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General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
Sir Charles Ash Windham (10 October 1810 – 2 February 1870) was a
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 and
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
politician.


Biography

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 infantry a ...
, Windham was commissioned as an
ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...
in the
Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...
on 30 December 1826. Windham married Marianne Catherine Emily Beresford, daughter of Admiral
Sir John Beresford, 1st Baronet Admiral Sir John Poo (or de la Poer) Beresford, 1st Baronet, (1766 – 2 October 1844) was a Royal Navy admiral, Second Sea Lord and Conservative MP. Early life Beresford was born in 1766 at Waterford. He was an illegitimate son of George Bere ...
, on 1 March 1849. He led the charge on the Great Redan to the south of the Malakoff redoubt at Sevastopol on 8 September 1855 during the
Battle of the Great Redan The Battle of the Great Redan (russian: Оборона Третьего бастиона) was a major battle during the Crimean War, fought between British forces against Russia on 18 June and 8 September 1855 as a part of the Siege of Sevas ...
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 de ...
.
William Howard Russell Sir William Howard Russell, (28 March 182011 February 1907) was an Irish reporter with ''The Times'', and is considered to have been one of the first modern war correspondents. He spent 22 months covering the Crimean War, including the Sieg ...
, the correspondent of
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
, claimed that in doing so Windham had "saved the honour of the army." He also fought in the
Second Battle of Cawnpore The Second Battle of Cawnpore was a battle of Indian Rebellion of 1857 that was decisive by thwarting the rebels' last chance to regain the initiative and to recapture the cities of Cawnpore (now Kanpur) and Lucknow. Background During the ...
during the
Indian Rebellion The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...
. The Windham family were lords of the manor of
Metton, Norfolk Metton is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sustead, in the North Norfolk district, in the county of Norfolk, England. The village is 2.1 km west of Roughton, 5.2 km south of Cromer, 29.3 km north of No ...
. Windham became a
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for East Norfolk and held the seat from 1857 to 1859. Promoted to
lieutenant-general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
on 5 February 1866, he became
Commander of the British Troops in Canada This is a list of officers who commanded the Regular Troops of the British Army in Canada until 1906, when the last British garrison was withdrawn. From 1875 there was a separate commander of the Canadian Militia. This officer was responsible to ...
in October 1867. Windham died in Florida, was interred temporarily in Montreal and finally buried in Hanwell cemetery,
Middlesex, England Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbouring ...
.


References


Further reading

* * ''Charles Ashe Windham: A Norfolk Soldier (1810-1870)'' by H.O. Mansfield. Terence Dalton Publishing, 1973
The Crimean diary and letters of Lieut.-General Sir Charles Ash Windham, K.C.B.: with observations upon his services during the Indian mutiny, and an introduction by Sir William Howard Russell; the whole edited by Hugh Pearse
(1897)


External links

* * 1810 births 1870 deaths British Army personnel of the Crimean War Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1857–1859 British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 People from Felbrigg Charles Ash British Army generals {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1810s-stub