Sir Garnet Wolseley
He was the son of
Major Garnet Joseph Wolseley and Frances Anne Smith. They lived in Dublin
Born at Golden Bridge House, County Dublin,
Ireland on 4 June 1833, the eldest son of Major Garnet Joseph Wolseley and
Frances Anne Smith. He received his early education in Dublin then took
employment in a surveyor’s office. Wolseley received his commission as second
Lieutenant in March 1852 and was sent to Burma. He was promoted Lieutenant in
1853 and received the Burma War Medal. In 1855 he was appointed as assistant
engineer with the 90th Foot and saw service in Crimea. In November 1857 he took
part in the relief of Lucknow and in 1858 was promoted brevet
Lieutenant-Colonel.
He was
sent to China in 1860 and, in 1861, following the Trent affair,
was ordered to Canada as Assistant Quartermaster-General. In 1865 he was
promoted Deputy Quartermaster-General in Canada. In 1870 he was chosen to command
the Red River Expeditionary Force to quell the Riel uprising. For his
successful conduct of the campaign he received a K.C.M.G. and C.B. In May 1871
he was brought home to the War Office as Assistant Adjutant General and became
an ardent supporter of Cardwell’s army reforms. Subsequently he served in
various theatres of war, including the Egyptian campaign of 1882, and was
promoted General and created Baron Wolseley of Cairo and Wolseley. For his
efforts to rescue Gordon at Khartoum in 1884-1885 he was created Viscount and
Knight of Saint Patrick.
In
1867 he married Louisa Erskine Holmes and they had one daughter. He wrote Narrative
of the War with China in 1860 (1862), The Solder’s Pocket
Book (1869), The Life of Marlborough (1894)
and The Story of a Soldier’s Life (1903).
He
died at Menton, France, on 25 March 1913 and was buried in St. Paul’s
Cathedral. He is commemorated by Wolseley Avenue and Wolseley School in Winnipeg. Wolseley’s extensive
papers are housed at Hove, near Brighton. There are papers at the Archives of Manitoba.
The Crimea
Wolseley accompanied the
regiment to the Crimea, and landed at Balaklava in December 1854 and was
selected to be an assistant engineer. He served with the Royal Engineers in the
trenches during the Siege of Sevastopol and was promoted to "captain" in
January of 1855 after less than three years' service. Wolseley was wounded at
"the Quarries" on June 7, and again in the trenches on August 30.
After the fall of Sevastopol,
he was employed on the quartermaster-general's staff, assisted in the
embarkation of the troops and stores, and then was one of the last to leave the
Crimea in July of 1856. For his services he was twice mentioned in dispatches,
was noted for a brevet majority, received the war medal with clasp, the 5th
class of the French Légion d'honneur, the 5th class of the
Turkish Mejidie, and the Turkish medal.
After six months' duty with
the 90th Foot at Aldershot, he went with it in March 1857, to join the
expedition to China under Major-General Ashburnham. He embarked in the transport Transit, which
was wrecked in the Strait of Banka. The troops were all saved, but with only
their arms and a few rounds of ammunition, and were taken to Singapore;
whence, on account of the Indian Mutiny, they were dispatched with all haste to Calcutta.
Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, in full Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley of Wolseley, Baron
Wolseley of Cairo and of Wolseley, (born June 4, 1833, Golden
Bridge, County Dublin,
Ire.—died March 26, 1913, Mentone,
France), British field marshal who
saw service in battles throughout the world and was instrumental in modernizing
the British army.
The son of an army major,
Wolseley entered the army as second lieutenant in 1852 and fought with
distinction in the Second Anglo-Burmese War, the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny. Surviving many wounds,
which cost him the sight of one eye, Wolseley became at 25 the youngest
lieutenant colonel in the British army. As a staff officer under Sir James Hope
Grant, he sailed to China in 1860. His planning and deeds are described in his Narrative of the War with China
in 1860 (1862).
Late in 1861 the U.S. seizure of two Confederate
agents on the British ship Trent created a temporary crisis. Wolseley was then
sent to Canada to
improve that colony’s defenses in case of war with the United States. In 1870 he led the Red
River expedition through 600 miles (950 km) of wilderness to suppress the rebel Louis Riel, who had proclaimed a republic
in Manitoba. Success in the field and dedication
to improvement of the service, as revealed in his Soldier’s Pocket-book for Field Service (1869),
led to his appointment (May 1871) as assistant adjutant general at the War Office.
A highly efficient commander with an admiring
public, Wolseley was employed by successive governments as chief troubleshooter
of the British
Empire. In 1873 he was sent to West Africa to lead a punitive
expedition against the Asante (Ashanti) empire, resulting in the
destruction of its capital at Kumasi. Two years later he was sent to
Natal in southern Africa to induce the colonists to surrender some of their
political rights to promote federation in South Africa.
When calamity struck the British forces battling the Zulus in
1879, Wolseley was given command in South Africa. After restoring order in
Zululand, he moved on to the Transvaal, where he discouraged rebellion among
the Boers.
Returning to the War Office, first as quartermaster general (1880) and then as adjutant
general (1882), he devoted himself to reform until interrupted by a nationalist
uprising in Egypt under ʿUrabī Pasha. In his most brilliant
campaign, Wolseley swiftly seized the Suez Canal and, after a night march,
surprised and defeated ʿUrabī at Tall al-Kabīr (Sept. 13, 1882). Prime Minister
William Gladstone rewarded him with a barony. Back in Egypt in 1884, Wolseley
organized and headed an expedition to the Nile to rescue his friend General Charles
(“Chinese”) Gordon, besieged at Khartoum in the Sudan. An advance party arrived on Jan.
28, 1885, two days after the city had fallen and Gordon had been killed. For
his efforts, Wolseley was elevated to viscount. (The title devolved on his only
daughter upon his death.)
After serving as commander of the troops in Ireland (1890–94), he became a field
marshal and commander in chief of all Britain’s forces (1895–1901). In that
office his greatest contribution was in mobilizing the army with characteristic
thoroughness for the South African War (1899–1902).[1]
Garnet
Wolseley’s sister married John Bagnell Creagh our 6th cousins.
His Nephew was his ADC
Maj.-Gen. Arthur
Gethin Creagh was born on 12
February 1855. He was the son of John Bagwell Creagh and Matilda Emily Victoria Wolseley. He married Beatrice Carlotta Grenfell, daughter of John Granville Grenfell, on 9 September 1889. He died on 21 February
1941 at age 86.
Maj.-Gen. Arthur Gethin Creagh usually went by his middle name of Gethin. He was educated at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Kent, England. He fought in the Zulu War in 1879, and was present at capture of Seltukuni's stronghold. He fought in the Egyptian Campaign in 1882. He fought in the Nile Expedition between 1884 and 1885. He fought in the Suakim Campaign in 1885, where he was mentioned in despatches. He was DAAG of the Western District between 1889 and 1892.
He was
appointed Companion, Order of the Bath (C.B.) in 1896. He was commander of
the 2nd Class District, India between 1901 and 1906. He was commander of
the Troops in Mauritius between 1906 and 1909. He was Colonel Commandant
of the Royal Artillery between 1912 and 1938. He gained the rank of
Major-General in the Royal Artillery. He lived at Creagh House, Doneraile,
County Cork, Ireland. He
lived at Ballyandrew,
County Cork, Ireland
Naval & Military Gazette and
Weekly Chronicle of the United Service
19 February 1879
Lieutenant
Arthur Gethin Creagh, Royal Artillery, has been appointed aide-de-camp to
Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet Wolseley, in succession to Captain Lord Gifford,
VC, 57th Foot.
Truth 27th November 1912
Major
General Arthur Creagh has taken his place on the retired shelf at the
comparatively early age of fifty-seven, after having been three years
unemployed in his present rank. He owes
his rapid promotion – he was a major-general at forty five – to being the
nephew of Lord Wolseley, who was always ready to help his relatives when they
tried to help themselves and General Creah did this by passing through the
Staff College, and thus qualifying himself for the advancement which naturally
comes in his way through his uncle’s interest.
As a young officer “Arthur” was a model A.D.C. quiet, tactful,
unassuming, and always devoted to his chief’s interests.
In his
autobiography, “The Story Of A Soldier’s
Life”, Volume 1 By Field Marshal Viscount Garnet Wolseley, he touches on his family
history, or that which he knew of, when he wrote it.
His family have strong links back to England,
and he shares lineage with the Howard family.
One of his early settlers to Ireland, was Sir Ralph Howard during the
time of the civil wars, and Oliver Cromwell.
“Unlike was born into an Ireland torn apart
by civil war as the Puritanical forces of Oliver Cromwell sought to overthrow
the armies of Royalist and Catholic Irish. His father, John Howard, was born in
the reign of King James I and married in 1636 Dorothea Hassells, daughter and
heiress of Robert Hassells. But John Howard died in 1643 aged just 27.
Unwilling to be left alone, Ralph’s mother
then married her cousin, another Robert Hassells, who had acquired a lease on
the Shelton and North Arklow estates from the Duke of Ormonde. Young Ralph
presumably grew up in this household, moving to Dublin to study medicine at the
University shortly after the Restoration of Charles II. By 1665 he had secured
the Hassells estates in Wicklow by means of a renewed lease. Central to this
estate was Shelton Abbey which would become the home to the Doctor’s
descendents for the next 300 years.
He acquired his doctorate in 1667 and, the
following summer, married Katherine Sotheby of the Yorkshire family. In 1674 he
was appointed President of the College of Physicians in Ireland, residing in a
house on Great Ship Street. This was no mean achievement in an age of major
scientific revolution that featured Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton and their ilk.
His mother died in the winter of 1684 and was buried beneath a marble headstone
in Kilbride churchyard.
As an opponent of James II he was attainted by the
Irish Parliament in 1689 and fled with his family to England. In his absence,
Shelton was given to a Mr. Hacket. Legend has it that James II actually stayed
with Mr. Hacket at Shelton while on the run between his defeat at the Boyne and
his eventual flight from Waterford. A path running through the demesne is
called “King James Road” to this day. Another story tells of a piece of
Shelton’s front door splattered during one of the beleaguered king’s many
nosebleeds and retained as a relic until a servant girl mistook it for kindling
and threw it on a fire”.
Ralph married Catherine Sotheby, and their daughter
Catherine Howard married Sir Thomas Molyneux. Her Howard family was from the Norfolk Howards
Garnett
Wolseley’s sister married John Bagnell Creagh our 6th cousins.
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