CATOR, K.G.B,j ROYAL ARTILLERY, 
xvii 
He returned to England in 1851, having received the appointment of Eire? 
master in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, which post he did not long retain, as 
he was appointed Director General of Artillery in August 1852. 
At the commencement of the Crimean War in 1854, Lord Raglan was Master* 
General of the Ordnance. He had known Colonel Cator for many years, and 
entertained a high opinion of his clearness of intellect and great capacity; con¬ 
sequently when his Lordship was named to the chief command of the British Army 
in the field, he at once appointed Colonel Cator to command the Royal Artillery, 
and the rank of Brigadier-General was conferred upon him, 
In March 1854, the several batteries intended for the East were rapidly being 
embarked and despatched to the Mediterranean, and General Cator in concert with 
the authorities at Woolwich, issued detailed instructions to the various Officers in 
command, as to the care and comfort of the men and horses on board ship; and 
also pointed out to them the necessity of so arranging the materiel and stores, that 
they should be ready for disembarkation in the face of an enemy, should such be 
required. The following is an extract of one of his orders issued at the time, 
* f The Brigadier-General has the greatest confidence in the zeal, intelligence, and 
activity of the Officers under his command, and only begs to remind them, 
particularly with regard to the junior part of the service, that they are about to 
proceed on a service where the eyes of their country will be upon them j he never 
can doubt their gallantry before the enemy; but this is only a small part of the 
duties they have to perform; they must give their incessant attention to the comfort 
and care of the men, the condition of the horses, and the safety and serviceable 
state of the ammunition. 
“ They will by a proper attention to these duties place themselves in a distinguished 
position, and by neglecting them forfeit their advantage.” 
During the month of May, the army with Lord Raglan and his staff arrived at 
Scutari in the Bosphorus, and after a short detention there, were re-embarked and 
proceeded to Varna, it being at the time supposed, that the several divisions, 
would at once advailce to the relief of the Turks, then sorely pressed by the 
Russians at Silistria on the Danube. 
General Gator’s attention on arrival at Constantinople was immediately turned 
to the urgent necessity of providing means of land transport for the siege materiel 
and ammunition reserves. The transport of the army at that time depended on 
the Commissariat, but as their resources in this respect at the commencement of 
the war were quite inadequate, General Cator obtained the sanction of Lord Raglan 
to make his own arrangements, so far as related to materiel of war. Accordingly 
he sent officers to various parts of Turkey to purchase mules, ponies, and buffaloes, 
(Colonels Gambier, and Collingwood Dickson being among those selected for the 
purpose), and many hundred animals were soon collected at Varna, and were there 
organized and distributed to the divisions of the army. The result of his assiduous 
care in this matter, was, that when the army landed in the Crimea, almost its only 
means of transport consisted of about 900 pack animals which had been collected 
entirely under General Gator’s directions; and these not only proved of great 
service in bringing up reserves of ammunition at the battles of the Alma and 
Inkermann, but afterwards during the winter of 1854, when the army before 
Sebastopol was in such suffering and want, they proved invaluable in assisting to 
bring up food and clothing; so that although General Cator had not the good 
fortune to land in the Crimea, his previous forethought and experience proved 
of essential service at a critical period, 
