302 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



the 1st Class Army Eeserve, the 24th Middlesex Eifle 

 Volunteers being responsible for their training and 

 efficiency. 



Both these organizations have been tested by actual 

 service in the field. They were utilized in the British 

 expeditions to Egypt in 1882 and 1885, and the 

 approved work which they did on those occasions 

 seems to justify the position which they hold in the 

 Army List. 



Besides this, the Post-Office has for the last twenty- 

 five years actively co-operated with the War-Office in 

 training young men of the Eoyal Engineers in the 

 use of various forms of telegraph, particularly the 

 ' sounder ' ; and it still employs a certain quota, for a 

 sufficient period, as clerks in various telegraph-offices. 

 A number of these military telegraphists rendered 

 good service during the expedition to the Soudan in 

 1885, for the relief of General Gordon, at Khartoum. 



Colonel Beresford, E.E., who has been associated 

 with postal telegraphs at home, is said to have related 

 an incident abroad in which the military clerks and 

 the ' sounder ' figured. The story is to this effect : 



' At the action of McNeill's zareba, the telegraph 

 was at work in the fighting line. The cable had been 

 laid out with the troops as they marched out towards 

 Tamai, and on forming a zareba, a "sounder" was 

 set up, and communication opened with the base. In 

 the confusion occasioned by the sudden attack of the 

 enemy, the instrument was knocked over, and the 

 clerk (Corporal Bent) had to take part in the defence. 



