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 ...

Sir John Mark Frederick Smith (11 January 1790 – 20 November 1874) was a British general and colonel-commandant of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is head ...

. He was also the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Chatham from

1852 Events January–March * January 14 – President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic. * January 15 – Nine men representing various Jewish charitable organizations come tog ...

to 1853 and

1857 Events January–March * January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, ''Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. * January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating. * Janua ...

to 1865. He was a

Gentleman Usher Gentleman Usher is a title for some officers of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. See List of Gentlemen Ushers for a list of office-holders. Gentlemen Ushers as servants Historical Gentlemen Ushers were originally a class of servants fou ...

and

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

Life

He was son of Major-general Sir John Frederick Sigismund Smith, K.C.H., of the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

(died 1834), and grand-nephew of Field-marshal

Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth Friedrich Adolf Graf von Kalckreuth (22 February 1737 – 10 June 1818) was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall. Kalkreuth was born in Sotterhausen near Sangerhausen. He entered the regiment of Gardes du Corps in 1752, and in 1758 was adjutant or '' ...

, commander-in-chief of the Prussian army. He was born at the Manor House,

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

, Middlesex, on 11 January 1790. After passing through the Royal Military College, then at

Great Marlow Great Marlow is a civil parish within Wycombe district in the English county of Buckinghamshire, lying north of the town of Marlow and south of High Wycombe. The parish includes the hamlets of Bovingdon Green, Burroughs Grove, Chisbridge Cro ...

, and the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of S ...

, Smith received a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 1 December 1805, and in January 1806 joined his corps at Chatham. In 1807 Smith went to

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. He served in 1809 under Major-general Sir Alexander Bryce, the commanding Royal Engineer of the force of

Sir John Stuart Sir John Stuart, Count of Maida GCB (1759–1815), was a British Lieutenant-General during the Napoleonic Wars. Biography Stuart was born in Georgia, the son of Colonel John Stuart, superintendent of Indian affairs in the southern district, an ...

, at the siege and capture of the castle of

Ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to ...

and at the capture of

Procida Procida (; nap, Proceta ) is one of the Flegrean Islands off the coast of Naples in southern Italy. The island is between Cape Miseno and the island of Ischia. With its tiny satellite island of Vivara, it is a ''comune'' of the Metropolitan Ci ...

in the

Bay of Naples A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

. He also took part, in the same year, in the capture of the islands of

Zante Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; el, Ζάκυνθος, Zákynthos ; it, Zacinto ) or Zante (, , ; el, Τζάντε, Tzánte ; from the Venetian form) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands. Za ...

and Kephalonia under Major-General Frederick Rennell Thackeray, commanding Royal Engineer of the force of Sir John Oswald. Smith was deputy-assistant quartermaster-general and senior officer of the quartermaster-general's department under Sir Hudson Lowe in 1810, in the battle before

Santa Maura Lefkada ( el, Λευκάδα, ''Lefkáda'', ), also known as Lefkas or Leukas (Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Λευκάς, ''Leukás'', modern pronunciation ''Lefkás'') and Leucadia, is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea on the west coast of Gr ...

. He resigned his staff appointment in order to serve as an engineer officer in the trenches during the siege of Santa Maura under Oswald, the only engineer officer in addition to Thackeray and himself, Captain Parker having been wounded. The deficiency of engineer officers threw on Smith most of the executive work of the siege. He was mentioned in Sir John Oswald's despatches, and some years afterwards an effort was unsuccessfully made to get him a brevet majority for his services at Santa Maura. Smith was promoted to be second captain on 1 May 1811. He served in

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...

and in Sicily, and in 1812 returned to England to take up the appointment of adjutant to the corps of the

Royal Sappers and Miners The British Army during the Victorian era served through a period of great technological and social change. Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, and died in 1901. Her long reign was marked by the steady expansion and consolidation of the B ...

at their headquarters at Woolwich on 1 December. He held this appointment until 26 February 1815. He was promoted to be first captain on 26 August 1817, and in 1819, on the reduction of the corps of Royal Engineers, was placed on half-pay for seven months. During the next ten years Smith was employed on various military duties in England. He was promoted to be regimental lieutenant-colonel on 16 March 1830, and was appointed commanding royal engineer of the London district. In 1831 he was made a knight of the

Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order The Royal Guelphic Order (german: Königliche Guelphen-Orden), sometimes referred to as the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, is a Hanoverian order of chivalry instituted on 28 April 1815 by the Prince Regent (later King George IV). It takes its name ...

by William IV, a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are ...

on 13 September of the same year, an extra gentleman usher of the privy chamber in 1833, and on 17 March 1834 one of the ordinary gentlemen ushers. The last post he held until his death. On 2 December 1840 he was also appointed inspector-general of railways, in which capacity he examined and reported on the

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

and the other principal railways before they were opened to the public. In 1841 Smith, in conjunction with Professor Peter Barlow, made a report to the treasury respecting railway communication between London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Smith resigned the appointment of inspector-general of railways at the end of 1841, and became director of the Royal Engineer establishment at Chatham on 1 January 1842. On 5 July 1845 Smith and Professors

George Airy Sir George Biddell Airy (; 27 July 18012 January 1892) was an English mathematician and astronomer, and the seventh Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the E ...

and Barlow were constituted a commission to inquire whether future parliamentary railway bills should provide for a uniform

rail gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...

, and whether it would be expedient or practicable to bring railways already constructed or in course of construction into uniformity of gauge. On 30 March 1846 he was appointed one of the five commissioners to investigate and report upon the various railway projects in which it was proposed to have a terminus in the metropolis or its vicinity. On 9 November 1846 Smith was promoted to be colonel in the army, and on 1 May 1851 he was moved from Chatham to be commanding Royal Engineer of the southern district, with his headquarters at

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

. In July 1852 Smith was returned to parliament as member for Chatham in the Conservative interest, but in March 1853 he was unseated on petition. He was promoted to be major-general on 20 January 1854. In 1855 he was transferred from Portsmouth to the command of the Royal Engineers at

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

. He was appointed public examiner and inspector of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

's Military Seminary at Addiscombe in 1856. In March 1857 he was again returned to parliament as member for Chatham. He resigned his command at Aldershot, finding his time fully occupied with parliamentary and other duties. He was a member of the royal commission on harbours of refuge in 1858, and of the commission on promotion and retirement in the army. He was again returned as member for Chatham at the election of April 1859, and continued to sit for that borough until 1868. He was promoted to be lieutenant-general on 25 October 1859, colonel-commandant of Royal Engineers on 6 July 1860, and general on 3 August 1863. Smith died on 20 November 1874 at his residence, 62 Pembridge Villas,

Notting Hill Gate Notting Hill Gate is one of the main thoroughfares of Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically the street was a location for toll gates, from which it derives its modern name. Location At Ossington Street/Ke ...

, London, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. He was a

, an associate of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

, and a member of many learned bodies.

Works

Smith was the author of 'The Military Course of Engineering at Arras,’ Chatham, 1850, and he translated, with notes, Marshal Marmont's 'Present State of the Turkish Empire,’ London, 1839; 2nd ed. 1854.

Family

Smith married at Buckland, near Dover, on 31 January 1813, Harriet, daughter of Thomas Thorn, of Buckland House. There was no issue.

References

;Attribution

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Frederick 1790 births 1874 deaths British Army generals Fellows of the Royal Society Graduates of the Royal Military College, Great Marlow UK MPs 1852–1857 UK MPs 1857–1859 UK MPs 1859–1865 Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Paddington Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars British East India Company people British railway inspectors Knights Bachelor