3-065-740 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Captain Nicol, 1874. 'This excellent officer, killed in the battle with the Ashantees on Jan. 31, was one of a soldier family...Captain James Nicol was but young when he joined the 10th as it was on its way down from Jellalabad. He remained in that regiment some years, and then exchanged into the 13th. About twelve months before the Crimean War he and his brother, of her Majesty's 68th, sold out; but when the war began the two brothers went, in their little steam-yacht the Army and Navy, to offer what help they could to their country. They set an example of enterprise and usefulness. Their yacht was employed as a despatch-boat to our own Army and afterwards to our allies. They had the satisfaction of doing all in their power to alleviate the sufferings of our army in that dreadful winter...it was his great desire to get back into the regular Army; and, thinking he saw a way to this by joining the expedition to Ashantee, he offered his services to Sir Garnet Wolseley. The General saw that Nicol was the sort of man he needed, and accepted his services. Captain Nicol had had experience in dealing with savages in Vancouver Island and Central America, and this experience he brought to bear in West Africa'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.