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 ...

Richard Hebden O'Grady-Haly, (22 February 1841 – 8 July 1911) 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 who served as General Officer Commanding the Militia of Canada from 1900 to 1902.

Military career

Born the son of General Sir William O'Grady Haly, O'Grady-Haly was commissioned into the

in 1858.Anglo-Boer War
/ref> He served with the

Nile Expedition The Nile Expedition, sometimes called the Gordon Relief Expedition (1884–85), was a British mission to relieve Major-General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum, Sudan. Gordon had been sent to the Sudan to help Egyptians evacuate from Sudan af ...

in 1882 and took part in the action of El Maffar, both actions at

Kassassin Kassassin ( ar, القصاصين) is a village of Lower Egypt by rail west of Ismailia, a major city on the Suez Canal. Battle of Kassassin Lock At the Sweet Water Canal, on August 28, 1882 the British force was attacked by the Egyptians, le ...

and the

Battle of Tel el-Kebir The Battle of Tel El Kebir (often spelled Tel-El-Kebir) was fought on 13 September 1882 at Tell El Kebir in Egypt, 110 km north-north-east of Cairo. An entrenched Egyptian force under the command of Ahmed ʻUrabi was defeated by a British ...

. He commanded the Second Column of the Hazara Field Force and was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

in 1888. He commanded the 1st Battalion the

Suffolk Regiment The Suffolk Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army with a history dating back to 1685. It saw service for three centuries, participating in many wars and conflicts, including the First and Second World Wars, before bein ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and went on to be Assistant Adjutant-General in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

in 1891. He was appointed General Officer Commanding the Militia of Canada in 1900. He also was a surveyor and when he was a lieutenant colonel, and invented a compass clinometer system which was built by Elliott Bros. Pictures of the compass can be seen in the online compass museum COMPASSIPEDIA.COMPASSIPEDIA, the Online Compass Museum
/ref>

Family

In 1865 he married Geraldine Mary Gostling and they went on to have four daughters.

References

1841 births 1911 deaths British Army major generals Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath British Army personnel of the Mahdist War British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War Suffolk Regiment officers British inventors Commanders of the Canadian Army People from Frant People from Camberley Military personnel from Sussex {{Canada-mil-bio-stub