19 



of a personal reconnaissance he made, that 1 was enabled to adopt 

 the Spingawi route and thus turn the strong position held by the 

 Afghans on the Peiwar Kotal. 



Between the years 188C)-90, Colonel Collftt served tirst as 

 Quarter-Master-General in India, then in command of a brigade 

 in Burma, and subsequently in command of the Eastern Frontier 

 District during the Chin-Lushai Expedition. In 1891, Major- 

 General Collett commanded the expedition to Manipur, and acted 

 as Chief Commissioner of Assam. 



General Collett was frequently mentioned in despatches, he 

 was thanked by the Government of India for his services in 

 Assam, and before he retired from the Army in 189.'}, he had the 

 honour of being made a Knight Commander of the Bath. 



No one who was acquainted with Sir Henry Collett couhl fail 

 to appreciate his kindly disposition and charm of manner, as well 

 as his many soldferly qualities. He was one of thr few otlicei-s in 

 the Army I have met with who was as devoted to srifticc as to 

 his professional duties. 



Sir Henry CoUett's I'etirement was a s^-ioiis loss to tiie Iiidi;iii 

 Army, but I rejoice to think that the last years of his life were 

 spent in pursuits which were thoroughly congenial to him, with 

 a result which contirms my high estimate of his application. 



ROBERT><. 



For nearly forty years Collett was actively employed in military 

 duties, and mostly in India, From his youth he had a strong 

 taste for scientific studies. It is remarkable that he was able, 

 practically unaided, to prosecute them with such success. Our 

 common friend, Mr. J. S, Gamble, C.I,E., F,R.S., late Director of 

 the Forest School, Dehra Dun, has given me some interesting 

 particulars. He " used to say of himself, that his wound, obtained 

 at an early period of his service, incapacitated him for the games 

 which most soldiers, at any rate young men, delight in." He first 

 took up astronomy and physics. Mr. Gamble continues : " 1 always 

 used to envj' him his power of application and his wonderful 

 capacity of concentrating his attention on a new subject and not 

 resting till he had got to understand it. . . . He had a wonder- 

 folly clear power of explaining. . . . When the discoveries 

 of the telephone and microphone etc. were made, he was much 

 interested ; and he amused himself by constructing a microphone 

 and sending messages from one end of his house to the other. 

 Often I have spent some hours over it with him, and he was 

 delightfully pleased when he could induce a fly to walk on the 

 drum and listen to its footsteps." 



Collett seems to have first become interested in botany in 1878 

 during the Kuram Valley expedition, perhaps influenced by the 

 late Brigade-Surgeon Aitchison, CLE., F.K.S, 



The latter wrote : " Early in 1879, I proposed to the Quarter- 

 Maater-General, Major Collett, that it might prove advantageous 

 to science if some one were appointed to accompany the column in 

 the contemplated advance on Kabul. General Roberts at once 



