Henry Meredith Vibart

“ On the death of James Braidwood [q. v.] , superintendent of the London fire brigade, at the great fire in Tooley Street in 1861, Shaw was chosen to fill his place. For the next thirty years he retained the office, and during that period by his personal efforts perfected the organisation of the metropolitan system, which it was his ambition to render the best in the world. He never spared himself. During the first six years of his command he was absent from duty only sixteen days. He was always astir at 3 a.m. to drill and train his men. ”

“ An excellent soldier who was popular with all ranks, he cherished the cultured traditions of his family. He exercised a wide hospitality at his London house, and his guests included representatives of literature, art, and science, as well as soldiers and men in public life. He was always on cordial terms with King Edward VII. He died at 16 Portland Place on 16 Nov. 1902, and was buried in Chichester Cathedral with military honours.
A portrait of Prince Edward by F. Marks is in the possession of the duke of Richmond and Gordon at Goodwood. ”

“ In 1866-7 he served as A.D.C. to the major-general at Mauritius, and from 1869 to 1873 he was adjutant of his regiment. On 1 Feb. 1873 he became lieutenant-colonel, and afterwards he made his first acquaintance with South Africa, where he was thenceforth employed for the greater part of his active career. From 1873 to 1879 he was on the staff at the Cape of Good Hope acting as assistant military secretary to the general officer there. In that capacity, or on special service, he was engaged in much active warfare in South Africa. In 1875 he served in the expedition to Griqualand West. ”

“ Gordon's report made Sir Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts abandon all idea of a frontal attack on the Peiwar Kotal (Lord Roberts, Forty-one Years in India, 1898, p. 354) . Gordon's regiment formed the advance guard in the turning movement on the Spingawi Kotal on 2 Dec. During the night march some Pathans of the 29th Punjab infantry fired signal shots to warn the enemy of the British advance. The regiment was immediately displaced from its leading position. An inquiry instituted by Gordon resulted in the discovery of some of the culprits. ”

“ On returning to India after furlough in 1881 Adams spent a year at Lucknow. During three years (1883-5) at Naini Tal he was instrumental in the erection of an east window and reredos in memory of the victims of the great landslip. In 1885 he accompanied the field force under Lord Roberts up country in Burma, and he took part in the operations there. He had already received the bronze star for the Kabul - Kandahar march and the Afghan war medal with four clasps, Kandahar, Kabul, Charasiab, and Peiwar Kotal; he was now awarded the Burmah field force medal. ”

“ After the failure of that expedition Macdonald played an important part in reorganising the Egyptian army, and was mainly associated with the training of the 11th Sudanese regiment, which he modelled on the Highlanders. He became captain in 1888, and was transferred to the Egyptian army. The Sudan campaign of 1888-91 gave Macdonald the opportunity of testing the steadiness of the Sudanese troops under his command. ”

“ Advancing too far, Massy was cut off by 10,000 Afghans at Killa Kazi, and after an unsuccessful charge and the abandonment of guns he was extricated from a difficult position by the timely arrival of the main body. General Roberts in his report laid the responsibility for the disaster on Massy, who was severely censured and removed from his command. General Roberts's strictures were regarded as unduly harsh, and Massy was soon reappointed to a brigade by George, duke of Cambridge, the commander-in-chief (Despatches, Lond. Gaz. 16 Jan. and 4 May 1880) . ”

“ Returning from the frontier at the close of the war, he became chief engineer of the Southern Mahratta railway in 1881, and by exercise of his great organising powers and by his gift of obtaining the devoted services of his staff he finished the railway in 1891. The line proved of great service in ameliorating distress during the subsequent famines. Meanwhile in 1885, when Russian intrigues had caused unrest on the north-west frontier, he as engineer-in-chief made arrangements for carrying out the railroad from Sibi up the Bolan towards Quetta. ”

“ On 12 Nov. 1857, when in command of a party of Hodson's horse near Alambagh, he charged across a swamp and captured two guns, which were defended by a vastly superior body of the enemy (Lord Roberts, Forty-one Years in India, p. 170) . His horse was wounded in two places and his turban cut through by sword thrusts whilst he was in combat with three sepoys. ”

“ Daubeney served with his regiment during the Chinese war of 1841-2, and as a captain commanded the light company at the repulse of the enemy's night attack at Chinhae, and at the storm and capture of Chapou (18 May 1842) . He was on the staff as major of brigade to Sir James Schoedde at Woosung, Shanghai, and Chin-Kiang, and was twice mentioned in despatches. He received the medal, was promoted brevet major on 23 Dec. 1842, and was made C.B. on 24 Dec. 1842. Becoming major (25 Nov. 1845) he went through the Crimean campaign of 1854. ”

“ Proceeding to Mirzapur and on towards Rewa, he held the Kattra Pass, where he was joined by a Madras regiment and C battery Madras artillery, and received the command of a battery. Ordered to Cawnpore to aid General Windham's operations against the Gwalior contingent, the force was continuously engaged for three days, with heavy loss; out of thirty-six men with Charmer's guns seventeen were killed or wounded. ”

“ In 1863 he obtained his majority, and served as assistant adjutant-general in India. On his promotion as lieutenant-colonel he commanded in India the 5th royal Irish lancers from 1871 to 1879. On 4 Sept. 1879 Massy was proceeding with a small escort to Kabul, when the news of the massacre of Sir Louis Cavagnari [q. v.] reached him at Shutargarden; and he at once telegraphed the news to Sir Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts. During the Afghan war of 1879-80 he commanded a cavalry brigade and took a prominent part in the battle of Charasiab on 6 Oct. ”

“ Walker was appointed adjutant to the company depot, under command of Major Hoey, which remained at Walmer until the following year, when it moved to Dover, and in 1853 to Fermoy. In October 1853 he proceeded with a draft to Cork, and embarked for Gibraltar, where the regiment was then stationed. On 4 Feb. 1854 he was promoted lieutenant and appointed adjutant. On 1 May 1854 the regiment embarked for Turkey; it was encamped at Scutari, and formed part of the 1st brigade under Brig.-Greneral Pennefather, and of the 2nd division under Sir De Lacy Evans. ”

“ In March 1875 he took the 45th regiment (Sherwood Foresters) to Bangalore, and on 24 May (Queen Victoria's birthday) was gazetted C.B. In August that year he was appointed a brigadier-general to command the Nagpore force, with headquarters at Ramptee. He vacated this command on 4 Nov. 1879, owing to promotion to major-general (11 Nov. 1878) . On 22 Nov. 1879 he proceeded to England. In October 1882 he received the reward for distinguished service, and on 1 April 1883 was appointed to the command of the 1st brigade at Aldershot. ”

“ At the battle of Kotah-ke-Serai he was mentioned in despatches by Sir Hugh Rose 'for good service.' He was especially active during the capture of Gwalior on 19 June, when he was wounded by a musket ball in the left arm, after taking by assault two 18-pounders and helping to turn the captured guns on the enemy. For gallantry in minor engagements he was four times mentioned in despatches. The 95th regiment, while under his command in Central India, marched 3000 miles (Lond. Gaz. 11 June and 10 Oct. 1858, 24 March, 18 April, and 2 Sept. 1859) . ”

“ The father's younger brother, James M'Gibbon Burn-Murdoch, was father of Colonel John Francis Burn-Murdoch, C.B., a distinguished cavalry officer. Educated at the Edinburgh Academy, at Nice for a year, and afterwards in London, Burn-Murdoch entered the royal engineers from Woolwich on 2 May 1872. ”

“ From 1883 to 1888 he commanded a second-class district in Bengal and Burma, and a first-class district in Madras from 1889 to 1893, having been made major-general on 23 Jan. 1889. Leaving India in 1893, he was till 1898 governor of Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He was nominated K.C.B. on 22 June 1897, having become lieut.-general on 28 May 1896. After 1898 he resided at Fairhaven, Winchester, where he died on 14 March 1908, being buried at King's Worthy. ”

“ CHASE, WILLIAM ST. LUCIAN (1856–1908) , lieut.-colonel, eldest son of Captain Richard Henry Chase of the control department of the war office, was born in St. Lucia, West Indies, on 21 Aug. 1856. He was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and entered the army as sublieutenant in the 15th foot on 10 Sept. 1875, becoming lieutenant and joining the Bombay staff corps on 31 May 1878. He served in the Afghan war of 1879 to 1880, taking part In the defence of Kandahar. ”

“ He died in London on 9 April 1905 and was buried at Brompton. His seat was Truinland House, Island of Rousay, Orkney, and he was vice-lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland. On 4 June 1870 he married Eliza D'Oyly, the youngest daughter of Colonel William Geddes, C.B., Bengal horse artillery, J.P. and D.L. of Midlothian (d. 1879) , by Emma, daughter of Edward D'Oyly, of Zion Hill, Yorkshire ”

“ Of these 2541 men are stationed in London, while the remaining 1611 are distributed in ten other large cities, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Nottingham. The corps is wholly self-supporting, with its own pension and insurance fund and sick fund. King Edward VII, who inspected the corps at Buckingham Palace on 16 June 1907, described it as one of the best regulated and most useful institutions in the country. ”

“ Irby was a member of the council of the Zoological Society of London from 1892 to 1900. He assisted in the formation of the life groups in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, where some of the most remarkable cases of British birds bear his name. ”

“ After education at Kensington grammar school, at Blackheath proprietary school, and in Switzerland, Burroughs was gazetted ensign in the 93rd bighlanders on 31 March 1848. Promoted lieutenant on 23rd Sept. 1851, he became captain on 10 Nov. 1854 and major on 20 July 1858. On his twenty - first birthday (1 Feb. 1852) Burroughs succeeded to the Scottish estates of his grand-uncle, George William Traill, of Viera, Orkney, and assumed the surname of Traill-Burroughs. He served with the 93rd highlanders under Sir Colin Campbell (afterwards Lord Clyde) [q. v.] ”

“ After commanding B battery horse artillery for a few months at Bangalore, he proceeded in May 1857 to Madras en route for Burmah, but the news of the Sepoy mutiny at Meerut led to a change of plans, and he went with Major Cotter's horse battery to Calcutta and thence to Benares and Allahabad. ”

“ Educated at private schools in England and abroad, he was at the East India Company's Military College, Addiscombe, from 1848 to 1850, obtained his first commission in the Bengal army on 14 June 1850. ”

“ On his retirement from active service in 1880 Daubeney resided at Osterley Lodge, Spring Grove, Isleworth, where he died on 17 Jan. 1903. He was thrice married: (1) in 1840, to Amelia (d. 1857) , only child of Samuel Davy Liptrap of Southampton, by whom he had two sons; (2) in 1859 to Henrietta Anne (d. 1876) , only daughter of Charles Jacomb of Upper Clapton, Middlesex; and (3) in 1878 to Eliza, second daughter of Charles Carpenter of Brunswick Square, Brighton. ”

“ BOSWELL, JOHN JAMES (1835–1908) , major-general, son of Dr. John James Boswell of the East India Company's Bengal medical service by his wife Anna Mary, daughter of Andrew Moffat Wellwood, was born at Edinburgh on 27 Sept. ”

“ In selecting regiments and commanders for service in South Africa and China in 1900 Palmer showed high administrative capacity, and though owing to the uncertainty of his tenure of office he carried out no sweeping changes, he introduced many practical reforms in musketry. ”

“ He received the freedom of the Coachmakers' Company in the same year, and the freedom of the City of London in 1892. On his retirement the fire insurance companies showed their appreciation of his admirable work by the presentation of a splendid silver service. ”

“ On 27 Sept. 1879 he showed skill and energy in driving the enemy from the Hazardarakt pass near Karatiga and thereby enabling Lord Roberts to continue his march to Kushi. He again distinguished himself at the action of Charasiab on 6 October following by dislodging a picquet, which was causing much annoyance by its fire. ”