Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank 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 the battlefield, who was normall ...

Sir Charles Edward Nairne (30 June 1836 – 19 February 1899) was a British military officer who served in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

Early life

He was the son of Captain Alexander Nairne, a military officer in the

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

.Dictionary of National Biography. Supplement. United Kingdom, Smith, Elder, & Company, 1901. Educated at

Addiscombe Military Seminary The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India ...

, Nairne was commissioned into the

Bengal Artillery The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Govern ...

in 1855. Due to sickness he was only present for two and a half terms at Addiscombe, instead of the usual four, and this prevented him joining the

Bengal Engineers The Bengal Engineer Group (BEG) (informally the Bengal Sappers or Bengal Engineers) is a military engineering regiment in the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The unit was originally part of the Bengal Army of the East India Company's Ben ...

.Vibart, Henry Meredith. Addiscombe, Its Heroes and Men of Note; by Colonel H. M. Vibart... With an Introduction by Lord Roberts of Kandahar.... N.p., A. Constable and Company, 1894.

Career

During the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...

in 1857 he was stationed mostly at

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

and only saw action towards its close. In 1863 he served in an expedition against the

Yusufzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai (, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ), or Yusufzai Afghans historically, are one of the largest tribes of Pashtuns. They are natively based in the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( Malakand, Dir, Swat, Shangl ...

on the north-western frontier. He went on to serve as a Horse Battery Commander with the

Peshawar Valley Field Force The Peshawar Valley Field Force was a British field force. It was the largest of three military columns created in November 1878 at the start of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880), each of which invaded Afghanistan by a different route. The P ...

during the

Second Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai ...

from 1878 to 1880. In 1882 he took part in the

Anglo-Egyptian War The British conquest of Egypt, also known as the Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. It ...

and commanded the horse artillery at the Battle of Kassassin Lock and the

Battle of Tel el-Kebir The Battle of Tel El Kebir (often spelled Tel-El-Kebir) was fought on 13 September 1882 at Tell El Kebir in Egypt, 110 km north-north-east of Cairo. An entrenched Egyptian force under the command of Ahmed ʻUrabi was defeated by a British ...

where he was

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

. He was also appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

(CB). In 1882 he became colonel of the depot staff of the horse artillery, and in 1885 commandant of the school of gunnery at

Shoeburyness Shoeburyness ( ), or simply Shoebury, is a coastal town in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England; it lies east of the city centre. It was formerly a separate town until it was absorbed into Southend in 1933. I ...

for the next two years. In 1887 he became Inspector-General of Artillery in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, serving in the role for five years. In 1890 he attained the rank of Major-general after 35 years service. In 1892 Nairne was appointed to the command of the Division at

Meerut Meerut (, ISO 15919, ISO: ''Mēraṭh'') is a city in the western region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Located in the Meerut district, it is northeast of the national capital, New Delhi, and is ...

, and the following year he became Commander-in-Chief of the

Bombay Army The Bombay Army was the army of the Bombay Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. It was established in 1668 and governed by the East India Company until the Government of India Act 1858 transferr ...

(renamed Bombay Command in 1895). He was promoted Lieutenant-General in November 1895 and became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in June 1898. He was acting

Commander-in-Chief, India During the period of the Company and Crown rule in India, the Commander-in-Chief, India (often "Commander-in-Chief ''in'' or ''of'' India") was the supreme commander of the Indian Army from 1833 to 1947. The Commander-in-Chief and most of his ...

from March to November 1898.

Death

He died suddenly on 19 February 1899 and was buried with military honours at Charlton Cemetery in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on 22 February.

Family

In 1860 he married Sophie Addison. His sister, Helen Catherine Nairne, who was born on 1 September 1843, was the mother of Sir Frederick Arnold-Baker.Baker & Smart Pedigree 1902
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References

Sources

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Nairne, Charles 1836 births 1899 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Recipients of the Order of the Medjidie, 3rd class British Commanders-in-Chief of India British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 British Army lieutenant generals British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War Bengal Artillery officers Royal Artillery officers British people in colonial India Members of the Council of the Governor General of India