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{{Short description|British Army general}}
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[[File:HenryAugustusSmyth.jpg|thumb|right|Sir Henry Smyth, by Francis Smyth Baden-Powell]]
{{for|the general with a similar name|Henry Smyth (British Army officer, born 1816)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix =
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| name =Sir Henry Augustus Smyth
| honorific_suffix =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| image = File:HenryAugustusSmyth.jpg
| image_size =
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| caption = Sir Henry Smyth, by Francis Smyth Baden-Powell
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1825|11|25}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1906|09|19|1825|11|24}}
| birth_place = [[St James's Street]], [[London]]
| death_place = [[Stone, Buckinghamshire|Stone]], [[Buckinghamshire]]
| placeofburial = [[Stone, Buckinghamshire|Stone]], [[Buckinghamshire]]
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| allegiance = {{UK}}
| branch = [[File:Flag of the British Army.svg|23px]] [[British Army]]
| serviceyears = 1841&ndash;1893
| rank = [[General (United Kingdom)|General]]
| servicenumber = <!--Do not use data from primary sources such as service records.-->
| unit = [[Royal Artillery]]
| commands =
| battles = [[Crimean War]]
| battles_label =
| awards = [[Order of St Michael and St George|Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
| spouse = <!-- Add spouse if reliably sourced -->
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Sir '''Henry Augustus Smyth''' (1825 – 1906), FSA, FRGS, Governor of Malta, general and colonel commandant [[Royal Artillery]], born at [[St James's Street]], [[London]], on 25 November 1825, was third son in the family of three sons and six daughters of Admiral [[William Henry Smyth]] (1788–1865) by his wife Annarella, only daughter of Thomas Warington, British consul at [[Naples]]. His elder brothers were Sir [[Warington Wilkinson Smyth]] (1817–1890) and [[Charles Piazzi Smyth]] (1819–1900). Of his six sisters, Henrietta married [[Prof. Baden-Powell]], and Rosetta married Sir [[William Henry Flower]].
[[General (United Kingdom)|General]] '''Sir Henry Augustus Smyth''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|KCMG|FSA|FRGS}} (25 November 1825 – 19 September 1906) was a senior [[British Army]] officer. He was the son of Admiral [[William Henry Smyth]] and the brother of astronomer [[Charles Piazzi Smyth]] and geologist Sir [[Warington Wilkinson Smyth]]. Of his sisters, Henrietta married the theologian [[Baden Powell (mathematician)|Baden Powell]] and Georgiana the anatomist Sir [[William Henry Flower]].


==Military career==
Educated at [[Bedford school]] from 1834 to 1840, Smyth entered the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich|Royal Military Academy]] at Woolwich on 1 Feb. 1841. Receiving a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 20 Dec. 1843, and being promoted lieutenant on 5 April 1845, he was on foreign service in [[Bermuda]] from 1847 to 1851. Promoted second captain on 11 Aug. 1851, he was quartered at [[City of Halifax|Halifax, Nova Scotia]], till 1854, and at [[Corfu]] from February 1855. On becoming first captain on 1 April, he was sent in May to the [[Crimea]] to command a field battery of the second division of the army which supported the right attack on [[Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)|Sevastopol]]. Smyth and his battery did arduous work with the siege train in the trenches. He took part in the third bombardment, was present at the fall of Sevastopol, and remained in the Crimea until July 1856. For his services he received the [[British Crimean War medal|British war medal]] with clasp for Sevastopol and the [[Turkish Crimean War medal|Turkish medal]].
Born on 25 November 1825 in [[Westminster]] and educated at [[Bedford School]], Smyth was commissioned as second lieutenant in the [[Royal Artillery]] in 1843.{{sfn|Vetch|Lunt|2008}} He served in the [[Crimean War]] and was present at the [[Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55)|Siege of Sevastopol]].{{sfn|Vetch|Lunt|2008}} He became commandant of [[Woolwich]] garrison and military district in 1882 and General Officer Commanding the troops in [[South Africa]] in 1886.{{sfn|Vetch|Lunt|2008}} In 1888 Smyth mustered an army of 2,000 troops and left for [[Zulu Kingdom|Zululand]] to put down a rebellion there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bp-dinizulu.htm|title=Dinizulu|author=Freedman, Russell|publisher=Holiday House|location=New York|year=1967|access-date=18 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728235654/http://pinetreeweb.com/bp-dinizulu.htm|archive-date=28 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>


Smyth became acting [[British Cape Colony|Governor of Cape Colony]] as well as acting [[High Commissioner for Southern Africa]] in 1889.{{sfn|Vetch|Lunt|2008}} He became [[Governor of Malta]] in 1890 before retiring in 1893.{{sfn|Vetch|Lunt|2008}}
After he had spent over five years at home stations, principally at [[Shorncliffe, Kent|Shorncliffe]], hostilities threatened with the [[United States]] over the Trent affair, and Smyth took his field battery of the Crimea out to [[New Brunswick]] in December 1861, landing his horses fit for service after an exceptionally tempestuous voyage. While still in Canada Smyth obtained a brevet majority on 12 Feb. 1863, and on promotion to a regimental lieutenant-colonelcy on 31 Aug. 1865 he returned home. While on ordinary leave of absence in Canada he visited the scenes of the [[American civil war]], saw the capture of Richmond, and was the only foreigner present in the subsequent pursuit of the southern army. At a later period he attended, while on leave from India, some of the operations of the [[Franco-German war]]. His observations in both cases were commended by the authorities and partly published in the ''Proceedings of the Royal Artillery Institution''.


==Family==
From 1867 to 1874 Smyth served in [[India]]. He became a brevet colonel on 31 Aug. 1870. In 1872 he presided over a committee at [[Calcutta]] which condemned the bronze rifled guns then proposed for adoption for field service and conducted valuable researches into the explosive force of Indian gunpowders. His services were eulogised by the governor-general in council in May 1874. On 16 Jan. 1875 Smyth succeeded to a regimental colonelcy and was deputed to attend the German army manœuvres in the autumn. He commanded the artillery at [[Sheerness]] in 1876, and from 1877 to 1880 the artillery in the southern district. He served on various professional inquiries, such as the revision of siege operations in view of the adoption of more powerful rifled guns and howitzers. In 1876 and 1887 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Artillery Institution for essays respectively on ''Field Artillery Tactics'' and ''Training of Field Artillery''.


On 14 April 1874 at [[Lillington, Warwickshire]] he married Helen Constance Greaves (1845–1932), daughter of [[John Whitehead Greaves]] and sister of [[John Ernest Greaves]]. They had no children. Smyth died on 18 September 1906 at [[Stone, Buckinghamshire]], and was buried there.{{sfn|Vetch|Lunt|2008}}
From 1881 to 1883 Smyth served on the ordnance committee at Woolwich. During that time steel was introduced into the service on the recommendation of the committee as the material for rifled guns. Promoted major-general on 1 Nov. 1882, Smyth was commandant of the Woolwich garrison and military district from 1882 to 1886. He became lieutenant-general on 1 Nov. 1886, and went out the next year to command the troops in [[South Africa]].


==Notes==
Soon after his arrival at the Cape he rapidly crushed a rising in [[Zulu Kingdom|Zululand]], which had been formally annexed in May 1887. The Zulus fled into the territories of the [[South African republic]], where they dispersed. [[Dinizulu]] and his chiefs ultimately surrendered to the British, and were banished to [[St. Helena]]. For some eight months in 1889–90 Smyth acted as governor of [[Cape Colony]] between the departure of Sir [[Hercules Robinson]], afterwards Lord Rosmead, and the arrival of Sir [[Henry Brougham Loch]], afterwards Lord Loch. Smyth was created C.M.G. in January 1889, and K.C.M.G. in 1890, when he was appointed [[governor of Malta]]. He was promoted general on 19 May 1891, and on 20 Dec. 1893 his jubilee in the Royal Artillery service was celebrated at Malta. He left the island at the end of the year on retirement, and settled at his father's house, which he had inherited, St. John's Lodge, [[Stone, Buckinghamshire|Stone]], [[Aylesbury]], [[Buckinghamshire]].
{{reflist}}

Smyth became a colonel commandant of the royal artillery on 17 Oct. 1894. He was honorary colonel of the royal Malta militia, a [[Justice of the Peace|J.P.]] for Buckinghamshire, and fellow both of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]] and of the [[Royal Geographical Society]]. He died on 18 Sept. 1906 at his own house, and was buried in Stone churchyard. He married at Lillington, near Leamington in Warwickshire, on 14 April 1874, Helen Constance, daughter of John Whitehead Greaves, of Berecote, near Leamington. His widow survived him without issue. A portrait painted by [[Lowes Dickinson]] is in Lady Smyth's possession. Memorial tablets have been erected in the garrison church at Woolwich and in the church at Stone.


==References==
==References==
*{{DNB12 | title=Smyth, Sir Henry Augustus | volume=3 | page=352–353 | url=http://www.archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati23lees/#page/352/mode/2up | accessdate=2011-03-27}}
* {{cite ODNB|first=R. H. |last=Vetch |title=Smyth, Sir Henry Augustus (1825–1906) |first2= James (reviewer) |last2=Lunt |orig-year=2004 |date=January 2008 |id=36174}}
;Attribution
*{{DNB12 |last=Vetch |first=R. H. | wstitle=Smyth, Henry Augustus | volume=3 | page=352–353 }}


{{s-start}}
{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
{{s-gov}}
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| NAME = Smyth, Henry Augustus
{{succession box
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
|title=Acting [[British Cape Colony|Governor of Cape Colony]]<br />Acting [[High Commissioner for Southern Africa]]
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
|before=The Hon. [[Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead|Hercules Robinson]]
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1825
|after=[[Henry Loch, 1st Baron Loch|Henry Loch]]
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
|years=1889
| DATE OF DEATH = 1906
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
}}
{{succession box
|title=[[Governor of Malta]]
|before=[[Henry Torrens|Sir Henry Torrens]]
|after=[[Arthur Lyon Fremantle|Sir Arthur Lyon Fremantle]]
|years=1890&ndash;1893
}}

{{s-end}}
{{Governors of Malta}}
{{British Governors of the Cape Colony}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smyth, Henry Augustus}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smyth, Henry Augustus}}
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[[Category:Governors and Governors-General of Malta]]
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[[Category:Old Bedfordians]]
[[Category:People educated at Bedford School]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Crimean War]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Crimean War]]
[[Category:British Army generals]]
[[Category:British Army generals]]

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Revision as of 19:49, 3 February 2023

For the general with a similar name, see Henry Smyth (British Army officer, born 1816).

Sir Henry Augustus Smyth
Sir Henry Smyth, by Francis Smyth Baden-Powell
Born(1825-11-25)25 November 1825
St James's Street, London
Died19 September 1906(1906-09-19) (aged 80)
Stone, Buckinghamshire
Buried
Stone, Buckinghamshire
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1841–1893
RankGeneral
UnitRoyal Artillery
Battles/warsCrimean War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George

General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth KCMG FSA FRGS (25 November 1825 – 19 September 1906) was a senior British Army officer. He was the son of Admiral William Henry Smyth and the brother of astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth and geologist Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth. Of his sisters, Henrietta married the theologian Baden Powell and Georgiana the anatomist Sir William Henry Flower.

Military career

Born on 25 November 1825 in Westminster and educated at Bedford School, Smyth was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in 1843.[1] He served in the Crimean War and was present at the Siege of Sevastopol.[1] He became commandant of Woolwich garrison and military district in 1882 and General Officer Commanding the troops in South Africa in 1886.[1] In 1888 Smyth mustered an army of 2,000 troops and left for Zululand to put down a rebellion there.[2]

Smyth became acting Governor of Cape Colony as well as acting High Commissioner for Southern Africa in 1889.[1] He became Governor of Malta in 1890 before retiring in 1893.[1]

Family

On 14 April 1874 at Lillington, Warwickshire he married Helen Constance Greaves (1845–1932), daughter of John Whitehead Greaves and sister of John Ernest Greaves. They had no children. Smyth died on 18 September 1906 at Stone, Buckinghamshire, and was buried there.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Vetch & Lunt 2008.
  2. ^ Freedman, Russell (1967). "Dinizulu". New York: Holiday House. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2013.

References

Attribution
Government offices
Preceded by Acting Governor of Cape Colony
Acting High Commissioner for Southern Africa
1889 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Malta
1890–1893 		Succeeded by
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