Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

All Rugby was touched by the death of our old schoolfellow, Alamayu, Friday, November the fourteenth. He had been prayed for in chapel for some days, and more than once had been thought by the physicians to be sinking; but he had rallied three times, and his death was almost sudden at the last. He died at the house of Professor Ransome, at Headingley, near Leeds, having left Rugby on October the 6th in perfect health. His death was due to pleurisy, and pleurisy was brought on by a chill, caught by needless exposure of himself to night air October 11th. His schoolfellows will remember that he was very good at football, plucky and enduring; and in his last illness his endurance and courage were very striking. He never once complained. He said within three days of his death to one who had seen much of him, “I am not afraid to die, but I do wish to live.” The only other wish he expressed, was, to be again a Rugby boy: adding, “I am not nineteen yet; and fellows do not leave till nineteen.” Alamayu came to England by his father’s desire, with Lord Napier of Magdala, who never lost sight of him, and had asked him to come this winter to Gibraltar. He was placed under the care of Captain Speedy, who spoke Amharic and had served under Theodore, and went with him to India and Penang. He was an inmate of Dr Jex Blake’s family for the last eight years of his life; he spent two years in the Junior Department of Cheltenham College; three years as a member of Mr Elsee’s house at Rugby, and one year at Sandhurst. He was treated with great kindness by the Queen; and by Her Majesty’s desire was buried at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, with choral service exquisitely performed, November the 21st.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

The obituary conveniently omits the fact that Alemayehu’s father Tewodros committed suicide after his defeat by the British, led by Napier, at the conclusion of the British Expedition to Abyssinia in 1868. Cyril Ransome had tutored him at Rugby, and he moved in with Ransome after dropping out of Sandhurst. He died five years before the birth of Arthur Ransome at 6 Ash Grove, Headingley, by which stage (and perhaps previously) Cyril was Professor of History and Literature at the Yorkshire College, the forerunner of Leeds University.

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Original

All Rugby was touched by the death of our old schoolfellow, ALAMAYU, Friday, November the fourteenth. He had been prayed for in chapel for some days, and more than once had been thought by the physicians to be sinking; but he had rallied three times, and his death was almost sudden at the last. He died at the house of Professor Ransome, at Headingley, near Leeds; having left Rugby on October the 6th, in perfect health. His death was due to pleurisy, the same illness that carried off Sharpe in 1875, and Sadler in 1877; and pleurisy was brought on by a chill, caught by needless exposure of himself to night air October 11th. His schoolfellows will remember that he was very good at football, plucky and enduring; and in his last illness his endurance and courage were very striking. He never once complained. He said within three days of his death to one who had seen much of him, “I am not afraid to die, but I do wish to live.” The only other wish he expressed, was, to be again a Rugby boy: adding, “I am not nineteen yet; and fellows do not leave till nineteen.”

Alamayu was born April 23, 1861, at Debra Tabor, high on the Abyssinian mountains east of Lake Tsana, now the capital of his father’s enemy, King John as he is now, Kasai as he was till the death of Theodore. The Abyssinians are Christians, and the Mussulman they regard as their natural enemy.

The Mother of Alamayu was Teruwark, daughter of Oobeay, Prince of Teegray, whom Theodore married in the most solemn way, after joint participation in the holy communion. Her death was very like her son’s; inflammation of the lungs, caused by cold: and she rallied in the same way; was extremely affected by changes of temperature in the same way; and died suddenly at last, May the 15th, 1878, accompanying her son to England. She was buried at Chelicut in Northern Abyssinia, in the same vault as her father’s father. She was little more than a child when her beauty and her intentness on her prayers caught the eye of Theodore in church; and she died young.

Alamayu came to England by his father’s desire, with Lord Napier of Magdala, who never lost sight of him, and had asked him to come this winter to Gibraltar. He was placed under the care of Captain Speedy, who spoke Amahric and had served under Theodore, and went with him to India and Penang. He was an inmate of Dr. Jex Blake’s family for the last eight years of his life; he spent two years in the Junior Department of Cheltenham College; three years as a member of Mr. Elsee’s house at Rugby, and one year at Sandhurst. He was treated with great kindness by the Queen; and by Her Majesty’s desire was buried at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, with choral service exquisitely performed, November the 21st. The coffin bore the simple inscription:

PRINCE ALAMAYU,
Of Abyssinia,
Born April 22nd, 1861,
Died Nov. 13th 1879.

526 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Alemayehu (1861-79) (1), son of Emperor Tewodros II and Empress Tiruwork Wube of Ethiopia ·
• Amharic (1) ·
• Battle of Magdala (1) ·
• British Expedition to Abyssinia (1) ·
• Christianity (9) ·
• Ethiopia (1) ·
• 📌Headingley (14) ·
• Islam (4) ·
• Pleurisy (1) ·
• Queen Victoria (9) ·
• Ransome, Arthur (1884-1967) (1), author of inter alia the Swallows and Amazons series, journalist ·
• Ransome, Cyril (1851-1897) (1), tutor at Rugby School, professor of history at the Yorkshire College in Leeds, father of Arthur Ransome ·
• Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala (1) ·
• Royal Military College, Sandhurst (1) ·
• Rugby School (3) ·
• Speedy, Tristram (1836-1911) (1), "Captain Speedy," explorer and adventurer ·
• St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle (1) ·
• Tewodros II (1818-68) (1), modernising, centralising Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 until his suicide during deposition by the British in 1868 ·
• Thomas Jex-Blake (2) ·
• Tiruwork Wube (1) ·
• University of Leeds (8) ·
• Windsor Castle (1) ·
• Yohannes IV (1) ·

All tags.

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