th others. If the Navy were not to give scope for his ambition,
then he must quit the Navy. Already, no doubt, his life-long hero,
Napoleon, was kindling the young man's imagination. But the English
Navy of those days gave little encouragement to the Napoleonic point
of view. It was bound up with the sternest discipline and much red
tape. If rumour speaks true young French was irritated by the almost
despotic powers then possessed by certain naval officers. So he boldly
decided at the age of eighteen to end one career and commence another.

To enter the sister service he had to stoop to what is dubbed the
"back-door," in other words a commission in the militia. It seems
rather remarkable that one of our most brilliant officers should have
had this difficulty to face. Incidentally it is a curious sidelight on
the system of competitive examinations. But there are several facts to
remember. Sir John French's genius developed slowly. One does not
figure him as ready, like Kitchener, at twenty-one, with a complete
map of his career. In these days he was probably more interested in
hunting than in soldiering. The man who is now proverbial for his
devotion to the study of tactics was then very little of a book-worm.
Indeed he seems to have shown no special intellectual or practical
abilities until much later in life.

[Page Heading: THE "DUMPIES"]

In 1874 he was gazetted to the 8th Hussars, being transferred three
weeks later to the 19th. At that time the 19th Hussars was scarcely a
crack regiment. With two other regiments raised after the Indian
mutiny it was nicknamed the "Dumpies," owing to the standard of height
being lowered, and it had yet to earn the reputation which Barrow and
French secured it. About John French the subaltern, as about John
French the midshipman, history is silent. No fabulous legends have
accumulated about him. Presumably the short, firmly-built young
officer was regarded as normal and entirely _de rigeur_ in his
sporting propensities.

The subaltern of the 'eighties took himself much less seriously than
his successor of today. The eternal drill and the occasional
manoeuvres were conducted on well-worn and almost automatic
principles. As a result, the younger officers found hunting and polo
decidedly better sport. Few or none of them were military enthusiasts;
and study did not enter largely into their programme. It entered into
French's--but only in stray hours, often snatched by early rising,