George Stuart White

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George Stuart White from Celebrities of the Army , London 1900

Sir George Stuart White VC , GCB , OM , GCSI , GCMG , GCIE , GCVO ( July 4, 1835 - June 24, 1912 ) was a British Field Marshal , Commander in Chief in India , Governor of Gibraltar and Commander of the Ladysmith Garrison in the Boer War .

Life

White joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers after graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . With this regiment he fought in the Sepoy uprising in India . From 1878 to 1880 he fought as major and deputy regimental commander of the 92nd Regiment of Foot (Gordon Highlanders) in the Second Anglo-Afghan War . In this campaign he led the final attack on Kandahar on September 1, 1880 . For his service in the Battle of Charasiah on October 6, 1879, he was awarded the Victoria Cross , the highest distinction in the United Kingdom for outstanding bravery in the face of the enemy . In January 1881 he became the commanding officer of the Gordon Highlanders . In February 1885 he took part in the Gordon Relief Expedition in Sudan to save Gordon Pasha and during the Mahdi uprising under Garnet Wolseley . On March 2, 1885, he was promoted to colonel .

From autumn 1885 Stuart served in Burma and in 1886, for his participation in the third British-Burmese War, was elevated to the personal nobility as Knight Commander of the Order of Bath . After the end of the war he took over from Lord Roberts in 1887, as major general , the supreme command in Burma.

In 1890 he led the Zhob Field Force on the North West Frontier . This had the order to put the rebels around Dost Muhammed . White entered the Zhob Valley on October 1st. Since he did not find what he was looking for, there were no fighting. The general then decided to impress the locals by letting his troops climb Mount Takht-i-Suleiman (3375 m), which was considered to be impassable from the east, even for chamois. The British soldiers and their sepoys managed to do this with great effort.

In 1893 he succeeded Lord Roberts in the role of Commander in Chief in India . After the outbreak of the Boer War , he took command in Natal and commanded the Ladysmith garrison during the 118-day siege of the city. From 1900 to 1904 he was governor of Gibraltar . In 1903 he was personally appointed field marshal by King Edward VII during his visit to Gibraltar .

In Broughshane , the Irish village where the Whites come from, there is now a memorial to George Stuart White.

Orders and decorations

literature

  • Philip J. Haythornthwaite: The Colonial Wars Source Book. Caxton Editions, London 2000, ISBN 1-85409-436-X ( Source Books ).
  • Johannes Meintjes: The Boer War 1899–1902. Verlag Welsermühl, Wels et al. 1979, ISBN 3-85339-158-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Knights and Dames: WAM-ZUR at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
predecessor Office successor
Sir Frederick Roberts Commander in Chief in India
1893–1898 		Charles Edward Nairne
Sir Robert Biddulph Governor of Gibraltar
1900–1905 		Sir Frederick Forestier-Walker
personal data
SURNAME White, George Stuart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Field Marshal
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1835
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 1912