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 ...

John Alfred Street, CB (1822 – 5 December 1889) was a British Army officer who was the 25th

General Officer Commanding, Ceylon General Officer Commanding, Ceylon (also known as ''Commander of Troops'' or ''Officer Commanding His/Her Majesties Troops, Ceylon'') was the designation of the General Officer appointed to command all British Army units stationed in the island of ...

Early life

Street was the second child and eldest of three sons of Captain John Street (1791-1829), of the Royal Artillery, and Catherine, daughter of the lawyer and antiquarian Sir

Henry Jardine Sir Henry Jardine of Harwood WS FRSE (30 January 1766 – 11 August 1851) was a solicitor, antiquarian and a founder member of the Bannatyne Club in 1823, with his friend Sir Walter Scott. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 30 January 1766. He ...

of Harwood. His widowed mother subsequently married the geologist, chemist, and agricultural improver

Sir George Mackenzie, 7th Baronet Sir George Steuart Mackenzie, 7th Baronet FRS FRSE FSA (22 June 1780–26 October 1848) was a Scottish geologist, chemist and agricultural improver. Life The only son of Major General Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Coul (d.1796), a General in ...

Career

He joined the British Army as an ensign in 1839, became Lieutenant (by purchase) in 1841 and was promoted to captain in 1848. In 1842 he served in China with the 98th Foot during the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

where he was present at the attack and capture of Chin Kiang Foo and at the Nanking landing. In 1854 he was posted to

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

as Brigade-Major of the 1st Brigade, 4th Division and was present at the battles of Balaklava,

Inkerman Inkerman ( uk, Інкерман, russian: Инкерман, crh, İnkerman) is a city in the Crimean peninsula. It is ''de facto'' within the federal city of Sevastopol within the Russian Federation, but ''de jure'' within Ukraine. It lies 5 ...

and the Siege of Sebastopol. For his services he was awarded medal with three clasps, brevet of major, CB, Sardinian and Turkish medals and 4th class of the Medjidie. Back in England he was commandant of the 10th Depot Battalion in Colchester before being appointed general officer commanding, Ceylon in 1874. He was succeeded there by

William Wilby Major-General William Wilby CB (c.1820 - 15 December 1893) was the General Officer Commanding, Ceylon. Military career Wilby was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army on 27 May 1836. He saw action in the Crimean War and commanded the r ...

in 1879. In 1882 he was given the colonelcy of the 2nd Battalion

Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) was a rifle regiment of the British Army, the only regiment of rifles amongst the Scottish regiments of infantry. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 26th Cameronian Reg ...

, which he held until his death. He was made full general on 23 October 1883.

Personal life

Street married twice; firstly to Sophia, the daughter of Rev. James John Holroyd of White Hall, Colchester (fifth son of the lawyer Sir

George Sowley Holroyd Sir George Sowley Holroyd (31 October 1758 – 21 November 1831) was an English lawyer and justice of the King's Bench. Life He was eldest son of George Holroyd, by Eleanor, daughter of Henry Sowley of Appleby, Westmorland, was born at York on 3 ...

Justice of the King's Bench Justice of the King's Bench, or Justice of the Queen's Bench during the reign of a female monarch, was a puisne judicial position within the Court of King's Bench, under the Chief Justice. The King's Bench was a court of common law which modern a ...

, of the family of the

Earl of Sheffield Baron Sheffield is a title that has been created four times: once in the Peerage of England, twice in the Peerage of Ireland, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation, as ''Baron Sheffield of Butterwick'', was in the Pe ...

) and secondly to Caroline (born circa 1850), the daughter of Charles Horsfall Bill, of Storthes Hall, Yorkshire, and The Priory, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, head of a landed gentry family. Their only child was the author

Cecil Street Cecil John Charles Street (3 May 1884 – 8 December 1964), who was known to his colleagues, family and friends as John Street, began his military career as an artillery officer in the British Army. During the course of World War I, he became a ...

. He had two daughters by his first marriage; the elder, Sophia Catherine, married Lord Gifford, V.C. General Street, having retired from the Army at the age of sixty two just after his son's birth, died suddenly at the family home, Uplands, at Woking.Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961 Curtis Evans, McFarland, Inc., 2012, p. 53

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Street, John Alfred 1822 births 1889 deaths 68th Regiment of Foot officers British Army generals General Officers Commanding, Ceylon British Army personnel of the Crimean War Companions of the Order of the Bath British military personnel of the First Opium War 98th Regiment of Foot officers Cameronians officers