Richard Airey, 1st Baron Airey

General Richard Airey, Baron Airey, 1878

Richard Airay, 1st Baron Airey , GCB (born April 1803 in Newcastle upon Tyne , Northumberland , England , † 13 September 1881 in The Grange, Leatherhead , Surrey , England) was a British general .

Life

Family origins and first uses

Airey was accused of being responsible for the heavy losses in the Light Brigade attack at the Battle of Balaklava

Richard Airey was one of three children and the only son of Lieutenant General George Airey and his wife Catherine Talbot. He completed an officer training at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich and entered after graduation in 1821 as an ensign in the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot of the British Army . In 1825 he was promoted to captain . Between 1827 and 1829 he was aide-de-camp of the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands , Frederick Adam . He was then from 1830 to 1832 aide-de-camp of the Governor General of British North America Lord Aylmer and then from 1832 to 1835 himself Military Governor of British North America . On his return in 1838 he became a lieutenant colonel and served as assistant adjutant-general , based in the Horse Guards building , before becoming assistant quartermaster-general from 1847 to 1851 . As the successor to Lieutenant General Raglan , he was from 1852 Military Secretary of the Commander in Chief of the British Army Lord Hardinge and held this post until his replacement by Lieutenant General Charles Yorke in May 1854.

Crimean War

Airey got command of a brigade in 1854 and fought with it in the Battle of the Alma in the Crimean War . From 1854 to 1855 he served as acting quartermaster general of the troops there under the command of Lord Raglan. In the battle of Balaklava he passed the famous order from Lord Raglan to attack the Light Brigade to Louis Edward Nolan . Since this order led to confusion in the implementation, he was accused of being responsible for the heavy losses in the attack. An official investigation requested by him acquitted him of this allegation. Then he was again commander of a brigade in the Battle of Inkerman and was during the siege of Sevastopol to Lieutenant General (Lieutenant General) promoted. For his services in the Crimean War, he was beaten on July 5, 1855 to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), so that from then on he carried the suffix "Sir".

Quartermaster General, Governor of Gibraltar and Adjutant General

Richard Airay in a cartoon by Leslie Ward in Vanity Fair magazine (July 19, 1873)

In December 1855, Lieutenant General Airey replaced Major General James Freeth as Quartermaster General to the Forces and held this position for nearly ten years until September 1865, when Lieutenant General Hope Grant succeeded him. He was also Colonel of the Regiment of The 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment between 1860 and 1868 .

On September 21, 1865, he took over the post of Governor of Gibraltar from General William John Codrington and held it until his replacement by William Fenwick Williams on July 25, 1870. On March 13, 1867 he was raised to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). He was also Colonel of the Regiment des The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) between 1868 and 1876 .

Upon his return, Lieutenant General Richard Airey succeeded General Lord William Paulet Adjutant-General , one of the highest posts in the Army, in September 1870 , and remained in that position until he was replaced by General Charles Ellice in November 1876. In 1871 he was appointed General promoted. After retiring from active military service, he was given the hereditary title of Baron Airey , of Killingworth in the County of Northumberland, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom on November 29, 1876 . He thereby became a member of the House of Lords .

His marriage in January 1838 to Harriet Mary Everard Talbot, daughter of James Talbot, 3rd Baron Talbot of Malahide and his wife Anne Sarah Rodbard, gave birth to a daughter, Katherine Margaret Airey, who was named to the House of Representatives Sir Geers Cotterell, 3rd. Baronet married. Since he left no male descendants, his peer title expired on his death on September 13, 1881. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

literature

• Airey, Richard Airey . In: Hugh Chisholm (Ed.): Encyclopædia Britannica . Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 1911, p. 445.

Web links

• Mr Richard Airey at Hansard (English)
• General Richard Airey, 1st and last Baron Airey on thepeerage.com , accessed August 22, 2019.
• Peerage: AIREY at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
• SENIOR ARMY APPOINTMENTS SINCE 1860
• KNIGHTS AND DAMES at Leigh Rayment's Peerage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SENIOR ARMY APPOINTMENTS SINCE 1860, p. 11
2. ↑ KNIGHTS AND DAMES
3. ↑ SENIOR ARMY APPOINTMENTS SINCE 1860, p. 8
4. ↑ SENIOR ARMY APPOINTMENTS SINCE 1860, p. 143
5. ↑ Gibraltar: Governors (Rulers)
6. ↑ KNIGHTS AND DAMES
7. ↑ SENIOR ARMY APPOINTMENTS SINCE 1860, p. 6
8. ^ The London Gazette : 24386, 6301 , November 24, 1876.

predecessor	Office	successor
William John Codrington	Governor of Gibraltar 1865–1870	William Fenwick Williams
New title created	Baron Airey 1876-1871	Title expired