Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Everett, William
EVERETT, Sir WILLIAM (1844–1908), colonel, born on 20 April 1844, was son of Thomas Ellis Everett, rector of Theddingworth, Leicestershire, by Gertrude Louisa, daughter of Joshua Walker, formerly M.P. for Aldborough. Spending a term in 1856 at Marlborough, he entered Sandhurst, and was commissioned as ensign in the 26th foot on 28 June 1864. On 23 August he was transferred to the 33rd foot, and was promoted lieutenant on 11 Jan. 1867. After the return of the regiment to England from the Abyssinian expedition, in which he took no part, he was made adjutant (25 Nov. 1868). He was an excellent draughtsman, and on 1 Feb. 1870 he was appointed instructor in military drawing at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He remained there seven years, becoming captain in his regiment on 8 Sept. 1874. He passed through the Staff College in 1878.
In 1879 he was employed on the Turco-Bulgarian boundary commission under Sir Edward Bruce Hamley [q. v. Suppl. I], and on 12 July he was appointed vice-consul at Erzeroum, to see to the execution of the provisions of the Anglo-Turkish convention. In July 1880 he served on a commission to define the Turco-Persian frontier. During the famine of 1881 he was active at Erzeroum in the administration of Lady Strangford's relief fund. From 11 Sept. 1882 till the end of 1887 he was consul in Kurdistan. An attempt on his life was made on 13 April 1884 by a Roman catholic Armenian on account of his active vigilance, and he was severely injured in the hand and foot. He received 1000l. as compensation, and was made C.M.G. on 6 Aug. 1886.
From 11 Jan. 1888 till September 1892 Everett was professor of military topography at the Staff College. He left his regiment, in which he had become major on 1 July 1881, for an unattached lieut.-colonelcy. He was employed in the intelligence division of the war office as assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of colonel, from 7 June 1893 to 12 March 1901. He was technical adviser of the commission for the delimitation of the Sierra Leone frontier in 1895, and a commissioner for delimiting the Niger frontier in 1896–8, and the Togoland frontier in 1900. He was remarkable for tact, as well as for ‘unfailing industry and a special skill in unravelling the complicated tangle of frontier questions.' Becoming K.C.M.G on 27 June 1898, he was in charge of the intelligence division during 1899 (a time of exceptional stress), while Sir John Ardagh was absent at the Hague conference.
Placed on the retired list on 20 April 1901, Everett died at Interlaken of heart failure on 9 Aug. 1908, and was buried at Dunsfold near Godalming. He had married in 1870 Marie Georgina, daughter of Pietro Quartano di Calogeras, doctor-at-law, Corfu. His wife survived him without issue.
[The Times, 12 August 1908; Lady Malmesbury, Life of Sir John Ardagh, 1909 information.]