Richard Hugh Stotherd (1828–1895) was a British Army officer, a major-general in the

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

and the director-general of the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

of the United Kingdom,

Life

The son of General Richard J. Stotherd (1796–1879), colonel commandant Royal Engineers, by his first wife, Elizabeth Sydney (died 1853), daughter of Hugh Boyle, of

Dungiven Dungiven () is a small town, townland and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is near the main A6 road (Northern Ireland), A6 Belfast to Derry road, which bypasses the town. It lies where the river ...

, County Londonderry, he was born at Angler Castle, County Tyrone, on 25 November 1828. His father, who came of a Lincolnshire family, worked on the

Ordnance Survey of Ireland Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI; ) was the national mapping agency of the Republic of Ireland. It was established on 4 March 2002 as a body corporate. It was the successor to the former Ordnance Survey of Ireland. It and the Ordnance Survey of ...

, and was promoted general 19 June 1872. Educated at

University College school University College School, also known as UCS, is a private day school in Frognal, Hampstead, London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views. ...

, and at 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 Officer (armed forces), commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers o ...

, Stotherd received a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 2 May 1847, and first lieutenant on 28 October. He went through the usual course of professional study at Chatham, and then served at Woolwich and at

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. On his return home he was posted to the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain and sent to

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

. He was promoted to be second captain on 21 May 1855, and first captain on 17 May 1860. Leaving the Ordnance Survey in 1861, Stotherd went to Weymouth, and then, at time of the ''Trent'' affair, to North America, where he acted as brigade major and assistant to the commanding Royal Engineer, serving four years in Canada and

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

. On Stotherd's return to England on 13 February 1866 he was appointed instructor in electricity, chemistry, and photography at the school of military engineering at Chatham. There he was an early investigator of the application of electricity to mining and

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

s, and he also organised the first field telegraph. He was sent to the

1867 Paris Exhibition The of 1867 (), better known in English as the 1867 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 1 April to 3 November 1867. It was the second of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. A number of nat ...

to report on military telegraphs. In 1868 Prince Arthur was under his instruction. While at Chatham, Stotherd advocated

Morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

for army signalling. He was promoted to be brevet major on 22 November 1870, regimental major on 5 July 1872, and regimental lieutenant-colonel on 3 August 1872. In 1871 Stotherd accompanied Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney to report on the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, the siege of Paris and the operations against the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

. In April 1873 he was appointed to the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

in London, to advise on the subject of submarine mines and of military telegraphs. He was from 1873 to 1876 president of the first war office

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

committee. In 1876 Stotherd was appointed commanding Royal Engineer of the

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

military district, where he remained for five years. He was promoted to be brevet

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), 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 colon ...

on 3 August 1877, and regimental colonel on 26 April 1882. In September 1881 he was appointed to the charge of the Ordnance Survey in Ireland, residing at the Mountjoy Barracks,

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park () is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since ...

, Dublin. After the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish, Stotherd acted as a military justice of the peace for the city of Dublin, in charge of troops in aid of the civil power. On 1 April 1883 Stotherd was appointed director-general of the Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom, and went to its headquarters at

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. The staff had grown under his predecessor, Lieutenant-General Anthony Charles Cooke. A parliamentary select committee of 1878 had recommended that the original large-scale surveys should be completed in 1890, instead of 1900. Stotherd urged a systematic revision on the government. In 1884 he saw to maps for the Redistribution of Seats Bill, and was officially thanked by being made CB On 25 November 1886 Stotherd was compelled by the age rule to retire from the army and from his appointment, receiving the honorary rank of major-general. He died suddenly, from heart disease, on 1 May 1895 at

Camberley Camberley is a town in north-west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. It is in the Surrey Heath, Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Tow ...

, Surrey, where he resided.

Works

Stotherd contributed articles to ''The Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers'', vols. xvii. and xviii., and was the author of the first text-book published in England on its subject, ''Notes on Defence by Submarine Mines'', Brompton, Kent; the second edition was dated 1873.

Family

Stotherd was first married on 11 June 1861, at St. George's, Hanover Square, London, to Caroline Frances Wood (died 17 February 1872), by whom he had a large family; and secondly, on 29 September 1875, at Edinburgh, Elizabeth Janet Melville, who survived him.
His eldest son Major Sydney Boyle Stotherd (1862-19/10/1915) died of wounds in France
Another son Lt. Col. Edward A W Stotherd b:c. 1864 in Canada also fought in WW1. He died aged 75 in 1939 Lynette Saunders (Fallon) born Walton hospital England on 8 December 1966 is 3rd great granddaughter and resides in Australia with her children Emma, Daniel, Joshuah Parr and husband Tank commander Lcpl Paul Saunders of 1st Armoured regiment.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Stotherd, Richard Hugh 1828 births 1895 deaths Royal Engineers officers Ordnance Survey 19th-century British cartographers Companions of the Order of the Bath