Dictionary of Indian Biography/Beresford, Lord William Leslie de la Poer

2887539Dictionary of Indian Biography — Beresford, Lord William Leslie de la PoerCharles Edward Buckland

BERESFORD, LORD WILLIAM LESLIE DE LA POER (1847–1900)

Third son of the fourth Marquis of Waterford: born July 20, 1847: educated at Eton: entered the 9th Lancers in 1867: A.D.C. to Viceroys of India, 1875 to 1881, and Military Secretary to the Viceroys from 1881 to 1894. He saw service in the Jowaki expedition, 1877–8; in the Zulu war, 1879, where he gained the Victoria Cross; in the Afghan war, 1880, and was in Burma, 1886: Lt-Colonel in 1890: K.C.I. E., 1894. On Dec. 30, 1893, he was entertained at a farewell dinner at the Town Hall, Calcutta, by 180 friends: it was then said of him that he "had raised the office [of Military Secretary] to a science, and himself from an official into an institution, and acquired a reputation absolutely unique": retired from India in 1894: died in England, Dec. 28, 1900. He was invaluable as A.D.C. and Military Secretary to successive Viceroys: popular and active: a keen sportsman and successful rider of steeple-chases: and polo-player: and for years kept a stud of racehorses with which he won the Viceroy's Cup six times and the other principal races at race-meetings in India. In England, also, he had a racing stable, and was one of the first to have American horses and jockeys.