# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Ardagh, John Charles

​ARDAGH, Sir JOHN CHARLES (1840–1907), major-general, royal engineers, born at Comragh House on 9 Aug. 1840, was second son of William Johnson Ardagh, vicar of Rossmire, of Comragh House and Stradbally, co. Waterford, by his wife Sarah Cobbold, of Ipswich. After education at the endowed school in Waterford under Dr. Price, John entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1857, with the intention of taking orders. He gained a prize in Hebrew and honours in mathematics. But deciding on a military career he passed first at the entrance examination to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1858, and was again first at the final examination, receiving a commission as lieutenant in the royal engineers on 1 April 1859. After the usual training at Chatham, Ardagh superintended the construction of Fort Popton, one of the new works of defence for Milford Haven, under the Defence Act of 1860. When a rupture with the United States, owing to the Trent affair, threatened in November 1861, Ardagh embarked at Queenstown in the transport Victoria (26 Dec. 1861) with the stores necessary to construct a line of telegraph through the colony of New Brunswick to the St. Lawrence river. The vessel, which was badly found, encountered tempestuous weather and was driven back to Queenstown; leaving port again on 13 Feb. 1862, she was only saved from foundering by Ardagh's and his sappers' ingenuity and exertions, which enabled her to reach Plymouth on 12 March. Ardagh's conduct was highly commended by the duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-chief.
Ardagh, who remained at home, was charged with the construction of the new fort at Newhaven, and there invented an equilibrium drawbridge, which was used at Newhaven fort and elsewhere (cf. his description of it in Royal Eng. Prof. Papers, new series, vol. xvii.). After other employment on southern defences, he was appointed, in April 1868, secretary of Sir Frederick Grey's committee to report on the fortifications in course of construction under the Defence Act of 1860, and in September 1869 accompanied Sir William Jervois [q. v.] on a tour of inspection of the defence works at Halifax and Bermuda. Permitted to witness the entry of the German troops into Paris in February 1871, Ardagh visited the defences of the city, and went on to Belfort and Strassburg. After three months in Malta and a year at Chatham, he was promoted captain on ​ 3 Aug. 1872, and joined the Staff College in February 1873, passing the final examinations in December 1874. In April 1875 he was attached to the intelligence branch of the war office, was in Holland on intelligence duty (10 Jan.-8 Feb. 1876), and became a deputy assistant quartermaster-general for intelligence (13 July).
In August 1876 Ardagh began important services in the Near East. He was then sent on special service to Nisch, the headquarters of the Turkish army operating against Servia. In October he was summoned to Constantinople to report on the defence of the city. In fifteen days he prepared sketch-surveys of nearly 150 square miles, and proved himself an expert in strategic geography. These surveys included the position of Buyuk-Chekmedje-Dere, with projects for the defence of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, the Bulair lines and Rodosto. The actual works were subsequently constructed by the Turks. Ardagh also reported for the foreign office on the operations in Herzegovina and Montenegro, and in December 1876 went to Tirnovo in Bulgaria to report on the state of the country. After an attack of fever, from which he recuperated in Egypt and Greece, he resumed his duties at the war office in April 1877, when he completed a report and survey begun in the previous year on the sea defences of the Lewes and Laughton levels.
From December 1877 to March 1878 Ardagh was in Italy on special foreign office service, and in the summer attended the congress of Berlin as technical military delegate under General Sir Lintorn Simmons [q. v. Suppl. II]. Ardagh's knowledge of the Turkish provinces proved of value, and in July he was created C.B. (civil). Between September 1878 and September 1879 he was employed on the international commission to delimitate the frontiers of the new principality of Bulgaria. On 30 Nov. 1878 he was gazetted a brevet-major, and was pro- moted regimental major on 22 Sept. 1880. On 14 June 1881, after much negotiation among the great powers, in which he played some part, he became British commissioner for the delimitation of the Turco-Greek frontier. In spite of obstacles the work was completed by the end of October.
In February 1882 Ardagh was appointed instructor in military history, law, and tactics at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, but on 5 July he was sent suddenly to Egypt, where he was occupied almost continuously for nearly four years. His first duty was to place Alexandria in a state of defence after its bombardment by the British fleet and to take charge of the intelligence department there. Becoming on 21 Aug. deputy assistant adjutant- general, he was subsequently employed in the railway administration at Ismailia, and was present at the actions of Kassassin and Tel-el-Mahuta, and at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. He was mentioned in Lord Wolseley's despatch at the end of the cam- paign and was promoted brevet lieutenant- colonel (18 Nov. 1882). He also received the British war medal with clasp for Tel-el-Kebir, the Khedive's bronze star, and the fourth class of the order of the Osmanieh.
Ardagh remained in Egypt as deputy assistant adjutant-general to the British army of occupation, and was largely employed in making surveys. In July 1883 he went home on leave, but returned to Egypt almost immediately on an out- break of cholera, and laboured untiringly during the epidemic.
In February 1884 Ardagh, as commanding royal engineer and chief of the intelligence department, accompanied the British force under Sir Gerald Graham [q. v. Suppl. I], which was sent from Cairo to the Eastern Soudan. He was present at the battle of El Teb (29 Feb.), and at the relief of Tokar (1 March) he arranged the removal of 700 Egyptian inhabitants. By 8 March the change of base from Trinkitat to Suakin had been made, and on the 12th Ardagh reconnoitred with the mounted infantry the ground towards the hills. After the battle of Tamai (13 March) the road was open to Berber, and Ardagh shared his general's opinion that an advance should then have been made to Berber to reach out a hand to General Gordon at Khartoum. He afterwards wrote : ' Ber- ber was then in the hands of an Egyptian garrison, and had we gone across, the subsequent operations for the attempted relief of General Gordon at Khartoum would not have been necessary.' Graham's force returned to Cairo in April, leaving a battalion to garrison Suakin. Ardagh was mentioned in despatches and was made C.B. (military).
In May 1884 he went home on leave. In the autumn an expedition to relieve Khartoum was organised. Ardagh favoured the Suakin-Berber route, but Lord Wolseley, who commanded, resolved to ascend the Nile. Ardagh was appointed commandant at the base (Cairo), with the grade of assistant adjutant-general. His energy, devotion, and quiet cheerfulness ​ helped to expedite the fatal enterprise, and at the end of the disastrous campaign he was promoted to a brevet colonelcy (15 June 1885), receiving the third class of the order of the Medjidieh. On 30 Dec., as chief staff officer of a combined British and Egyptian force, he took part in the engagement at Giniss, when a large army of the Khalifa, which was endeavouring to invade Egyptian territory, after the abandonment of the Soudan, was defeated with great loss. For his services Ardagh was mentioned in despatches. On 17 Dec. 1886 he was promoted to a regimental lieutenant-colonelcy, and on 26 Jan. 1887 he was gazetted a colonel on the staff. In Nov. 1887 Ardagh returned to London as assistant adjutant-general for defence and mobilisation at the war office, and he inaugurated schemes of mobilisation for over-sea service, and of local home defence. From April 1888 to 1893 he was aide-de-camp to the duke of Cambridge, commander-in-chief. In October 1888 he became, with war office sanction, private secretary to the marquis of Lansdowne, viceroy of India. Save for a period of absence through illness in 1892, he remained with Lord Lansdowne through his term of office. He returned to England in May 1894, after a short service with Lord Lansdowne' s successor, Lord Elgin. He was made a C.I.E. in 1892, and K.C.I.E. in 1894.
Ardagh had spent less than a year as commandant of the School of Military Engineering at Chatham (from 16 April 1895), when he rejoined (27 March 1896) the war office for five years as director of military intelligence, with the temporary rank of major-general. He was promoted major-general on the establishment, on 14 March 1898. The South African war broke out in October 1899, and during the black days at the opening of the campaign an outcry was made that Ardagh's department had not kept the government informed of the number of men the Boers could put into the field, nor of the preparations they had made for the war. Yet Ardagh, in spite of a limited staff and inadequate funds, had performed his duty thoroughly. He compiled for the government a full statement of the number and military resources of the Boer forces, estimating that the defence of the British colonies alone would require 40,000 men, while to carry the war into the enemy's country would require 200,000. Copies of this paper were eventually laid on the tables of both houses of parliament at Ardagh's request. Meanwhile 'Military Notes on the Dutch Republic,' a secret work prepared under Ardagh's auspices in the intelligence branch, fell early in the campaign into the hands of the Boers after the action of Talana (20 Oct. 1899), and was published. These documents, which were corroborated by evidence before the royal commission on the war, relieved Ardagh of all blame.
In addition to his ordinary duties Sir John was a member of a committee on submarine telegraph cables, and in 1899 military technical adviser to the British delegates, Sir Julian (afterwards Lord) Pauncefote [q. v. Suppl. II] and Sir Henry Howard, at the first Hague peace conference. There he took a leading part in drawing up the ' Rules respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land.' In he was awarded the distinguished service pension.
After leaving the war office in March he showed to advantage his tact and knowledge of international law as British agent before a commission to investigate the claims of foreign powers on account of the deportation to Europe of subjects of theirs domiciled in South Africa during the war. From December 1901 to June 1902 he was in South Africa settling miscellaneous claims in connection with the war, which was still going on. He returned to South Africa later in the year with the temporary rank of lieutenant-general as member of the royal commission for the revision of martial law sentences. In October he was a member of the British tribunal on the Chili-Argentina boundary arbitration and helped to draft the award. On 9 Aug. 1902, when sixty-two years of age, Ardagh retired from military service, but was still employed by the foreign office. He succeeded Lord Pauncefote on the permanent court of arbitration at the Hague, and became a British government director of the Suez Canal. In December 1902 he was created K.C.M.G.
Ardagh was deeply interested in the British Red Cross Society, of which he became a member of council in 1905. He represented the British army, being one of four delegates of the British government in June 1906, at the conference held by the Swiss government for the revision of the Geneva Convention of 1864. The new convention was signed in the following month. His last public duty was to act as a delegate of the central committee of the society at the eighth international conference in London ​in June 1907. On his deathbed he received from the Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia the Red Cross commemoration medal for his services during the Russo-Japanese war. Ardagh died on 30 Sept. 1907 at Glynllivon Park, Carnarvon, and was buried at Broomfield Church, near Taunton. He married on 18 Feb. 1896 Susan, widow of the third earl of Malmesbury and daughter of John Hamilton of Fyne Court House, Somerset, who survived him without issue.
Ardagh served on the council of the Royal Geographical Society, was an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and was a member of the Royal Society's geodetic arc committee in 1900. He was made hon. LL.D. of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1897. He wrote in the 'Quarterly Review' (October 1894) on British rule in Egypt, and contributed occasionally to other periodicals. He was a skilful artist. A collection of 140 water-colour drawings by him was presented by his widow to the Royal Engineers Institute at Chatham.
His portrait, painted in oils by Miss Merrick in 1896, and exhibited at the Royal Academy that year, was presented by his widow to the officers of the royal engineers, and now hangs in their mess room at Chatham. A replica is in Lady Malmesbury's possession.
[War Office Records; The Times, 2 Oct. 1907; Royal Engineers Journal, Nov. 1907; Life, by Susan, Countess of Malmesbury, 1909.]
R. H. V.