General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Sir Alfred Hastings Horsford (1818 – 13 September 1885) was a senior

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who went on to be Military Secretary.

Military career

Born in Bath and educated at the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

, Horsford was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade in 1833.Sir Alfred Horsford at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> He served in the Cape Frontier War in 1847 and was Commanding Officer of 1st Bn the Rifle Brigade during the 8th Xhosa War in 1852. He also served in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

and fought at the

Battle of Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septem ...

Battle of Inkerman The Battle of Inkerman was fought during the Crimean War on 5 November 1854 between the allied armies of Britain and France against the Imperial Russian Army. The battle broke the will of the Russian Army to defeat the allies in the field, an ...

Battle of Balaklava The Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War, was part of the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55), an Allied attempt to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea. The eng ...

and the early part of the Siege of Sevastopol. He served in the repression of the Indian Mutiny, having been made Commander of the 6th Brigade at the Capture of Lucknow. He was made Deputy Adjutant-General at Army Headquarters in 1860, a Brigade commander at

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

in 1866,

Major-General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

on the General Staff at

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in 1869 and General Officer Commanding South-Eastern District in January 1872. He went on to be Military Secretary in 1874. In retirement he was involved in an accident when

Frederick Gye Frederick Gye (the younger) (1810–1878) was an English businessman and opera manager who for many years ran what is now the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Life Gye, son of Frederick Gye (the elder), was born at Finchley, Middlesex, in 18 ...

, Manager of the

Royal Italian Opera The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal O ...

, was assisting Horsford over a fence. Horsford's gun went off and shot Gye in the eye.General News
Bruce Herald, 1879

References

, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Horsford, Alfred 1818 births 1885 deaths Military personnel from Bath, Somerset British Army generals Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Rifle Brigade officers British Army personnel of the Crimean War British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery