Augustus Spencer

General The Hon. Sir Augustus Almeric Spencer GCB (25 March 1807 – 28 August 1893) was a British Army officer and a member of the Spencer family.

Sir Augustus Almeric Spencer
Sir Augustus Almeric Spencer, The National Portrait Gallery, London
Born25 March 1807 (1807-03-25)
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire
Died28 August 1893 (1893-08-29) (aged 86)
London
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1825–1875
RankGeneral
Commands heldWestern District
Bombay Army
Battles/warsCrimean War
AwardsKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Military career

Born the third son of Francis Spencer, 1st Baron Churchill, Spencer was commissioned an Ensign into the 43rd Light Infantry on 8 April 1825. He was promoted to lieutenant on 5 July 1827, captain on 6 April 1831 and major on 21 July 1843.[1][2]

Spencer was given command of the 44th Regiment of Foot in 1845 and, having been promoted to lieutenant colonel on 17 May 1854 and to colonel on 20 June 1854, he led that regiment at the Battle of Alma, at the Battle of Inkerman and at the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.[1][2] He became commander of a brigade at Aldershot in 1856, and having been promoted to major general on 13 February 1860, he became General Officer Commanding a division of the Madras Army in 1860 and General Officer Commanding Western District in the UK in 1866.[2] Promoted to lieutenant general on 9 May 1868, he went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army in 1869 before retiring in 1875.[2]

Following the death of General Arthur Simcoe Baynes on 13 September 1875,[3] Spencer was promoted to brevet general the following day.[4]

Family

In 1836 he married Helen Maria Campbell, second daughter of General Sir Archibald Campbell, 1st Baronet of New Brunswick.[5][6] The couple had five daughters and a son:[7][8]

  • Helen Frances Spencer, (b. 1843), married Col. Robert Spencer Liddell, son of Sir John Liddell, KCB, MD[9]
  • Caroline Laura Spencer, (b. 1844)
  • Elizabeth Maria Spencer, (b. 1845)
  • Augusta Melita Spencer, (b. 1848), married firstly, Col. Sussex Vane Stephenson, and secondly, Rev. Edward Mallet Young
  • Lt.-Col. Augustus Campbell Spencer, (b. 1851), married Hilda Grant-Thorold, daughter of Alexander William Thorold Grant-Thorold
  • Georgina Caroline Spencer, (d. 24 April 1864)

One of Spencer's grandsons was the Reverend Canon Henry Spencer Stephenson, Chaplain to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.[10][8]

One of Spencer's great-grandsons, Richard Harry Ramsay Spencer, succeeded as Baron Churchill of Wychwood on 18 October 2017.[11][12]

Awards

On 16 June 1856 Brigadier-General the Hon. Sir Augustus Almeric Spencer, commander of the 44th Regiment of Foot, was awarded the French Legion of Honour that was reported in the Le Moniteur.[13]

Death

Spencer died on 28 August 1893 and was buried at Brompton Cemetery in London.[14]

References
  1. Hart, H. G. (1880). The New Army List Militia List and Indian Civil Service List. John Murray.
  2. Bennett, H. L. (2004). "Augustus Spencer". In Jones, M. G. M (ed.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26115. Retrieved 12 June 2016. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. "Arthur Simcoe Baynes". Military Images. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  4. "No. 24257". The London Gazette. 22 October 1875. p. 4954.
  5. Lodge, Edmund (1849). The Peerage of the British Empire as at present existing. Saunders and Otley, London, England.
  6. Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage. Dean & Son Limited, Great Britain. 1902. p. 182.
  7. Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1895). Armorial Families: A Complete Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, and a Directory of Some Gentlemen of Coat-armour, and Being the First Attempt to Show which Arms in Use at the Moment are Borne by Legal Authority, Part 1. Jack, Great Britain. p. 919. Under Dame Helen Maria Spencer, Widow of Augustus Almeric Spencer
  8. "Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage". Great Britain: Dean & Son, Limited. 1902. pp. 181–182.
  9. Horace A. Laffaye (16 March 2012). Polo in Britain: A History. McFarland. ISBN 9780786489800.
  10. Walford, Edward (1893). The Windsor Peerage for 1890-1894. Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly, London, England. p. 118. Retrieved 7 June 2014. See entry for Churchill, 3rd Baron
  11. "The 3rd (and last) Viscount Churchill, OBE 1934-2017". Peerage News. UK. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2018. The viscountcy of Churchill (created in 1902) now becomes extinct. The 3rd Viscount is succeeded in the barony of Churchill (created in 1815) by his second cousin once removed, Richard Harry Ramsay Spencer, born 11 Oct, 1926, who becomes the 6th Baron Churchill.
  12. "Richard Harry Ramsay Spencer, 6th Baron Churchill of Wychwood". The Peerage. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  13. The United Service Magazine. H. Colburn. 1856. p. 599.
  14. "Funeral of Augustus Almeric Spencer". The Times Newspaper, London, UK. 5 September 1893. p. 3.
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