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 ...

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

James Rutherford Lumley KCB (1773–1846) was an English soldier of the Bengal Army in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. A son of the Reverend James Lumley and his wife Alice Rutherford, he was baptised on 22 December 1773 at Longford,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

."James Rutherford Lumley"
in ''England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538–1975''
"James Rutherford Lumley"
in ''India, Select Marriages, 1792–1948'', ancestry.co.uk, accessed 25 November 2022 Lumley was commissioned into the

Honourable East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

’s Bengal Infantry and by 1824 was a lieutenant-colonel. In January 1837 he was promoted to Major-General. He was

adjutant general An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

of the Bengal army which defeated the Mahrattas in 1844 and soon after that was appointed a

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...

for his services. He died in 1846."Sir James R Lumley" in C. E. Buckland, ed., ''Dictionary of Indian Biography'' (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1906) On 21 November 1809, at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, Lumley married Caroline Wilkinson. Their children included Anne Lumley (died 1859), James Rutherford Lumley (1810–1885), William Brownrigg Lumley (born 1812), Caroline Lumley (born 1816), Arabella Lumley (born 1817) and Robert Wilkinson Lumley (born 1819). In 1873, William Brownrigg Lumley was a retired Captain of the Indian Army. "William Brownrigg Lumley, son of James Rutherford Lumley K.B. Major General" in ''Marriages Solemnized at the Parish Church in the Parish of Kentish Town in the County of Middlesex''
No. 178
June 10, 1873, accessed 25 November 2022 The actress

Joanna Lumley Dame Joanna Lamond Lumley (born 1 May 1946) is an English actress, presenter, former model, author, television producer, and activist. She has won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992 ...

is his direct descendant.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lumley James Rutherford 1773 births 1846 deaths Bengal Native Infantry British Indian Army generals Military personnel from Shropshire