# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Borton, Arthur

​BORTON, Sir ARTHUR (1814–1893), general and governor of Malta, youngest son of John Drew Borton, rector of Blofield, Norfolk, and of his wife Louisa, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Carthew of Woodbrldge, Suffolk, was born on 20 Jan. 1814 at Blofield. Educated at Eton, he received a commission as ensign in the 9th, or East Norfolk, regiment of foot on 13 July 1832; he became ​lieutenant-colonel 10 June 1853, colonel 28 Nov. 1854, major-general 1 Jan. 1868, lieutenant-general 19 Oct. 1875, colonel of the 1st battalion of the West India regiment 22 May 1876, general 4 Dec. 1877, and was transferred to the colonelcy of the Norfolk regiment 17 Oct. 1889.
Borton joined his regiment in Ireland, and accompanied it to the Mauritius in 1833, and on to India in 1835. He came home in 1838 to study in the senior department of the Royal Military College, and obtained a certificate in November 1839. After his return to India he served with his regiment in the campaign in Afghanistan under Major-general (afterwards Field Marshal Sir) George Pollock [q. v.] in 1842; he took part in forcing the Khaibar pass on 5 April, when the 9th foot was broken into detachments which had the honour of leading the columns of attack; he was also engaged in the victory over Muhammad Akbar Khan at the Tezin pass and the Haft Kotal on 13 Sept., when Borton, at the head of a party of the 9th foot, made a gallant charge. After the arrival of the force at Kabul on 15 Sept. he accompanied the column under Major-general John McCaskill into Kohistan, and took part in the assault and capture of the strongly fortified town of Istalif on 29 Sept. Borton returned to India in October with his regiment, which formed part of the rearguard, and experienced some fighting in the passes. He received the medal for the campaign.
He served with his regiment in the fifth brigade of the third infantry division in the Satlaj campaign of 1845–6, and was present at the battle of Mudki on 18 Dec. 1845, and at the battle of Firozshah on 21 and 22 Dec. In this battle he succeeded to the command of his regiment when Lieutenant-colonel A. B. Taylor was killed, and was himself very severely wounded in the right elbow, and never recovered the complete use of his arm. For his services in this campaign he received the medal and clasp, the brevet of major, and a pension for his wound.
The 9th foot returned home in 1847, and Borton did duty with the regiment at Winchester till the end of 1848, and during the next six years at various stations in Ireland, succeeding to the command on 10 June 1853. He embarked with the regiment for Malta on 18 Feb. 1854, and went on with it to the Crimea on 19 Nov., where he commanded it at the siege of Sebastopol from 27 Nov. to the end of the war with Russia. He led the regiment in the assault on the Redan by the column under Major-general Eyre on 18 June, and was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 4 July 1855). For his services on this occasion he was promoted to be colonel in the army on 17 July, and made a companion of the order of the Bath, military division, on 27 July. At the close of the war he received the British war medal with one clasp, the Turkish medal, the Turkish order of the Medjidie, 3rd class, and the French Legion of Honour, 5th class. He was also awarded a good service pension.
From the Crimea Borton took his regiment to Canada in 1856, and brought it home in November of the following year, when he was stationed at Shorncliffe. On 1 March 1865 he was appointed a colonel on the staff to command the troops at Colchester. On 1 April 1866 he was given the command of the infantry brigade at the Curragh, Ireland, with the rank of brigadier-general, until his promotion to be major-general on 1 Jan. 1868.
On 9 Sept. 1870 he was appointed to the command of the Maisur division of the Madras army, which he held for five years. He was promoted to be knight commander of the order of the Bath, military division, on 2 June 1877, and on 13 May of the following year was appointed governor and commander-in-chief at Malta. He was made a knight grand cross of the order of St. Michael and St. George on 28 May 1880, and on relinquishing the government of Malta was promoted G.C.B., 24 May 1884. Borton died, on 7 Sept. 1893, at his residence, 105 Eaton Place, London, and was buried on 9 Sept. at Hunton, near Maidstone, Kent. He married, on 9 April 1850, at Drumbanagher, co. Armagh, Caroline Mary Georgina (who survived him), daughter of the Rev. John Forbes Close, rector of Morne, co. Down, and of his first wife, Mary Sophia Brownlow, sister of the first Lord Lurgan. He left two sons: (1) Arthur Close, lieutenant-colonel 13th Somerset (Prince Albert's) light infantry; (2) Charles Edward, major 9th Norfolk regiment, who served in the Afghan war of 1879–80.
A fine portrait in oils of Sir Arthur Borton by Herman Herkomer of William Street, London, is in possession of Lady Borton at 105 Eaton Place, and a copy in smaller size by Miss Herkomer was presented by Lady Borton to the depôt of the Norfolk regiment at Norwich.
[Despatches; obituary notices in Times, 8 Sept. 1893, and Admiralty and Horse Guards' Gazette, 9 and 16 Sept. 1893, with portrait; Cannon's Hist. Records of the Ninth or East Norfolk Regiment of Foot; Gough's The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars; private sources.]
R. H. V.