William Lockhart (Indian Army officer)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people named William Lockhart, see William Lockhart (disambiguation).

Sir William Lockhart
Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire

KCSI (2 September 1841 – 18 March 1900) was a British General in the British Indian Army
.

Military career

Lockhart was born at the Manse in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland, where his father Dr Laurence Lockhart, DD (1795–1876) was the minister. Lockhart's uncle was John Gibson Lockhart, eminent writer, poet and biographer of Sir Walter Scott. His mother Louisa Blair (d. 1847) was a daughter of David Blair, a manufacturer in Glasgow.[1] There were two older brothers who both also saw military service, Major-General David Blair Lockhart of Milton Lockhart (1829–1906) and Lieutenant-Colonel Laurence William Maxwell Lockhart (1831–1882).[2]

He entered the

captain in 1868 took part in the Hazara Black Mountain Expedition (1868–69; mentioned in dispatches).[3]

From 1869 to 1879 he acted as Deputy Assistant and Assistant Quartermaster General in

Third Burmese War (1886–87), and was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) and a Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) and received the thanks of the government.[3][2]

Memorial in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh

An attack of fever brought Lockhart to England in 1888, where he was employed as Assistant Military Secretary for Indian affairs (at Horse Guards); but in 1890 he returned to

Tirah Expedition with great skill.[3]

He returned to England in 1898 and received the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). Appointed

Fort William, India and at "Snowdon" in Simla when the government migrated to the hill station for the summer months.[7]

Death

He died of malaria whilst serving in office in

Calcutta on 18 March 1900. His funeral occurred the following day and the service was taken by James Welldon the Bishop of Calcutta, and former headmaster of Harrow School. Lockhart's good friend Lord Curzon (The Viceroy) attended the funeral. Lockhart married twice.[1]

A private collection funded a fine memorial by George Frampton in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh and soldiers and their families paid for the construction of an obelisk in Roomi Park, Rawalpindi (now Pakistan).[8]

References

  1. ^ a b Vetch, Robert Hamilton (1901). "Lockhart, William Stephan Alexander" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^ a b c "Sir William Lockhart". The Times. No. 36094. London. 20 March 1900. p. 4.
  3. ^ a b c Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lockhart, Sir William Stephen Alexander" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 854.
  4. ^ Byron Farwell. Queen Victoria's Little Wars. p. 319. Published Allen Lane, London. 1973.
  5. ^ Award confirmed by medals worn by Lockhart in both portrait photo above and St Giles Cathedral memorial
  6. ^ He had in fact built a house, known as Old Lockhart House in that North-West Cantonment town earlier in the 1870s, where he and his family and friends used to stay, including John Lockwood Kipling
  7. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16910. Retrieved 23 March 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  8. ^ "'Threatened' by a pool, RCB to convert park into restaurant". Dawn News. 3 July 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2020.

Further reading

  • General Sir William Stephen Alexander Lockhart Soldier of the Queen Empress by Martin Smith
    ISBN 978-0-9570154-0-1
Military offices
Preceded by Commander-in-Chief, India
1898–1900 		Succeeded by
Sir Arthur Palmer
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Lockhart_(Indian_Army_officer)&oldid=1173712276"