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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 Lee Oliver Fitzmaurice Stack, (15 May 1868 – 20 November 1924) was a British Army officer and
Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
of the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ( ar, السودان الإنجليزي المصري ') was a condominium of the United Kingdom and Egypt in the Sudans region of northern Africa between 1899 and 1956, corresponding mostly to the territory of present-day ...
. On 19 November 1924, he was shot by assassins while driving through
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, and died of his wounds the next day.


Early life

Born in
Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...
, India, Lee Stack was the son of the British Inspector-General of Police for Bengal. He was educated at
Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...
and
Sandhurst Military Academy The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town o ...
.


Career

After service with the British Army, Major Lee Stack was seconded to the Egyptian Army in 1899. In addition to regimental appointments he served as Military Secretary to General Sir
Reginald Wingate General Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, 1st Baronet, (25 June 1861 – 29 January 1953) was a British general and administrator in Egypt and the Sudan. He earned the ''nom de guerre'' Wingate of the Sudan. Early life Wingate was born at Port Gla ...
. He received the
Order of Osmanieh The Order of Osmanieh or Order of Osmaniye ( ota, نشانِ عثمانیہ) was a civil and military decoration of the Ottoman Empire. History The order was created in January 1862 by Sultan Abdülaziz. With the obsolescence of the Nişan-i If ...
, third class, from the Khedive of Egypt in 1902. Stack left the army in 1910 but took up the position of Civil Secretary of the Sudan in 1913, based in Khartoum. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he was granted the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel, and in 1917 that of major-general when he became
Sirdar The rank of Sirdar ( ar, سردار) – a variant of Sardar – was assigned to the British Commander-in-Chief of the British-controlled Egyptian Army in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Sirdar resided at the Sirdaria, a three-blo ...
of the Egyptian Army, combining this appointment with that of Governor General of the Sudan.


Assassination

On 19 November 1924 Sir Lee Stack, accompanied by an aide de camp, was being driven from the Egyptian War Office in Cairo to his official residence. His car had halted in heavy traffic to give a tram car right of way when several Egyptian students grouped on the pavement fired a volley of revolver shots into the vehicle. Stack's driver (
Frederick Hamilton March Frederick Hamilton March, (6 August 1891 – 30 October 1977) was an Australian soldier and adventurer. He served in the Middle East during the First World War. He received the Empire Gallantry Medal, then the highest civilian gallantry award i ...
), although injured, was able to accelerate the car away from the scene of the shooting and reach the nearby residence of the British High Commissioner to Egypt. The Sirdar himself suffered wounds to the hand, stomach, and foot. He died the next day.


Aftermath

The British High Commissioner
Lord Allenby Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage ...
responded with anger, presenting a list of demands to the Egyptian government which included a public apology, an inquiry, suppression of demonstrations and payment of a fine. Furthermore, he demanded withdrawal of all Egyptian officers and Egyptian army units from the Sudan, an increase to the scope of an irrigation scheme in Gezira and laws to protect foreign investors in Egypt. Seven men convicted of involvement in the assassination were executed by hanging in 1925. Several were identified by a taxi driver whose vehicle they had commandeered to escape from the scene. The pistols used were identified through a pioneering instance of bullet examination by forensic science. Sir Geoffrey Archer, formerly Governor of Uganda, took over as Governor-General of the Sudan in January 1925, the first time a civilian had held this office.


References

, - 1868 births 1924 deaths 1924 murders in Africa Assassinated military personnel Assassinated British politicians Border Regiment officers British Army generals Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Deaths by firearm in Egypt Governors-General of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan People murdered in Egypt Murder in Sudan {{UK-gov-bio-stub