"Believe me,

"Yours sincerely,

"ROBERTS."

The matter was quickly arranged, and within a few weeks Sir George
Richardson had taken up his residence in Belfast, and his duties as
G.O.C. the Ulster Volunteer Force.

He was a distinguished soldier. He served under Roberts in the Afghan
Campaign of 1879-80; he took part in the Waziri Expedition of 1881, and
the Zhob Valley Field Force operations of 1890. He was in command of a
Flying Column in the Tirah Expedition of 1897-8, and of a Cavalry
Brigade in the China Expeditionary Force in 1900, and had commanded a
Division at Poona for three years before retiring in 1907. He had been
three times mentioned in despatches, besides receiving a brevet and many
medals and clasps. He was at this time sixty-six years of age, but, like
the great soldier who recommended him to Ulster, he was an active little
man both in body and mind, with no symptom of approaching old age.

General Richardson was not long in making himself popular, not only with
the force under his command, but with all classes in Ulster. There were
unavoidable difficulties in handling troops whose officers had no
statutory powers of discipline, who had inherited no military
traditions, and who formed part of a population conspicuously
independent in character. But Sir George Richardson was as full of tact
as of good humour, and he soon found that the keenness of the officers
and men, to whom dismissal from the U.V.F. would have been the severest