SIR WILLIAM JERVOIS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1486, 18 September 1883, Page 2

SIR WILLIAM JERVOIS.

Tho following sketch of the career of Sir William Jervois, taken from; " Men of the Time" may be of interest to our readers:— '

Jervois, Lieut.-Col., William Francis Druuimond, C.8., G.aM.G.,' eldeat sou of tbo late General Jervois,; Xfl., Colonel of the 70th was born at Coweß, Isle of Wight, inj 1821, and having passed at Woolwich,; entered tbe Royal Engineers in. 1839.! Having completed the usual course of; study at' Chatham, he was ordered to the Cape of Good Hope in 1841, ;.and was actively employed in that; colony for upwards of seven years in various capacities. In 1842 he acted as brigadier major in an expedition against the Boers, and during the three following years was professionally en. gaged at various frontier stations, making roads, building .bridges,' and "establishing military posts. In;l845, having been appointed Acting. Adjutant to the Royal Engineers, -he accompanied the Chief Engineer oyer the whole frontier of the Cape Colony and in the settlement of Natal, and in the early part of; 1846 he was major of brigade to the garrison of Cape Town, until the arrival of Sir H. Pottinger as governor, and Sir G, Berkeley as commander-in-chief, with whom ha proceeded to the frontier; against the Kaffirs. During the Kaffir war he made a military survey and map'of Kaffraria, a work, of great difficulty ably executed. Prom 1848 till 1852 he commanded a company of Sappers at Woolwich and Chatham; in the latter year was ordered to the island of Alderney, for the purpose of designing plans for the fortifications, and the superintendence of their execulion, and in 1854 was promoted to the rank of major. In. 1855 Major Jervois was transferred to the London district, as Commanding Royal Engineers, and was nominated by Lord Panmure a member of a Committee on Barrack Accommodation, whose labours contributed; much to tho improvements which have'of.late years been effected in. the construction of barracks as well as in the sanitary condition of our troops. In 1856 he waa appointed to the post of Assistant Inspector-General of Fortifications, under Sir John Burgoyne, and on the appointment of a Royal Commission to report upon the defences of the country, he was selected by the Government to be Secretary. He was a. member of the Special Committee on the Application of Iron ..to Ships and Fortifications. In 1861 he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colo-nel, in 1862 was appointed co Deputy Director of Fortifications under Sir John Burgoyne, r and in 1863 was no ; ruinated a Companion of the Bath, and was sent on a special mission to report on the defences of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, on which occasion he visited the fortifications at the principal ports on the seaboard of the United States. In 1864 he was again sent on a' special mission to Canada to confer with the Canadian Government on the.question on the defence of that province. On his return to England his report was laid before Parliament, and:the Imperial Government undertook to carry out the defences of Quebec on the plan recommended by him. In addition to his post at the War Office, Colonel Jervois was Secretary to the Permanont Defence Committee, under the presidency of the Duke of Cambridge. He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of SS. Michael and George in 1874, and was appointed Governor of the Straits Settlements, April 7, 1875. The latter post he held till June, 1877, when ho w/b : appointed Governor of South Australia. He was nominated a G.0.M.G., in 1878.