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 ...

James Turner Cummins CB DSO (12 October 1843 – 24 October 1912) was a British military officer who served in the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

Biography

He was born in

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, in 1842, the son of Nicholas Cummins. He was educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

and at

Addiscombe Military Seminary The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India ...

. On passing out at Addiscombe in 1861 he was commissioned into the

Madras Army The Madras Army was the army of the Presidency of Madras, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company until the Government ...

. He was promoted to captain in 1873. In 1875, Cummins transferred to the Madras Staff Corps and served in the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...

between 1878 and 1880. He thereafter served in the

Anglo-Egyptian War The British conquest of Egypt (1882), also known as Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. It ...

of 1882 and was made a major in 1883. In 1885, he took part in the

Suakin Expedition The Suakin Expedition was either of two British military expeditions, led by Major-General Sir Gerald Graham V.C., to Suakin in Sudan, with the intention of destroying the power of the Sudanese military commander Osman Digna and his troops during ...

and the

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...

, where he was mentioned in dispatches twice. Following this he was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to the Madras Force and became a lieutenant colonel in 1887 and colonel in 1894. Between 1895 and 1900 he was placed in command of a 2nd class district. During the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1900 he commanded the 4th Infantry Brigade, which was mentioned in dispatches. He was made a

Companion 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 one ...

in 1901 and in 1903 he retired from service and returned to England. The following year he was appointed the honorary position of colonel of the

30th Lancers (Gordon's Horse) The 8th Light Cavalry traces its origins from the 8th King George's Own Light Cavalry which was formed in 1922 by the amalgamation of the 26th King George's Own Light Cavalry and the 30th Lancers following a re-organisation of the Indian Cavalry C ...

. He lived his later years in London, where he died in 1912. He married Louisa Dunman in 1869 and had two sons, Harry and Earnest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cummins, James Turner British East India Company Army officers 1842 births 1912 deaths Graduates of Addiscombe Military Seminary British Indian Army generals People educated at Cheltenham College Military personnel from County Cork Madras Staff Corps officers British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War British military personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Burmese War British military personnel of the Mahdist War British military personnel of the Boxer Rebellion Companions of the Distinguished Service Order