Major General Sir Casimir Cartwright van Straubenzee, KBE, CB, CMG (11 November 1867 – 28 March 1956) was a Canadian-born officer in the British Army, who served as General Officer Commanding Singapore and Malaya Command.[2] In 1900, he played cricket for Canada.
Sir Casimir van Straubenzee | |
|---|---|
| Born | 11 November 1867 Kingston, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | 28 March 1956 (aged 88) Lansdown, Bath, Somerset |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service | British Army |
| Rank | Major General |
| Unit | Royal Artillery |
| Commands | Malaya Command 46th (North Midland) Division |
| Battles / wars | Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War First World War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George Grand Officer of the Order of Aviz (Portugal)[1] |
Early life and family
editBorn in Kingston, Ontario, van Straubenzee was the third son of Colonel Bowen van Straubenzee (1829–1898), a native of Spennithorne, Yorkshire, and his wife, Anne Macaulay Cartwright, daughter of The Hon. John Solomon Cartwright, of Kingston, Ontario.[3] He was a nephew of General Sir Charles van Straubenzee, Commander of British Troops in China and Hong Kong and Governor of Malta.[4]
Military career
editVan Straubenzee was educated at Trinity College School, Port Hope, and the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario. He joined the Royal Artillery and served with the 4th Ashanti expedition (1895–96) before returning to Canada as a professor on the RMC staff from 1898 to 1903,[2] with the local rank of major from 18 August 1898, and was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 27 February 1902.[5] He was promoted lieutenant colonel and served during the First World War from 1914. He was awarded the French Croix de guerre,[6] and was Inspector-General of the Royal Artillery from 1917 to 1918. Promoted to major general in 1919, he became General Officer Commanding Singapore and then became General Officer Commanding 46th (North Midland) Division in June 1923.[7] In 1927 he went on to be General Officer Commanding the Malaya Command, a command of British Commonwealth forces formed in the 1920s for the coordination of the defences of Malaya and Singapore, before retiring in February 1929.[7]
Cricket
editVan Straubenzee played cricket for the Royal Engineers from 1892 to 1908, and one first-class game in 1899 for the Marylebone Cricket Club. He also played for Canada in 1900.[8] He was the author of Recollections of Sportsmen and Sport in Days of Yore. In 1909, he married Ethel Purcell VanKoughnet (d.1949), whose father, Mathew Robert VanKoughnet (1824–1874), was a first cousin of van Straubenzee's mother – sharing a common ancestor in James Macaulay. She was a niece of Philip Michael Matthew Scott VanKoughnet and the sister of Mrs Frederick Edmund Meredith. They lived between London and Bath. He died 28 March 1956, Lansdown, Bath, Somerset.[9]
Legacy
editVan Straubenzee was the sitter for two of the portraits in the National Gallery, London.[10]
Straubenzee, the fictional maker of Colonel Sebastian Moran's air-gun in Sherlock Holmes' 'The Adventure of the Empty House', is identified as Major General Casimir Cartwright Van Straubenzee (1866–1956).[11]
References
edit- ^ "Cidadãos Estrangeiros Agraciados com Ordens Portuguesas". Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ a b Preston 'Canada's RMC: A history of the Royal Military College' Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1969
- ^ Memorial Plaque to Colonel Bowen van Straubenzee
- ^ Vetch, R. H.. "Straubenzee, Sir Charles Thomas Van (1812–1892), rev. Roger T. Stearn". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28110. Accessed 25 August 2016.
- ^ "No. 27419". The London Gazette. 25 March 1902. p. 2072.
- ^ "Kellys Handbook to the Titled, Landed & Official Classes for 1923". Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
- ^ a b "Army Commands" (PDF). Retrieved 7 June 2020.
- ^ Casimir Cartwright van Straubenzee at Cricket Archive
- ^ "Casimir Cartwright van Straubenzee". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ Major General Sir Casimir Cartwright van Straubenzee
- ^ C7204. Redmond, Donald A. "Where He Got a Name: The Man Lived in Canada," CH, 5, No. 1 (Autumn 1981), 2–3. illus. http://special.lib.umn.edu/rare/ush/06B2.html