John Charles Ardagh

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John Charles Ardagh (1894)

Major-General Sir John Charles Ardagh , KCMG KCIE CB LL.D (* 1840 in Waterford , Ireland ; † September 30, 1907 in Glynllivon ) was a British officer, fortress builder, lawyer and colonial administrator.

Life

John Charles Ardagh was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1840 to a clergyman of the Church of Ireland . After completing his education in Waterford, he continued his education at Trinity College in Dublin and at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich . He completed the latter in 1858. On September 1, 1859, he joined the Royal Engineers as a lieutenant . Ardagh was considered a talented mathematician, linguist and draftsman and enjoyed the promotion of senior officers. As a young officer, he traveled to large parts of Europe.

In 1862 Ardagh was commissioned as a junior officer to build the Newhaven Fort . In May 1862 he began his service in Brighton . Construction on the fort began in 1864. Ardagh arranged for the site not to be completely leveled but to conform to the shape of the site. Another innovation dating back to Ardagh was the use of concrete for military fortifications.

In 1871 Ardagh found himself in Paris during the final phase of the Franco-Prussian War . Promoted to captain in 1875 and as Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General in the news department of the War Office added, he spent the next six years in the military and diplomatic services in the Balkans . In 1876 he reported on the Conference of Constantinople and in 1878 on the Berlin Congress . In July of that year he was inducted into the civilian department of the Order of the Bath as a companion. In 1881 he was a British member of the commission for establishing the Turkish-Greek border . As early as 1878/79 he had been a member of the commission for determining the course of the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

From 1881, Ardagh served in the Middle East several times . In 1882 he was involved in the rebuilding of Alexandria after the city ​​was bombarded by British intervention forces. In the same year he took part in the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir , in 1884 in the Battle of El Teb . During the Gordon Relief Expedition in 1884 he was first in command of Cairo . Between 1884 and 1886 various uses followed during the expedition, so in 1884 he was commander of the engineer troops and head of the military reconnaissance department (Commander Royal Engineers and Head of Intelligence Department), in 1885 commander and 1886 staff officer. Ardagh has received several awards for his services in Egypt and Sudan. After the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir he received the Bronze Star and was accepted into the 4th grade of the Osmanje Order . In May 1884 Companion of the Military Department of the Order of the Bath . He was also in the III. Class of the Mecidiye Order accepted.

Upon his return to England, Ardagh was used as Assistant Adjutant General, Defense and Mobilization on the British Army General Staff in 1887 .

From 1888 Ardagh served in India . Initially, from 1888 to 1894, he was the private secretary of Henry Petty-FitzMaurice , Viceroy of India, and for a short time in 1894 also the private secretary of his successor, Victor Alexander Bruce . During his time in India, Ardagh was also involved in issues of demarcation in Aksai Chin between India and China. FitzMaurice was on friendly terms with Ardagh and promoted him. This was particularly important for Ardagh because, like many British officers of the time, he constantly feared for his further use, but did not have sufficient financial means to make a living outside the British Army. At the end of his service in India, Ardagh Knight became Commander of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire , after he had been accepted as a Companion in this order in 1892.

From 1894 to 1896, Ardagh was used as the commander of the School of Military Engineering at Chatham . He then became Chief of Military Intelligence (Director of Military Intelligence) in the War Office. In 1898, at the age of 58, he was promoted to major-general . In this employment he was accused of having misjudged the strength of the Boers in the Second Boer War and thus largely to blame for the unfavorable course of the war for Great Britain. Ardagh was subsequently no longer promoted and resigned from the military in 1902 after he was recalled from his post in April 1901. During his employment as chief of military intelligence, he took part in the first Hague Peace Conference in 1899 . In 1900 he was involved in drafting the British arbitration award on the Argentine-Chilean border . In 1901 he was appointed His Majesty's Government Agent on the South Africa Claims Commission . As head of military intelligence, but also after his retirement, Aldagh was involved in the politico-military discussions in Great Britain on the development of a defense doctrine. Like Garnet Wolseley , he advocated arming and enlarging the British Army in order to be prepared for war against France or Russia in Europe. Responsible for military reconnaissance, he put forward military memoranda that emphasized the danger of a French invasion and exaggerated the strength of an opposing invasion force.

After retiring into private life, Ardagh, who was also a Doctor of Laws , became a member of the Judicial Commission on Revision of Martial Law Sentences in 1902. In 1903 he became a permanent member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague . In the same year he also became director of the Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez .

Ardagh died on September 30, 1907. He left behind his wife Susan Hamilton, whom he married on February 18, 1896. There were no children out of the marriage. Susan Hamilton's first marriage was to James Howard Harris . In 1909 the biography of Ardaghs was published, which contains numerous illustrations by her husband. Ardagh's neglected correspondence is administered by the National Archives and the Middle East Center at St Antony's College .

Works

  • Sir John Charles Ardagh: The Growth of Our Indian Frontiers , Military Society of Ireland, 1894

literature

  • Great Britain. India Office: The India List and India Office List , 1905 (English)
  • Richard Leslie Hill: A Biographical Dictionary of the Sudan , Routledge, 1967. ISBN 9780714610375 (English)
  • Susan Hamilton Ardagh: The life of Major-General Sir John Ardagh, by his wife Susan, countess of Malmesbury (Lady Ardagh). With portraits; and illustrations from drawings by Sir John Ardagh. , London, John Murray, 1909. (English)
  • Andreas Rose: Between Empire and Continent: British Foreign Policy before the First World War , Oldenbourg Verlag , 2011. ISBN 9783486704013

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The National Archive gives 1908 as the year of death.
personal data
SURNAME Ardagh, John Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer, fortress builder, lawyer and colonial administrator
DATE OF BIRTH 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Waterford , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1907
Place of death Glynllivon