Henry Augustus Smyth

Sir Henry Augustus Smyth
Sir Henry Smyth, by Francis Smyth Baden-Powell
Born (1825-11-25)25 November 1825
St James's Street, London
Died 19 September 1906(1906-09-19) (aged 80)
Stone, Buckinghamshire
Buried Stone, Buckinghamshire
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service 1841–1893
Rank General
Unit Royal Artillery
Battles/wars Crimean War
Awards Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George

General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth KCMG FSA FRGS (1825–1906) 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Vetch & Lunt 2008.
  2. ↑ Freedman, Russell (1967). "Dinizulu". New York: Holiday House. Retrieved 18 March 2013.

References

  • Vetch, R. H.; Lunt, James (reviewer) (January 2008) [2004]. "Smyth, Sir Henry Augustus (1825–1906)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36174. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Attribution
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Vetch, R. H. (1912). "Smyth, Henry Augustus". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement​. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 352–353.
Government offices
Preceded by
The Hon. Hercules Robinson		 Acting Governor of Cape Colony
Acting High Commissioner for Southern Africa
1889		 Succeeded by
Henry Loch
Preceded by
Sir Henry Torrens		 Governor of Malta
1890–1893		 Succeeded by
Sir Arthur Lyon Fremantle
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