Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/119

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Gerard
99
Gerard

excellent description of the country and its inhabitants. In 1885 her husband retired from active service with the rank of lieutant-general, and they then made their permanent home in Vienna, where she died on 11 Jan. 1905. Her husband predeceased her by five weeks (December 1904). There were two sons of the marriage.

In 1880 Emily Gerard collaborated in a novel, 'Reata' (new edit. 1881), with her sister Dorothea, who in 1886 married Julius Longard de Longgardo, also an officer in the Austrian army. A like partnership produced 'Beggar my Neighbour' (1882), 'The Waters of Hercules ' (1885), and 'A Sensitive Plant' (1891). She contributed without aid several short tales to Blackwood's and Longman's 'Magazines,' reprinted in the volumes 'Bis' (1890), and 'An Electric Shock and other Stories' (1897), and published six novels, of which the best is 'The Voice of a Flower' (1893). She wrote gracefully, and made the foreign sotting effective, but lacked power of characterisation. She was a competent critic; for nearly two years she furnished monthly reviews of German literature to 'The Times,' and occasional articles on new German books to 'Blackwood's Magazine.'

Other works by Emily Gerard are: 1. 'A Secret Mission,' 1891. 2. 'A Foreigner,' 1896 (inspired by her own marriage). 3. 'The Tragedy of a Nose,' 1898. 4. 'The Extermination of Love, a Study in Erotics,' 1901. 5. 'The Heron's Tower,' 1904. 6. 'Honour's Glassy Bubble,' 1906; and a preface to S. Kneipp's 'My Water Cure,' 1893.

[Burke's Landed Gentry, 1906; The Times, 12-13 Jan. 1905; Athenaeum, 21 Jan. 1905; Who's Who, 1904; Helen C. Black, Pen, Pencil, Baton and Mask: Biographical Sketches, 1896; William Blackwood and his Sons, vol. iii. (by Mrs. Gerald Potter), 1898, pp. 356-8.]

E. L.


GERARD, Sir MONTAGU GILBERT (1842–1905), general, born at Edinburgh on 29 June 1842, was second son in a family of three sons and four daughters of Archibald Gerard (1812–1880) of Rochsoles, near Airdrie, Lanarkshire, by his wife Euphemia Erskine (d. 1870), eldest daughter of Sir John Robison [q. v.]. He was a great-grandson of Alexander Gerard [q. v.], philosophical writer, and of Archibald Alison [q. v.], father of the historian. The family was originally Scottish episcopalian, but the mother joined the church of Rome in 1848, the father a little later, and the children were brought up as Roman catholics. Montagu's eldest brother became Father John Gerard, S.J., and his eldest sister was Jane Emily, Madame de Laszowska [q. v. Suppl. II]. He was admitted to Stonyhurst in 1850, and subsequently passed four years at Ushaw (1865–9).

After spending some time on the Continent, Gerard went through the usual course at Woolwich. He was gazetted lieutenant in the royal artillery on 19 April 1864, and undertook garrison duty at Gibraltar. In 1866, on being transferred to the field artillery, he was stationed in the central provinces, India. In 1867–8 he was employed on the transport train during the Abyssinian expedition; he was mentioned in despatches and received the war medal. In 1870 he joined the Bengal staff corps, and was attached to the Central India horse. Promoted captain on 19 April 1876, he acted as brigade major throughout the second Afghan war (1878–80), and had his horse wounded at the action of Deh Sarak while escorting a convoy from Chara.

He took part in the second Bazar valley expedition and in the defence of Jagdallak. He accompanied General (Sir) Charles Gough's brigade to Sherpur in December 1879, and Lord Roberts's march from Kabul to Kandahar, and was engaged at the battle of 1 Sept. 1880. He was twice mentioned in despatches, and received the medal with two clasps, the bronze star, and the brevets of major (22 Nov. 1879) and of lieut.-colonel (2 March 1881). Gerard served in the Egyptian campaign of 1882, and at Alexandria fought in all the actions that followed the bombardment. He was appointed deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster general of the cavalry division, and was present at the reconnaissance of 5 Aug. 1882, the battles of Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir, and the surrender of Arabi Pasha. In addition to being mentioned in despatches he was given the medal with clasp, the bronze star, the C.B., and the third class of the order of the Medjidie. He became major on 19 April 1884 and brevet-colonel on 2 March 1885.

Gerard had other qualities besides those of the successful soldier. In 1881 and again in 1885 he was despatched on secret missions to Persia. After serving as district staff officer of the first class in Bengal, he was selected to take charge of the tour which the Tsarevitch (afterwards Nicholas II) made in India (Dec. 1890–Feb. 1891), and the skill with which he discharged his duties resulted in his appointment in 1892 as British military attache at St. Petersburg. In the negotiations concerning the Pamirs boundary dispute he played a