Sir Reginald WINGATE (1861-1953)

Autograph Letter Signed (“R Wingate”) to “My dear & beloved old Chief” [Sir Evelyn Wood], thanking him for his “affectionate sympathy in our great sorrow”.
4 pages 8vo, The Residency, Cairo, 12 May 1918.            
“Your affectionate sympathy in our great sorrow is most consoling. How truly I agree with you that there is no death & that what has happened is merely transition. I believe that he & all those brave men who have fallen are required for some special service elsewhere & are perhaps nearer to us now than we have any idea of. However that may be, we are both proud that our dear Malcolm was privileged to do some good service for his King, his Country & his God in the short career allotted to him. When he decided to leave comparatively safe at H.Q. to return to the fighting line (because he felt someone less able-bodied than himself could do the office work), he willingly made the great sacrifice – he wrote me very fully on the subject & the only drawback was his feeling that we might suffer – but, we would not have it otherwise.
“Yet still for him high service waits”
“Though Earth’s last fight is fought,”
“God did not make that martial soul”
“To end at last in nought;”
“That steadfast soldier heart was not”
“For this brief life alone:”
“Tis as a soldier he will stand”
“Before the great white Throne”
I do hope you are better & taking care of yourself. You are very precious not only to your Family but to your very affectionate old A.D.C.”
As a young officer in  the early 1880s, Wingate served as ADC to Sir Evelyn Wood, then Commander of the Egyptian Army and again at Colchester. Wingate returned to Egypt during the turbulent time which saw the battle of Omdurman and the struggle against the Mahdists. In 1899, he was named Governor-General of the Sudan, a post which he retained until 1916, during which time his administration oversaw many improvements in infrastructure and social services. In 1916 he attained one of the key posts in the British Empire as High Commissioner of Egypt, where he remained until 1919. 
The third of Wingate’s children, Malcolm, was killed in action on the Western Front in 1918. 

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