GENERAL SIR HERBERT STEWART, K.C.B.
The march of the advanced brigade of the British army from
Korti, across the Bayuda Desert, to the banks of the Nile near
Metammeh, with the hard-fought battles of Jan. 17, at Abou
Klea, and Jan. 19, not far from the river, is a brilliant military
achievement. Colonel Sir Herbert Stewart, acting as Brigadier
General, has won high renown by this important service, for
which he had prepared the way by his former march, with a
smaller force, as far as Gakdul Wells, establishing stations and
garrisons along the route. Lord Wolseley, in his despatch
§. last week, expressing his regret that Sir Herbert
Stewart was severely wounded on Jan. 19, commended him in
very high terms; and a message from the Queen, thanking her
brave troops and their commander, while expressing likewise
her deep concern for their losses and sufferings, announced
that he would be promoted. The War Office has accordingly
notified the promotion of “Major and Colonel Sir Herbert
Stewart, K.C.B., 3rd Dragoon Guards, Aide-de-Camp to the
Queen, now a Brigadier-General on the Staff with the force on
the Nile, to be Major-General in the Army, for distinguished
service in the field.”
Sir Herbert Stewart is forty-two years of age; he is a son
of the late Rev. Edward Stewart, an Irish clergyman ; his
mother being Louisa Anne, daughter of Mr. C. J. Herbert, of
Muckross Abbey, county Kerry. He was educated at Win
chester College, entered the Army in 1863, and in less than
three years was Adjutant of the infantry corps which he had
joined. Thence he exchanged into the cavalry, entered the
Staff College, and passed with credit and distinction. Stewart
was constantly employed in the Zulu War, first as Brigade
Major of Cavalry, and then as Chief of the Staff to Baker
Russell in the storming of Sekukuni's stronghold. All
this was under the personal observation of Wolseley,
whose Military Secretary and Chief of the Staff Stewart
had become at the conclusion of the Zulu campaign. The
brief and disastrous war on the border of the Transvaal, in
January, 1881, brought him very different experiences; he
was Adjutant and Quartermaster-General with the ill-fated
ğ. Colley on Majuba Hill. Another staff appointment,
was secured for him by Lord Wolseley, who had known him
from the earliest stage of his military career. Among the
appointments made on the organisation of the army for
the Egyptian war in 1882, one of the first was that
of Stewart to the staff of Sir Drury-Lowe, who had
command of the cavalry division. A romantic ind", n'.
of the Egyptian campaign was General Drury-Lowe',
brilliant ride through the Desert to Cairo, after the battle or
Tel-el-Kebir. When the Egyptians sent out a white tag to
meet the advancing British force, it was Colonel Stewart who,
at the head of a hundred Lancers and Dragoons, demanded
and received the surrender of the citadel, and it was to him
that Arabi Pasha offered to give up his sword. In Lord
Wolseley's despatch, the following passage is not the least
memorable :- “Before passing from the cavalry division I must
bring prominen ly to your notice the name of Lieutenant
Colonel H. Stewart, 3rd Dragoon Guards, Assistant Adjutant
General to the Cavalry 1)ivision, one of the best staff officers I have
ever known, and one whoun I feel it will be in the interest of
the Army to promote. General Drury-Lowe has written to me
about him in the highest terms, especially remarking upon the
tact with which he conducted the surrender of Cairo, and of
the garrison of that city.” Lord Granville, then moving
the thanks of the House of Lords to the troops, said: “The
cavalry and artillery march to Cairo, which crowned the
operations, especially excited the admiration and the curiosity of
the German military authorities; ” and a similar tribute was
paid by Mr. Gladstone, in the House of Commons, to the
gallant body of cavalry by which Cairo was seized, on the
evening of Sept. 14, 1882, after a march of thirty-nine miles
under the burning Egyptian sun. Colonel Stewart was made
a Companion of the Bath. When General Graham went to
Souakim, in February last year, he was accompanied by
Colonel Stewart, who with his horsemen bore a conspicuous
part in retrieving the fortunes of the day at Tamasi, when the
Arab charge broke the first square. He was most anxious to
take the Hussars across the Desert to Berber; but this project
was forbidden by the Government. He was raised to the
dignity of K.C.B., before accompanying Lord Wolseley on
the present expedition up the Nile. Sir Herbert Stewart
married, in 1877, Lady Tombs, widow of Major-General Sir
Henry Tombs, and daughter of Admiral Sir James Stirling.
His wound being likely to prevent him from rendering further
active service in this campaign, Major-General Sir Redvers
Buller, V.C., K.C.B., has been sent to succeed him in
command of the advanced force at Gubat and probably at
Khartoum.
Qur Portrait of Sir Herbert Stewart is from a photograph
by Mr. Chancellor, of Dublin.
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