THE TIMES was probably the first British newspaper to employ a war correspondent, sending William Russell to the Crimea. His dispatches reported not only the battles, but also the incompetence of the commanders and the suffering of the troops. The Times was widely read and quoted in consequence, and Russell’s reports were credited with helping to bring about the fall of Lord Aberdeen’s Government.
Emboldened by this experience, perhaps, the Editor of The Times, J. T. Delane, invited Thomas William Bowlby to accompany the Earl of Elgin and Baron Gros of France on their expedition to China in 1860.
The Chinese Government had been under pressure from European powers since the 17th century to open up the country to further trade, but was reluctant to do so. In 1858 an Anglo-French fleet had been sent to Tsientsin to force the Chinese to carry out the terms of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking and to lay down new conditions for trade. But there was little improvement. The British and French governments therefore decided to send a more powerful expedition in 1860, led by the Earl of Elgin and Baron Gros.
Elgin and his staff left Marseilles on April 28, 1860, on the SS Valetta bound for Malta and Alexandria. Bowlby was the only reporter to join them.
The party travelled to Alexandria by steamship, and from Cairo to Suez on the new railway. They were provided with the Egyptian Pasha’s special carriage, and Bowlby records that he “never felt anything like the heat, thermometer standing at 110 degrees”.
Advertisement
They then sailed on to Galle, a port in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), arriving there on May 11. Here they disembarked but their ship, the SS Malabar, drifted ashore in a severe storm and broke up before their luggage could be taken off.
Eventually the expedition continued on its way to China, joined now by many military transports. Singapore was reached on June 13 and Hong Kong on June 21.
By this time Bowlby had used many opportunities to get to know Lord Elgin and other members of his staff, and had long talks with them about the politics of the situation. This gave considerable depth to his reports.
Bowlby comments in his diary a few days later: “Surely never was so extraordinary a war waged as this.” On June 24 Elgin and his staff embarked on the SS Feroze, a “most comfortable” ship belonging to the Indian Navy.
They reached the mouth of the Yangtse on June 29 and proceeded to Shanghai. Bowlby spent June 30 writing a report in time to catch the evening mail ship. The expedition then moved on from Shanghai by stages, eventually landing near Pehtang and the Taku forts, not far from Peking.
Advertisement
Bowlby was continuing to write reports on the campaign, which were published in October and November. The detailed descriptions of the Chinese countryside and people, as well as of the military forces, make fascinating reading. There are also accounts of the political and economic state of the country, and of the obduracy of the Emperor and his chief advisers.
The military task necessitated the capture of the various Taku forts. This was accomplished by the end of August, Bowlby noting that “the Armstrong gun has been well tested in the field. Its success is triumphant and unequivocal”.
Tsientsin was soon occupied, and the army prepared to march on Peking, which was not thought to be well defended, as the Chinese were now making overtures for peace. A small party was instructed to proceed to Peking under a flag of truce to negotiate for Lord Elgin’s arrival in the city.
Bowlby accompanied this small party which included Harry Parkes, the consul, and H. B. Loch, Elgin’s private secretary. All seemed well, but then hostilities flared up and a Chinese general gave orders to take the party prisoner.
Parkes and Loch were later released, but the others were less fortunate. Their hands and feet were tightly bound and water was poured on the knots preventing circulation. They were put in chains, thrown into carts, kicked and savaged and left out in the open for three days and nights. By this time their wounds were severely infected. They then lay for eight days in a room in an old fort. Several Indian soldiers survived, but not the English. Bowlby died after about a week.
Advertisement
When the British expedition took possession of Peking, the full story of what had happened to the missing members of the forward party gradually emerged. There was an instant demand for revenge. The Emperor’s Summer Palace had been the scene of many of the indignities offered to the captives, and the huge building was burnt down with all its treasures.
The remains of Bowlby’s body, together with others, were laid to rest in the Russian cemetery at Peking with military honours. One of Britain’s first and finest war correspondents, “embedded” with the forward troops, had died in action too.
Lord Elgin, in a private letter to Delane at The Times, wrote of Bowlby: “I saw much of him both on our voyage out and since our arrival in China; and I felt a real interest in and regard for him, not only because I had found him to be an accomplished and agreeable companion, but also because from the conscientious and liberal spirit in which he took to his work, I believed that he would have done much to enlighten public opinion in England on Chinese affairs. I consider the loss of such a man at this conjunction to be a great calamity.”
Advertisement
For more information on Bowlby and highlights from the newspaper’s rich history, go to: www.timesonline.co.uk/fromthearchive