Henry Augustus Smyth

For the general with a similar name, see Henry Smyth (British Army officer, born 1816).

Sir Henry Augustus Smyth
Sir Henry Smyth, by his nephew, 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 (25 November 1825 – 19 September 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. He served in the Crimean War and was present at the Siege of Sevastopol. He became commandant of Woolwich garrison and military district in 1882 and General Officer Commanding the troops in South Africa in 1886. In 1888 Smyth mustered an army of 2,000 troops and left for Zululand to put down a rebellion there.

Smyth became acting Governor of Cape Colony as well as acting High Commissioner for Southern Africa in 1889. He became Governor of Malta in 1890 before retiring in 1893.

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.

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 (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 352–353.