Arthur Wellesley Torrens

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Arthur Wellesley Torrens

Sir Arthur Wellesley Torrens

KCB
(18 August 1809 – 24 August 1855) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He reached the rank of major-general.

Early life

He was the second son of Major-general

Prince Regent.[1]

Torrens passed through the

brigade-major at Quebec on the staff of Major-general Sir James Macdonell, commanding a brigade in Canada. He took part in the operations against the Lower Canada Rebellion at the close of that year. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 11 September 1840, when he returned to England.[1]

Royal Welch Fusiliers

Torrens exchanged into the 23rd

Carlisle to Chichester, where, with two new companies, it was organised for foreign service under Torrens, who embarked with it at Portsmouth for Canada on 13 May, arriving at Montreal on 30 June.[1]

In September 1843 Torrens went, in command of the first battalion, from Quebec to the West Indies, arriving at Barbados in October 1843. The battalion was moved from one island to another, but for two years and a half Torrens commanded the troops in Saint Lucia and administered the civil government of the island. The sanitary measures adopted by Torrens for the preservation of the health of the troops were considered exemplary, and correspondence on the subject was published in November 1847 by order of the Duke of Wellington, as commander-in-chief.[1]

Torrens declined the offer of the lieutenant-governorship of Saint Lucia as a permanent appointment. He sailed with his battalion from Barbados in March 1847, arriving at

Prince Albert presented it with new colours. In April 1850 Torrens moved with the battalion to Plymouth, and the following year relinquished the command. On 1 January 1853 he was appointed an assistant quartermaster-general at the Horse Guards, and became a member of a commission researching the military of France, Austria, and Prussia.[1]

Crimean War

St. Paul's Cathedral

In the

Battle of Inkermann, under the direction of Cathcart, he attacked the left flank of the Russian forces, his horse falling under him, pierced by five bullets, and was praised by Cathcart just before his mortal wound. He was struck by a bullet that passed through his body, injured a lung, splintered a rib, and was found lodged in his greatcoat.[1]

Torrens was invalided home. He received the

knight commander of the Bath, military division.[1]

Death

On 2 April 1855 Torrens was appointed deputy quartermaster-general at headquarters, and on 25 June the same year was sent as a major-general on the staff to Paris as British military commissioner; but his health broke down, and he died in Paris on 24 August 1855. He was buried in the

cemetery of Père-Lachaise.[1]

Works

Torrens published Notes on French Infantry and Memoranda on the Review of the Army in Paris at the Feast of Eagles in May 1852 (London, 1852).[1]

Family

Torrens married in 1832 Maria Jane, youngest daughter of General Sir John Murray, 8th Baronet. After his death she erected a monument to him in St Paul's Cathedral.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Torrens, Arthur Wellesley" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 57. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. Sinclair, W.
    pp. 459: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909

External links

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Torrens, Arthur Wellesley". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 57. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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