Major-General Sir Cromer Ashburnham (13 September 1831 – 25 February 1917) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer. He was born in 1831, the fourth son of

Sir John Ashburnham, 7th Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part o ...

, and joined the Army in 1855, commissioned in the

60th Rifles The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United Sta ...

.Obituary: p. 162, ''The Annual Register: a review of public events at home and abroad, for the year 1917''. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1918. He served 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 ...

, and commanded the 2nd Battalion of the regiment 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 ...

. In 1880 he was promoted to command the 3rd Battalion, and led it during the

First Boer War The First Boer War (, ), was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British ad ...

, where he was twice mentioned in despatches, and the

1882 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 e ...

, where he was again twice mentioned in despatches and was appointed KCB. At 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 ...

, he commanded a brigade."ASHBURNHAM, Sir Cromer", in He remained in command of the 3rd Battalion during the 1884

Sudan Campaign The Mahdist War (; 1881–1899) was fought between the Mahdist Sudanese, led by Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided One"), and the forces of the Khedivate of Egypt, initially, and later th ...

, and in 1884 was appointed the Governor of

Suakim Suakin or Sawakin (, Beja: ''Oosook'') is a port city in northeastern Sudan, on the west coast of the Red Sea. It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan, about north. Suakin used to be considered the height ...

. He retired in 1886 with the rank of major-general. In 1881, he had been appointed an aide-de-camp to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

, and in 1907, he was appointed a colonel-commandant of the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United Sta ...

. Ashburnham married Urith Amelia Martin, sister of

George Bohun Martin George Bohun Martin (December 25, 1842 – August 29, 1933) was an English-born farmer, rancher and political figure in British Columbia, Canada. He represented Yale from 1882 to 1894 and Yale-North from 1894 to 1898 in the Legislative Asse ...

on 26 July 1864. They had the following children: * Urith Amelia Ashburnham (d. 4 Feb 1958) * Maj. Cromer Ashburnham (25 Apr 1866 – 11 Sep 1919) * John Ashburnham (19 Aug 1873 – 7 Sep 1873) * Editha Ashburnham (7 Sep 1878 – 20 May 1963)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashburnham, Cromer 1831 births 1917 deaths British Army major generals King's Royal Rifle Corps officers British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War British military personnel of the First Boer War British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath 19th-century British Army personnel