Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...

Sir Henry Knight Storks (5 April 1811 – 6 September 1874) was a British soldier and colonial governor.

Military career

Educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

, he entered the Army on 10 January 1828 as an

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

of the

61st Regiment of Foot The 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1756. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot to form the Gloucestershire Regiment ...

.Queen's Royal Surreys
/ref> He was promoted lieutenant on 2 March 1832, exchanged to the

14th Regiment of Foot 14 (fourteen) is a natural number following 13 and preceding 15. In relation to the word "four" ( 4), 14 is spelled "fourteen". In mathematics * 14 is a composite number. * 14 is a square pyramidal number. * 14 is a stella octangula number. ...

on 23 March 1832 and was promoted

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 30 October 1835. Exchanging to the

38th Regiment of Foot The 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1705. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers) to form the South Staffordshire Regime ...

on 30 May 1836, he served with them in the Ionian Islands in 1840 and was promoted major on 7 August 1840. He went on

half pay Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Past usage United Kingdom In the Eng ...

from the regiment on 23 May 1845 and served in a variety of staff posts. He served as an Assistant

Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

during the seventh of the

Cape Frontier Wars The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or the Kaffir Wars) were a series of nine wars (from 1779 to 1879) between the Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Th ...

from 1846 to 1847, and was subsequently promoted to an unattached

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...

cy on 15 September 1848. From 1849 to 1854, he was Assistant Military Secretary at

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

, and was promoted

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

on 28 November 1854. Promoted

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 ...

, Storks superintended the British bases set up in Ottoman territory during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

, where he supported the nursing efforts of

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War ...

. After the war, he was awarded the KCB (2 January 1857) and employed from 1857 to 1859 by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

as Secretary for Military Correspondence. He now began his career in colonial government, appointed

Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands The Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands was the local representative of the British government in the United States of the Ionian Islands between 1816 and 1864, succeeding the earlier office of the Civil Commissioner of the Ionian Island ...

on 2 February 1859. While serving there, he was created

GCMG The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...

in 1860, and reorganized the judiciary of the islands before the end of the commissionership (by treaty) on 14 November 1863. He was made a GCB on 1 July 1864. Sent next to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, he was appointed

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

on 15 November 1864. However, he was called the next year to

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

to investigate the disturbances there, including the Morant Bay rebellion, and was appointed

Governor of Jamaica This is a list of viceroys in Jamaica from its initial occupation by Spain in 1509, to its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. For a list of viceroys after independence, see Governor-General of Jamaica. For context, see History of Jama ...

on 12 December 1865. He held that post until 16 July 1866. Upon his return, he was created a

Privy Councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

(10 November 1866). He resigned the Governorship of Malta on 15 May 1867. Now back at the War Office, he was appointed Controller-in-Chief and Under-Secretary at the War Office on 19 December 1867. There, he was involved in the re-organization of Army logistics that took place after the Crimean War. He was appointed

Surveyor-General of the Ordnance The Surveyor-General of the Ordnance was a subordinate of the Master-General of the Ordnance and a member of the Board of Ordnance, a British government body, from its constitution in 1597. Appointments to the post were made by the crown under L ...

on 5 August 1870, the first to hold that post since the Crimean War. On 10 October 1870 he was appointed colonel of the

70th Regiment of Foot The 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot was a regiment of the British Army, raised in 1756. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot to form the East Surrey Regiment in 1881. History Formation The fo ...

, an office he held for the remainder of his life.

Last years in politics

Entering politics in 1870, Storks was endorsed as the Liberal candidate at a parliamentary by-election for the Borough of Newark that followed the death of the sitting Liberal MP. Unfortunately he was opposed by progressive liberal and colonial administrator Sir George Grey, who had previously been governor of South Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony, standing as an independent liberal. Grey's extremist views on the questions of the

Colonial Empire A colonial empire is a collective of territories (often called colonies), either contiguous with the imperial center or located overseas, settled by the population of a certain state and governed by that state. Before the expansion of early mode ...

, of emigration, of

Home Rule for Ireland The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...

and the cause of the English poor were contrary to the interests of Gladstone's Liberal government. Determined that Grey should not be elected and seeing that splitting the liberal vote would result in both Grey and Storks losing to the Conservative candidate, the Liberal government engineered an arrangement where both would withdraw, leaving another Liberal candidate, Samuel Boteler Bristowe, to take the seat. Storks was rewarded with the newly revived post of

and Grey returned to New Zealand later that year. The following year Storks was elected to parliament at the

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to ...

. He was promoted

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...

on 25 October 1871. While in Parliament, he spoke in favor of the abolition of the purchase system for Army commissions. His stance on the

Contagious Diseases Acts The Contagious Diseases Acts (CD Acts) were originally passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. 85), with alterations and additions made in 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 35) and 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 96). In 1862, a com ...

contributed to his defeat by the Earl de Grey in the 1874 general election. He died shortly after losing the election, on 6 September 1874. He was buried in the Western part of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

. File:Henry Knight Storks, Vanity Fair, 1870-12-24.jpg, Caricature by

Ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister g ...

published in ''

Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...

'' in 1870 File:Sir Henry Knight Storks (1811-1874).jpg, Knight Storks around 1870 File:Grave of Sir Henry Knight Storks in Highgate Cemetery (West).jpg, Grave of Sir Henry Knight Storks in Highgate Cemetery (West)

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Storks, Henry Knight 1811 births 1874 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery British Army generals Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Charterhouse School Governors of Jamaica UK MPs 1868–1874 West Yorkshire Regiment officers 61st Regiment of Foot officers Governors and Governors-General of Malta