General Sir Garnet Wolseley

A cabinet card portrait of General Sir Garnet Wolseley (1833-1913), Commander-in-Chief in the latter stages of the Anglo-Zulu War.

General Garnet Joseph Wolseley, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., was born at Golden Bridge House, co. Dublin, on 4 June 1833, and educated at a day-school near Dublin and later by private tutors. He was appointed an ensign on 12 March 1852.

Wolseley served in the Second Burmese War (1852-1853), the Crimean War (1855) and the India Mutiny (1857-1858), and was at the siege and capture of Lucknow. In 1860 he went to China as assistant quartermaster-general to the Anglo-French expedition. In Canada (1861) he was sent with troops to the Red River settlement in the North-West Territories to make it a part of the domination of Canada. In 1871 he became assistant adjutant-general at the war office and thereafter took a leading part in effecting army reforms. He commanded an expedition into Ashanti during the Ashanti War of 1873-1874 and burnt the capital, Kumasi. He was high commissioner of Cyprus (1878) and in the latter stages of the Zulu War (1879-1880). His Egyptian campaign (1882) culminated in the victory of Tel-el-Kebir, but his Nile expedition (1884-1885) was too late to relieve Gordon at Khartoum.

As a military commander closely involved in army reform, Sir Garnet Wolseley incurred the enmity of both Queen Victoria and the Duke of Cambridge. Nevertheless, Wolseley became Commander-in-Chief of the forces in 1895, and held the post until 1899.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic Company.