Vll 



labour, and spared no fatigue. The children of the Soldiers' Daugh- 

 ters' Home were always termed by him his "red chickens," and when 

 wearied with work his greatest refreshment was to visit the Home and 

 to get surrounded by their smiling faces and happy voices. " At any 

 hour of the day or night, and in any weather, he would go to the 

 Home, if his presence was required; and, as long as his strength 

 permitted, he would sometimes walk the whole distance from his 

 residence at Notting Hill before breakfast. On occasions of joy or 

 sorrow at the Home he was never absent, and he was ever at the beck 

 and call of the excellent matron, with whom he worked in unbroken 

 harmony for the twenty years he occupied the chair. . . . All his 

 own servants were drawn from the Home, and he would always 

 declare that they were unsurpassed." He cared for them as if they 

 had been his own children, and he was repaid by their attachment to 

 him. Every girl brought up in the Home who was in London at the 

 time of his death sent a wreath to be laid upon his coffin. Beyond 

 his constant weekday visits to Hampstead, he for many years before 

 his last illness maintained a practice of going there on Sunday after- 

 noon to be present at the Bible classes which the children attended. 



His exertions on behalf of the Royal School for Officers' Daughters 

 were not less devoted. He joined the Committee of this Institution 

 in 1872, and in 1880 became Chairman in succession to Sir Henry 

 Lefroy, when the latter went as Governor to Tasmania. When it was 

 deemed expedient some years ago to close the succursal at Roehampton, 

 and to extend the buildings at Bath to receive the additional pupils 

 there, all the details of this change and the new construction at Bath 

 were conducted under General Boileau's close supervision. 



Till his last illness he never altogether lost his buoyant spirits or his 

 oddities ; but in the constant exercise of benevolent effort these latter 

 had taken a riper and sweeter form than in the old Indian days. In 

 May 1886 the illness began which, with sundry fluctuations, and borne 

 with patience and devoutness for six weary months, terminated in his 

 death, Sunday, November 7th. 



I have given some examples of his ever-active mind and versatile 

 capacities. I may add that till he left India he played both the flute 

 and the violin. He could, I am told, quote Hafiz with faultless pro- 

 nunciation and expression ; he spoke Hindustani, I know, with a ver- 

 nacular swing which was rarely equalled in the mouth of an English- 

 man ; whilst his memory was stored with old Hindu saws and rhymes, 

 ever ready to be produced on appropriate occasions to appreciative 

 hearers. He was also a fair Latin scholar. And for a long time 

 he was a diligent attendant at and participator in the proceedings of 

 the Royal United Service Institution. During the earlier discussions 

 on rifle construction he took a serious part in them, and himself 

 invented a rifle. H. Y. 



