Donald Martin Stewart
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Field Marshal Sir Donald Martin Stewart, 1st Baronet, GCB GCSI CIE, (21 March 1824 – 26 March 1900), British field marshal, son of Robert Stewart, was born at Mount Pleasant, near Forres, Moray, Scotland. Educated at schools at Findhorn, Dufftown and Elgin, and at the University of Aberdeen, he entered the Bengal army in 1840, and served in 1854 and 1855 in the frontier expeditions against the Mohmands, and the Aka Khel and Adam Khel Afridis (medal and clasp).
In the Indian rebellion of 1857 Stewart, after a famous ride from Agra to Delhi with dispatches, served on the staff at the siege and capture of Delhi and of Lucknow, and afterwards through the campaign in Rohilharid (medal and two clasps, and brevetmajor and lieutenant-colonel). For nine years he was assistant and deputy-adjutant-general of the Bengal army, commanded the Bengal brigade in the Abyssinian expedition in 1867 (medal and C.B.), and became a major-general in 1868. He reorganized the penal settlement of the Andaman Islands, where he was commandant when Lord Mayo, British Viceroy of India, was assassinated (1872), and, after holding the Lahore command, was promoted lieutenant-general in 1877, and commanded the Kandahar field force in the second Afghan War in 1878 (K.C.B. and thanks of parliament). In that war, Stewart assembled the Kandahar Field Force, some 13,000 men, at Multan in the Punjab. He then advanced through the Bolam Pass to Quetta, and then on to Kandahar. Although this advance was uncontested, his men found it tough going because of the extremes of both terrain and climate. He reached Kandahar on 8 January 1879 to find Afghan garrison there had fled.
In 1880 he made a difficult march from Kandahar to Kabul, fighting on the way the battles of Ahmed Khel and Urzu, and held supreme military and civil command in northern Afghanistan. On hearing of the Maiwand disaster, he despatched Sir Frederick Roberts with a division on his celebrated march from Kabul to Kandahar, and himself led the rest of the army back to India by the Khyber Pass (medal with clasp, G.C.B., C.I.E., baronetcy, and thanks of parliament). Promoted general in 1881, he was for five years commander-in-chief in India, and afterwards member of the council of the secretary of state for India until his death.
He was made G.C.S.I. in 1885, promoted to be field marshal in 1894, and appointed governor of Chelsea Hospital, London, England, in 1895. He died at Algiers, Algeria in 1900.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.
Categories: Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica | 1824 births | 1900 deaths | British Field Marshals | Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom | British Indian Army officers | Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath | Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India | Natives of Moray | Scottish soldiers | University of Aberdeen
