Field Marshal Hugh Henry Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn, (6 April 1801 – 16 October 1885) was a senior British Army officer. He served as a military adviser to the Ottoman Army who were seeking to secure the expulsion of the forces of Mehemet Ali from Syria during the Egyptian–Ottoman War. He then fought with the French Army at the Battle of Alma, the Battle of Inkerman and at the Battle of Mamelon during the Crimean War. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Rose was given command of the Central Indian Field Force and was successful at the battle of Jhansi in April 1858, at Lahar in May 1858 and at Gwalior in June 1858. He went on to be Commander of the Bombay Army, Commander-in-Chief, India and then Commander-in-Chief, Ireland.
Early life
thumb|right|Caricature of Lord Strathnairn by [[Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)|Carlo Pellegrini for Vanity Fair, 1870]]
Born the third son of Sir George Rose of Sandhills in Christchurch (minister plenipotentiary at the Prussian court) and Frances Rose (née Duncombe), Rose was educated by officers of the Prussian Army in Berlin, where he had been born. He went up to St John's College, Cambridge in 1819 and was commissioned into the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders as an ensign on 8 June 1820. He was promoted to lieutenant on 24 October 1821, to captain on 22 July 1824 and to major in an unattached company on 30 December 1826. He joined the 92nd Highlanders as a company commander on 19 February 1829 and became equerry to the Duke of Cambridge in July 1830. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 17 September 1839.
Syria
In November 1840 Rose was sent, as one of a group of British military advisers, to Syria with the local rank of colonel to assist General Omar Pasha, commander of the Ottoman Army, who was seeking to secure the expulsion of the forces of Mehemet Ali from Syria during the Egyptian–Ottoman War. He became chargé d'affaires in the absence of Sir Stratford Canning during a diplomatic crisis over Russian demands that they be allowed to give protection over all Christians in Turkey. He so strengthened the hands of the Ottoman Porte that the Russian attempt to force a secret treaty upon Turkey was foiled.
Crimean War
Promoted to the substantive rank of colonel on 11 June 1852, Rose became the British commissioner at the headquarters of the French Army at the outset of the Crimean War in October 1853. Promoted to the local rank of brigadier-general on 8 April 1854, he succeeded in putting out a fire which threatened the French small-arm ammunition stores for which he was awarded the French Legion of Honour. He marched from Mhow in January 1858, captured Rahatgarh after a short siege, defeated the Raja of Banapur near Baroda, relieved the City of Saugor, captured the fortress at Garhakota and then defeated the rebels in the Madanpur pass. With the advantage of Punjabi-Afghan sepoys he was able to rout the enemy, inflicting a total loss of 1,500 men and all of their stores. Jhansi was stormed and the city taken on 4 April 1858. However the Queen, Rani Lakshmibai, who had defended the fort, made an escape to Kalpi. and on the departure of Lord Clyde from India in November 1860 Rose succeeded him as Commander-in-Chief, India. in which role he assisted the Irish government to deal with the Fenian conspiracy, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Strathnairn, of Strathnairn in the County of Nairn and of Jhansi in the India on 28 July 1866. He was promoted to the substantive rank of full general on 4 February 1867 and was made an honorary LL.D. of Trinity College, Dublin when he retired from the Irish Command in 1870. Rose was keen on horses and had an obelisk erected there in memory of his favourite charger which he had ridden during the Indian Rebellion.
thumb|upright|right|Statue of Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn at Griggs Green (originally positioned in [[Knightsbridge)]]
Rose also served as colonel of the 45th Regiment of Foot (1858–66), of the 26th Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps, of the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot (1866–69) and died in Paris on 16 October 1885. There is also a memorial to him in St Paul's Cathedral.
Family
Rose was brother to Sir William Rose and the Countess of Morton. He never married and never had any children. (KCB – 16 October 1855; CB – 23 February 1842)
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) (KSI – 25 June 1861)
- Prussian Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (Prussia) – 6 March 1849
- Legion of Honour, 3rd Class (France) – 2 August 1856
- Order of the Medjidie, 3rd Class (Ottoman Empire) – 2 March 1858
Ancestry
References
Sources
Military Offices
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