, left Calcutta for Dinapore to join his regiment, travelling by palanquin as far as Rajmahal, where he intended to catch the river steamer. Between Berhampore and Rajmahal he expected to find a change of bearers on the morning of the 5th, but as they had not arrived, his former bearers decamped, leaving the palanquin and its inmate by the side of the road. The heat was very great, and oppressed by it Norman fell asleep, hoping that in course of time a relay of bearers would appear. From this slumber he was awakened by a friendly voice in English, and found himself addressed by a planter named Renshaw, who took him off to his bungalow in the neighbourhood and thence despatched him with fresh bearers after sunset to Rajmahal. Eleven years later Norman returned to this spot to find that Renshaw and his son had been cruelly murdered by the Santals, and it fell to

EARLY LIFE n

him to command a detachment of troops and scour the country round for three months.

In due course the steamer arrived, bringing with it another young officer, Lieutenant R. A. Yule, who was on his way to join the 16th Lancers. Each of the two young officers was greatly attracted by the other, an attraction that was to ripen into a warm friendship, though Yule was fated to meet with an early death, being killed in the mutiny at Delhi while leading his regiment, 1 then the gth Lancers. For the present they parted on the arrival of the steamer at Dinapore on June 13, where Norman was welcomed by Major Rowcroft, commanding the 1st N.I., and his other brother officers. General Cartwright commanded the division made up of H.M.'s 62nd Regiment, under Colonel Thomas Reed, 2 a Waterloo veteran, a field battery drawn by bullocks, and four regiments of native infantry. The 62nd was presently replaced by the 39th, commanded by Colonel Wright, C.B., and its arrival did much to bring life to the station.