Lieut. Edward Gardiner ALSTON [4104]

   Cause of his death was fever.

  General Notes:

Edward was educated at Rugby, the school newspaper The Meteor 9 Feb 1889 reports:
The following promotions have been made:- . . . . .To be Corporals Private E G Alston . . . . .

He also had the honour of playing for playing rugby for Rugby School's first XV. 1899

Edward was later accepted to Sandhurst as an Infantry Cadet, his entry examination marks as published in the Times 8 Jan 1890 was 7609. The entry marks ranged from 10456 to 6939.
Also noted in report of Rugby School Speech Day - Times Mon 30 Jun 1890.

He served with the Coldstream Guards then resigned his commission at short notice, enticed to Africa by Sir Harry Johnson, at the time Consul General of Central Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Johnston
Appointed Vice Consul for Nyasaland he died before he was able to take up the position.
Ref: David Stuart-Mogg - 2019.

Lieutenant Alston
To the Editor of The Times
Sir, The brilliant successes lately achieved by Lieutenant Alston against Mwasi's forces remind one that, when all is said and done, the public schools of England afford the best training to our officers. Just as Waterloo, according to the Duke of Wellington's famous saying, was won on the playing fields of Eton, so I made the School Close at Rugby claim a share in Lieutenant Alston's Victorino's doings.
For it was on Old Big Side, name dear to countless Rugbeians, that E. G. Alston, a member of the school football 15 learnt that dash which enabled him some seven years later to carry the stockades of the slave raiding chiefs in Central Africa.
Yours &c.,
A. E. Donkin
Rugby,Feb 8.
The Times 10 February 1896 pg 7 col E

To the Editor of The Times
Mr A. E. Donkin writes from Rugby School, under date May 8: "Some 15 months ago you were good in aft to insert a short letter from me referring to Lieutenant Alston's achievements against the slave raiding chiefs of British Central Africa, whose power he took a very prominent part in breaking. The sad news just received of his death at Blantyre from fever (which appears to have been specially severe in the district) has come with terrible suddenness to his relatives and many friends and schoolfellows in England. Even Lieutenant Alston the Protectorate had a most promising young officer, and by his death a most useful and very possibly a brilliant career has been cut short, while another name has to be added to the list of those Rugbeians who have met, in a distant land, an untimely death in their country's service.
The Times 10 May 1897.

The Late Mr Edward Alston.
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir: Your correspondant, Mr Donkin, has forestalled me in calling attention to the loss England in Africa has sustained by the death of Mr Edward G. Alston, the recently appointed Vice Consul for South Nyasa. I wish, however, to obtain some further particulars from the Foreign Office before writing anything on the subject. This special work in which we have been engaged north of the Zambezi and South of Tanganyika during the last eight years has not, happily, been attended by the same death roll which has sobered our exultation over similar Imperial enterprises in West and East Africa; but we have nevertheless had to mourn the loss of idea in warfare or from the accidents and diseases characteristic of a savage country and an equatorial climate of several distinguished servants of their country. The last of these 24 and not the least noteworthy, is Mr Edward Alston, who died from fever at Blantyre on April 14 after nearly 3 years service in British Central Africa.
Mr Alston, formerly a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, was selected in 1894 for employment in the Central African protectorate. He was at the time about 24 years of age. For two years he served as an officer in the military force raised for the purpose of repelling the attacks of the Zulu and Mahomedan slave raiding chiefs who for three quarters of a century past have treated the countries bordering on Nyasa and Tanganyika as a great slave reserve. Mr Alston first distinguished himself in the campaign against the North Nyasa Arabs. He formed part of a force under Lieutenant H. Coape Smith, who carried out the investiture of Mlozi's stronghold. Mr Alston seized a coign of vantage only 20 yards from the loopholed stockade and held to it for 2 and a half days with bulldog tenacity till Mlozi's town was taken. During all this time he was without proper supplies of food, without shelter from the pouring rain, and but scantily shielded from the enemy's fire. His own forces rifle practice, however, inflicted severe loss on his assailants, and prevented their effecting a successful sortie in that direction. It was eventually from a Lieutenant Alston's advanced post that a successful attempt was made to scale the walls, and Alston was one of the first to enter the Arab town.
Subsequently he was sent with an English sergeant major named Dave Morley Devoy to assist Mr Swann in repelling an attack on the settlements of Kotakota by a powerful combination of Angoni-Zulus,Yaos, and Arabs. Lieutenant Alston, at the head of a force of 150 Sikh and Negro soldiers and 5000 not very trustworthy "Irregulars" defeated and dispersed a force brought against him of nearly 20,000 "Warriors" among whom the Arabs and Yaos fought tenaciously. On this occasion large supplies of gunpowder were captured and many important prisoners were taken, including Saidi Mwazunga (the murderer of Dr Boyce and Mr M'Ewan), and nearly 400 chiefs or headmen. Since this victory the peace of the Marimba District has remained undisturbed, and slave trading has entirely ceased.
Lieutenant Alston was then dispatched by me to South Eastern Nyasaland, to what had been Zarafi's country, to endeavour to put an end to the slave raiding their. Briefly, it may be said he was entirely successful he captured the slave raiders, defended the passes by fine masonry fortifications of his own design; and where there was 15 months ago a dead populated wilderness is now a native community of 10,000 souls dwelling in security. His work in this direction attracted so much attention that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs recently appointed Mr Alston to be Vice Consul for South Nyasa at the recommendation of the Acting Commissioner, Mr Sharp. His death has caused the deepest regret amongst Europeans, Sikhs, and natives in British Central Africa. To those that did not know him this eulogy may appear strained; to those that did it will be the inadequate acknowledgement of great services cheerfully rendered.
Fortunately for our country, many men of Alston's type have died in her service or are working for her interests at the present day in India, in all parts of Africa, or in the home garrisons. It must be a source of satisfaction to those who survey the Queens Empire from a lofty and a friendly standpoint that her Majesty can command the services of such agents - brave, bright, clever, and clean lived men; but when they occasionally fall untimely by the way we, who see them more closely at work, may very well give expression to a purely human and in discriminating regret that such victims should be claimed even in the most justifiable crusade.
I am &c.,
H. H. Johnston, H. M. Commissioner.
The Times 13 May 1897

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
28 Nov 1896
Truly, ex Africa semper aliquid novi, to quote from Pliny a pregnant saying familar to the present day schoolboy, it is to be feared, rather as the motto of one of Mr. Rider Haggard's title pages than as the dictum of a Latin historian. The Latest news from British Central Africa is to the effect that Lieutenant E. G. Alston, an officer attached to Fort Mangoche, has, at the head of a force of but one hundred and ten men, surprised and captured a town owning a population of some fifty thousand. The Yao chief, Katuri, whose realm lies to the north of Mangoche, has for some time past been giving trouble by his raids into the district immecliately east of Fort Johnston, and early in September some of his men carried off from the very gardens of the fort of Mangoche a number of women, including he wives of several of the native garrison.
The Times 13 May 1897 pg 12 col D

Daily Graphic, Feb. 17th 1900.
In the various engagements with the natives which took place in British Central Africa in 1894-96, a sable collie bitch, of the name of " Flora," the property of the late Lieut. Ed. G. Alston, of the Coldstream Guards, always marched at the head of the column, with a collie dog named "Don", and these on going into action invariably undertook their share by barking and showing their teeth to the enemy. "Don" died of fever, and was buried with all honour at Zomba Camp, but "Flora" returned to England, and was presented with a small silver medal, by private subscription, for distinguished conduct in the field.
Alstoniana Pg 299

1894 - 1896 diaries of EG Alston (1871-1897) Repository National Archives of Zimbabwe Record Reference - AL 4. See HMC Private papers of British diplomats 1782-1900, 1985 p2.

Alston, Edward Gardiner (1871-1897) Vice Consul in South Nyasa
GB/NNAF/P147986 (Former ISAAR ref: GB/NNAF/P490)
National Archives of Zimbabwe Reference - AL4 see HMC Private papers of British diplomats 1782-1900, 1985

Edward Gardiner Alston
Birth year 1872
Death year
Burial year 1898
Burial date 15 Jan 1898
Place Brompton
Age 26
Residence Chinde Africa (Incorrect)
Document type Burials Burial number(s) 161411
Burial register number 161411
Piece description Brompton Cemetery burial register no. 111, references 160311-161830
Records year range 1896-1898
Archive reference WORK 97/178
Record set Middlesex, Brompton Cemetery Records

ADMINISTRATION of the Effects of Edward Gardner Alston of 69 Eccleston Sq MDX who died 14 April 1897 at Blantyre British Central Africa was granted Alexander Rowling Alston Esq. Proved 1 January 1898 for L2612 18s 7d.
National Probate Calendar.

  Research Notes:

Image Courtesy Roy Alston 2010

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, 69 Eccleston Sq MDX. Edward is recorded as a son aged 9 a scholar born Epsom SRY

2. Edward Gardner Alston.
He also had the honour of playing for playing rugby for Rugby School's first XV. 1899

Edward was later accepted to Sandhurst as an Infantry Cadet, his entry examination marks as published in the Times 8 Jan 1890 was 7609. The entry marks ranged from 10456 to 6939.

Also noted in report of Rugby School Speech Day - Times Mon 30 Jun 1890.

Edward Image 1896
Ref: Family scrap book