MILITARY
(Contd.)
the battle of Farmers, siege of Valenciennes, attack of Lincelles investment of Kunkirk, attack of Lannoy, and also at the retreat through Holland and Germany.
In 1795 he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to Major-General Alexander Campbell, on the staff of Lord Moira's army. This year he also sailed in the expedition intended for Quiberon, and in the expedition for the West Indies, under the celebrated Sir Ralph Abercrombie.
In 1799 he accompanied the disastrous expedition to Holland being employed on the staff of the Quarter-Master-General, and was wounded in the action near the Helder.
When the French invasion of Egypt called our army into that part of the world, Sir George Murray accompanied the force under Abercrombie, and was present at the different actions which called into exercise the tactics of modern Europe on the soil of the Pharaohs, including that on the landing, those of the 13th and 21st of March, seizure of Rosetta, action of Rhamarial, and investment of Grand Cairo and Alexandria.
The ever changing necessities of service recalled him to Europe once more, and in 1805 he served in the expedition to Hanover. In 1807 he was placed at the head of the Quarter-Master-General's department on the expedition to Stralsund, and afterwards to Copenhagen.
(To be Continued).
My attention has been drawn by a reader to the inadvertent statement, in a recent article on the Supreme Court, that Sir William Rees-Davies had died not long ago. I much regret the error. Sir William is still alive, enjoying his well-earned retirement at Home. He is now seventy-one years of age,
I give to-day the concluding portion of the obituary notice on General Sir George Murray, G.C.B., who died in 1846. The extract is from the November 18, 1846, issue of the Friend of China and Hong Kong Gazette, one of the first journals ever published in the Colony, and since defunct. It states:
After this (the Copenhagen expedition) came the war of the Peninsula. In all the battles which succeeded the despatching of an auxiliary army to the assistance of Spain, Sir George Murray bore a part. He shared in the disaster and retreat of Corunna, and the triumph of the oft memorable battle under the walls of that town, where the British army turned in desperation on its pursuers, and terminated a succession of defeats by a brilliant victory. Sir George was also present at the battle of Vimiera, and the actions of Lugo and Villa Franca; and subsequently in all the sanguinary battles of Spain and Portugal, including Oporto, Douro, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d'Onor, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse. His distinguished services did not go unrewarded: he was created a G.C.B. in 1813, and a K.C.H. in 1816; and for the Spanish actions in which he was engaged he received a cross and six clasps. From 1818 to 1824 he was Governor, as already stated, of Sandhurst College.
Like his great commander, the Duke of Wellington, peace left the Right Hon. Baronet at leisure to devote himself to the civil service of his country as well as the military. He was Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance during the years 1824 and 1825, and from the latter period till 1828 he was Commander of the Forces in Ireland.
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