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{{Short description|Anglo-Irish military officer (1839–1921)}}
{{Infobox military person
| name =Sir George Wolseley
| image =George Benjamin Wolseley.jpg
| caption =Sir George Wolseley
| birth_date =11 July 1839
| birth_place = [[Dublin]], Ireland
| death_date ={{death date and age|1921|5|10|1839|7|11|df=y}}<ref name=WWW>"Wolseley, Gen. Sir George Benjamin", ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014</ref>
| placeofburial_label =
| placeofburial =
| death_place =Near [[Wateringbury]], [[Kent]], England
| placeofburial_coordinates = 
| nickname =
| allegiance ={{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[United Kingdom]]
| branch =[[Indian Army]]
| serviceyears =
| rank =[[Lieutenant-General]]
| unit =
| commands =[[Madras Army|Madras Command]]
| battles =[[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian Mutiny]]<br>[[Anglo-Egyptian War (1882)|Anglo-Egyptian War]]<br>[[Mahdist War]]
| awards =[[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
| relations =
| laterwork =
}}
[[Lieutenant-General]] '''Sir George Benjamin Wolseley''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|GCB}} (11 July 1839 – 10 May 1921) was an Anglo-Irish officer in the [[Indian Army]].<ref name="times">{{cite news |title=Death of Sir G. B. Wolseley |work=[[The Times]] |page= 13|date=11 May 1921 }}</ref>

==Military career==
Wolseley was the third surviving son of Major Garnet Joseph Wolseley, of the [[90th Regiment of Foot (Perthshire Volunteers)]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wolseley_garnet_joseph_14E.html|title=Wolseley, Garnet Joseph, 1st Viscount Wolseley|publisher=Dictionary of Canadian Biography|access-date=19 April 2017}}</ref> by his wife Frances Anne Smith (daughter of William Smith, County Dublin). He was the younger brother of [[Field Marshal]] [[Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley|Lord Wolseley]] and inventor [[Frederick Wolseley]].<ref name=WWW /> Wolseley's paternal grandfather was Rev. William Wolseley, Rector of [[Tullycorbet]], and the third son of [[Sir Richard Wolseley, 1st Baronet]], who sat in the [[Irish House of Commons]] for [[Carlow (Parliament of Ireland constituency)|Carlow]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage|date=1885|publisher=Burke's Peerage Limited|page=1425|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6u8_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1425|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}</ref> The family seat was Mount Wolseley in [[County Carlow]].<ref name="complete">{{cite book|title=Complete Baronetage: Great Britain and Ireland, 1707-1800, and Jacobite, 1688-1788|date=1906|publisher=W. Pollard & Company, Limited|pages=356–357|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gMpKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA356|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}</ref>

His father died in 1840, leaving a widow and seven children to survive on his Army pension. Money was short, leaving the Wolseley sons to be educated at the local school instead of being sent to England as was typical for boys of their class. He was commissioned into the [[84th (York and Lancaster) Regiment of Foot|84th Regiment of Foot]] in 1857 and saw active service in the response to the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian Mutiny]].<ref name=bio>[http://www.armynavyairforce.co.uk/high_ranking_officers.htm High ranking officers]</ref> He became Assistant Adjutant-General with the Candahar Field Force in 1878, Assistant Adjutant-General in Egypt in 1882 (seeing action again at the [[Battle of Tel el-Kebir]] in September of that year) and Assistant Adjutant-General in the [[Nile Expedition]] of 1884.<ref name=bio/> He became commander of a brigade in [[Burma]] in 1889 (which secured the town of [[Wuntho]] in 1891) and General Officer Commanding the [[Lahore District]] in [[India]] in March 1895.<ref name=bio/> He went on to be General Officer Commanding the forces in the Punjab in 1897 and Commander-in-Chief [[Madras Army|Madras Command]] in 1898.<ref>''Whitaker's Almanack'' 1903</ref> He served as such for five years until October 1903, but had an extended leave back home in 1902 after his wife's death.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=6 October 1902 |page=4 |issue=36891| }}</ref>

==Family==
Wolseley married, in 1867, Esther Louise Andrews, daughter of William Andrews. They had one son who died young. Lady Wolseley died at Hillside, Whitechurch, [[Oxfordshire]], on 11 March 1902.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Deaths |date=13 March 1902 |page=1 |issue=36714| }}</ref>

==Death==
On 10 May 1921, Wolseley's body was discovered on the train tracks of the [[South Eastern and Chatham Railway]] (now [[Medway Valley line]]) between [[Wateringbury]] and [[Teston]] in Kent. At the time of his death, he was a resident of Thatched House, Wateringbury. His death was reported as an accident.<ref name="times"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Sir Charles Clarke, 3rd Baronet|Sir Charles Clarke]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Madras Army|C-in-C, Madras Command]]|years=1898–1903}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Charles Egerton (Indian Army officer)|Sir Charles Egerton]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2014}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolseley, George}}
[[Category:British Indian Army generals]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:1839 births]]
[[Category:1921 deaths]]
[[Category:Railway accident deaths in England]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Dublin (city)]]
[[Category:People from Wateringbury]]

George Wolseley - Revision history

WikiDwarf at 21:19, 18 July 2023