merged. He was on the senate of the university of London, and took a prominent part in the establishment of the National Physical Laboratory. He took a deep interest in the Institution of Civil Engineers, of which he was a member for fifty-four years; he sat on its council for forty years, and held the office of president for two years; it was at his instance that an examination test was prescribed for candidates for membership.
Wolfe-Barry married in 1874 Rosalind Grace, youngest daughter of the Rev. Evan Edward Rowsell, rector of Hambledon, Surrey, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. He died at Chelsea 22 January 1918.
Wolfe-Barry's portrait was painted by Sir Hubert von Herkomer in 1900.
[Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xciv, A, 1917–1918; Engineering, 25 January 1918.]
WOLSELEY, GARNET JOSEPH, first Viscount Wolseley (1833–1913), field-marshal, the eldest son of Major Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 25th Borderers, by his wife, Frances Anne, daughter of William Smith, of Golden Bridge House, co. Dublin, was born at Golden Bridge House 4 June 1833. His family, a junior branch of the Staffordshire Wolseleys, had obtained land in county Carlow under William III. Major Garnet Wolseley died when his eldest son Garnet was only seven years old, leaving a widow, four sons, and three daughters in somewhat straitened circumstances. Garnet was educated at a day school in Dublin, and at a very early age determined to be a soldier. Eager to improve his education to this end, and unable to afford special tuition, he took service in a surveyor's office in Dublin, and there acquired a sound knowledge of draughtsmanship and surveying, which knowledge was to bring him at an early stage of his career to the notice of his superior officers.
Wolseley's mother was a woman of remarkable character. Intensely religious, with a simple form of Irish Protestantism, she took the Bible as her one guide, and from her Wolseley acquired a profound belief, which lasted until his death, that his life was in God's hands. To this faith he added from the first a keen ambition to make a name for himself, while his parentage made him turn naturally to the army for a career. In after-life he said that the first business of the young officer who wishes to distinguish himself in his profession is to seek to get himself killed, and he did his best to apply that principle to himself. His faith in God's providence made him a fatalist. The resultant of this faith joined to an eager temperament and an ambitious nature was a rare degree of courage.
Wolseley received his commission as second lieutenant in the 12th Foot on 12 March 1852, and at once transferred to the 80th Foot, which was engaged in the second Burma War, in order that he might see active service. He arrived in Calcutta at the end of October 1852 to hear the guns of Fort William firing a salute on the death of the Duke of Wellington. Thus, the soldier destined to create a new phase in the history of the British army began his service just when the great leader of the régime which he was to modernize passed away. A few months later Wolseley, not yet twenty, won his first distinction by leading with judgement and gallantry an assault upon Meeah Toon's stockade, in which at the moment of victory he fell severely wounded in the left thigh. For this service he was mentioned in dispatches, was promoted lieutenant on 16 May 1853, and received the Burma War medal. He was sent home to recover from his wound, and transferred to the 90th Foot in Dublin, where, as the crisis in the Near East which culminated in the Crimean War developed, he grew more and more restless until orders arrived for his battalion to embark. When he landed in the Crimea the siege of Sebastopol was in progress, and his knowledge of surveying was soon of service. In January 1855 he was appointed an assistant engineer and served in that capacity in the trenches, becoming, owing to a run of promotion, captain at the age of twenty-one. In the trenches he first met Charles George Gordon [q.v.], the common bond of religion drawing the two men together and cementing a close friendship which was to last till Gordon's death. In June 1855 he distinguished himself greatly in the attack on the Quarries, in which he was slightly wounded, the success of the operation being in a great measure due to his personal example and initiative. On 30 August, a few days before the fall of Sebastopol, he was severely wounded by a shell, losing the sight of one eye. On recovery he was appointed to the quartermaster-general's staff and remained with it till the end of the War. For his services he was recommended for a brevet majority, which he could not receive till he had completed (24 March 1858) six years' service. Returning home from the Crimea he was for a short time with the 90th at Aldershot. Then orders
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