Henry Torrens (British Army officer, born 1833)

Last updated

Sir Henry D'Oyley Torrens
Felice Beato (British, born Italy) - (Lieutenant-Colonel Torrens) - Google Art Project.jpg
Photograph by Felice Beato, 1858–1859
Born24 February 1833
Died1 December 1889
Allegiance Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
Service / branch Flag of the British Army.svg British Army
Years of service1849 - 1889
Rank Lieutenant General
Battles / wars Crimean War
Indian Mutiny
Awards Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of St Michael and St George

Lieutenant General Sir Henry D'Oyley Torrens KCB KCMG (24 February 1833 – 1 December 1889) was a British Army officer and colonial governor. He was born in Meerut, India, the son of Henry Whitelock Torrens and Eliza Mary Roberts and died in London.

Contents

Military career

Torrens was commissioned as a second Lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 1849. [1] His rise through the ranks was very rapid, reaching the rank of colonel in 1864. [2]

He served in the Crimean War at the major battles, for which he was awarded the Légion d'honneur, [3] followed by service in India during the Indian Mutiny in 1857.

In 1862, he published a book, Travels in Ladâk, Tartary, and Kashmir, about his summer holiday the previous year. [4]

He was promoted to Major-General in 1869 and finally to Lieutenant-General while serving as General Officer Commanding Cork District in Ireland in 1884. [5]

He went on to be was Governor of Cape Colony in 1886 and Governor of Malta in 1888. He was a keen golfer founding both Royal Cape Golf Club in 1886 and Royal Malta Golf Club in 1888.

Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London HenryTorrensBrompton01.jpg
Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London

Personal life

In 1876, Torrens married Georgina Frances De Butts in Kensington, London. [6] She was born in 1852, the daughter of Augustus De Butts Jr (1806–1867) and his wife, Hannah Georgeina Elizabeth Inglefield, and granddaughter of General Sir Augustus De Butts. [7] She died in 1918. [8]

He died on 1 December 1889 and the beneficiary of his will was his wife, Georgina Frances Torrens. [9] He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. Georgina died in 1918. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury</span> British politician

James Brownlow William Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury,, styled Viscount Cranborne until 1823, was a British Conservative politician. He held office under the Earl of Derby as Lord Privy Seal in 1852 and Lord President of the Council between 1858 and 1859. He was the father of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and grandfather of Arthur Balfour, who also served as Prime Minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge</span> British Field Marshal and politician (1785–1856)

Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge, was a British Army officer and politician. After serving in the Peninsular War and the Waterloo Campaign he became Secretary at War in Wellington's ministry. After a tour as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1830 he became Secretary at War again in Sir Robert Peel's cabinet. He went on to be Governor-General of India at the time of the First Anglo-Sikh War and then Commander-in-Chief of the Forces during the Crimean War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Richard Torrens</span> Irish-born parliamentarian (1812–1884)

Sir Robert Richard Torrens,, also known as Robert Richard Chute Torrens, was an Irish-born parliamentarian, writer, and land reformer. After a move to London in 1836, he became prominent in the early years of the Colony of South Australia, emigrating after being appointed to a civil service position there in 1840. He was Colonial Treasurer and Registrar-General from 1852 to 1857 and then the third Premier of South Australia for a single month in September 1857.

Lieutenant General Sir Francis Ivan Simms Tuker KCIE CB DSO OBE was a senior British Indian Army officer who commanded the 4th Indian Infantry Division during the Second World War from 1941.

Lord William Charles Augustus Cavendish-Bentinck, known as Lord Charles Bentinck, was a British soldier and politician and a great-great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II.

General Lord Charles FitzRoy was a British Army officer and politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Cook (aviator)</span> British Army general

Brigadier-General Henry Rex Cook, was an early British aviator and an officer in the Royal Artillery during the First World War. He was the first Assistant Commandant of the Central Flying School in the years before the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Pitcairn Campbell</span> British Army general

Lieutenant General Sir William Pitcairn Campbell, was a British Army general during the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Edward Hardinge</span> British Army general (1828–1892)

General Sir Arthur Edward Hardinge was Governor of Gibraltar.

Major-General James Murray Robert Harrison CB DSO was a British Army officer who became Lieutenant Governor of Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Smyth Flower</span> English army officer, science advisor, administrator, zoologist and conservationist

Major Stanley Smyth Flower FLS FZS was an English army officer, science advisor, administrator, zoologist and conservationist.

Col. Frederick Henry Rich was a British soldier, who served with the Royal Engineers and was the Chief Inspecting Officer of the Railway Inspectorate between 1885 and 1889. He investigated many of the major railway accidents in the late 19th century, including those at Staplehurst in 1865, in which the author Charles Dickens was involved, and at Norton Fitzwarren in 1890.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Bloomfield (British Army officer)</span> British Army officer and Australian politician (1798–1870)

Lieutenant-General Henry Keane Bloomfield was an English soldier and whilst serving in New South Wales an Australian politician.

Lieutenant-General Thomas Edgar Lacy was a British Army officer who became Commandant, Staff College, Sandhurst.

The 1889 Birthday Honours were appointments by Queen Victoria to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The Queen, and were published in the London Gazette on 24 May 1889 and in The Times on 25 May 1889.

General Sir John Doran was a British Army officer from an established Irish family with links to Irish nobility. He saw extensive service in India and the North West Frontier. He had originally taken a commission in one of the East India Company Regiments in 1842.

The 1884 Birthday Honours were appointments by Queen Victoria to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of the Queen, and were published in The London Gazette in May and June 1884.

Augustus Henry Novelli was a London-based physician who graduated Cambridge University in 1845. He lived for a time at Sydenham Hill. He went on to become involved in the Consolidated Bank Limited, and eventually one of its directors. He was in 1870 a plaintiff in Smith & Novelli v Lay, a suit filed in Court of Chancery, over finance to the Meiji government of Imperial Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Arthur Bayley</span>

John Arthur Bayley was a British Army infantry officer and grandson of a baronet, who wrote a personal account of his time as an officer on campaign in India. His regiment the 52nd Regiment of Foot took part in quelling the Indian Mutiny and specifically were part of a British assault force that forced a breach at the Kashmir Gate during the Siege of Delhi.

Francis George Claudet (1837-1906) was an assayer for the Royal Mint in British Columbia, Canada, photographer and the youngest son of Antoine François Jean Claudet, the French photographer-inventor who produced daguerreotypes.

References

  1. "No. 21020". The London Gazette . 18 September 1849. p. 2854.
  2. "No. 22873". The London Gazette . 12 July 1864. p. 3503.
  3. "No. 21996". The London Gazette . 1 May 1857. p. 1574.
  4. Torrens, Henry D'Oyley (1862). Travels in Ladâk, Tartary, and Kashmir. Cornell University Library: Saunders, Otley & Co. (London). pp. Preface.
  5. "No. 25314". The London Gazette . 1 February 1884. p. 488.
  6. "Henry Doyly Torrens". England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005. familysearch.org. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  7. "Catalogue description DE BUTTS, Augustus 1806-1867". The National Archives. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  8. "Georgina Frances Torrens: England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957". Familysearch.org. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  9. "Henry D Oyly Torrens: England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957". Familysearch.org. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  10. "Georgina Frances Torrens: England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957". Familysearch.org. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Cape Colony
1886–1888
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Malta
1888–1889
Succeeded by