# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Henderson, George Francis Robert

​HENDERSON, GEORGE FRANCIS ROBERT (1854–1903), colonel and military writer, born on 2 June 1854 at St. Helier, Jersey, was eldest son of William George Henderson, afterwards dean of Carlisle [q. v. Suppl. II], by Jane Melville, daughter of John Dalyell of Lingo, Fife. Henderson was educated at Leeds grammar school while his father was headmaster, became head of the school, was captain of the cricket eleven and a good amateur actor. In 1873 he gained a history scholarship at St. John's College, Oxford, and an exhibition from his school, but did not graduate. In November 1876 he entered Sandhurst, being fourth in the list, and was also captain of the cricket eleven there.
On 1 May 1878 he was commissioned as second-lieutenant in the York and Lancaster regiment, and joined the first battalion (65th) at Dinapore. On promotion to lieutenant on 24 June 1879, he passed to the second battalion (84th); and after serving at Dover and in Ireland, he went with it to Egypt, where it formed part of Graham's brigade. In 1882 he was engaged at Magfar and Tercel-Maskhuta, and commanded a company at Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir. He received the medal with clasp, the bronze star and Medjidie (5th class), and on General Graham's recommendation he obtained a brevet majority on his promotion to captain on 2 June 1886. In 1883 he went with his battalion to Bermuda, and thence to Halifax, Nova Scotia, visiting Virginia to examine the battlefields of the American civil war. In January 1885 he joined the ordnance store department, and served in it five years, being stationed at Woolwich, Edinburgh, Fort George, and Gibraltar. During this time he was at work on the history of the American civil war and the Franco-Prussian war. In 1886 he published anonymously 'The Campaign of Fredericksburg' (3rd edit. 1891), which attracted the notice of Lord Wolseley, and led to Henderson's appointment in January 1890 as instructor at Sandhurst, at first in military topography, but afterwards in tactics and adininistration. In 1891 he published 'The Battle of Spicheren,' a masterly study in its breadth and minuteness. From 17 Dec. 1892 to 22 Dec. 1899 he was professor of military art and history at the Staff College, where 'he exercised by his lectures and his personality an influence upon the younger generation of the officers of the British army for which it would be difficult to find a parallel nearer home than that of Moltke in Prussia' (The Times, 7 March 1903). The publication in 1898 of 'Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War' (2 vols. 3rd edit. 1902) placed him in the first rank of military historians. Lord Wolseley wrote a preface for the second edition. Lord Roberts stated that it helped to shape his plans for the campaign in South Africa.
He embarked for the Cape with Lord Roberts on 23 Dec. 1899. He left the York and Lancaster regiment, in which he had become major on 10 Nov. 1897, and was made substantive lieutenant-colonel. On 10 Jan. 1900 he was appointed director of military intelligence with the local rank of colonel. Maps were much needed: in the post office at Capetown he discovered some hundreds of maps of the Transvaal, intended for the Boer government, and he prepared maps of the Free State. He accompanied Roberts to the Modder camp, and witnessed the beginning of the turning movement against Cronje; then his health failed, and he went home. He was ​mentioned in the despatch of 31 March, and was made C.B. on 29 Nov.
He was placed on the staff of the war office on 29 Aug. 1900 as an assistant adjutant-general, to write the history of the war; but he was employed first on revision of the infantry drill-book. In the autumn of 1901 he went to South Africa to examine the battlefields, but he worked too hard and broke down again. He returned to England in February 1902, and at the end of that year he was sent to Egypt for the winter. He died at Assouan on 5 March 1903, and was buried in the Roman catholic cemetery at Cairo, where there is a memorial to him. In 1883 he married Mary, daughter of Pierce Joyce of Galway, who survived him. She received a civil list pension of 100l. in 1904. They had no children.
Henderson had rare gifts as a military historian. He meant the history of the South African war to be a great picture, not a cold catalogue of facts. He had completed the first volume, on the antecedents of the war; but after his death it was decided that the history should be confined to the military contest, and what he wrote was not published.
The following articles in the 'Edinburgh Review' were Henderson's:
* 'The American Civil War,' April 1891.
* 'Clarke's Fortification,' October 1891.
* 'Von Moltke's Campaign in Bohemia,' April 1894.
* 'Lord Wolseley's "Marlborough,"' October 1894.
* 'Army Organisation,' January 1896.
* 'National Defence,' April 1897.
* 'The War in South Africa,' January 1900.
He published a translation of Verdy du Vemois' study of the battle of Custozza in 1894, and an original study of the battle of Worth in 1899. He wrote a preface to Count Sternberg's 'Experiences of the Boer War' (1901) in which he dealt with foreign criticism; and he contributed articles on war, strategy and tactics to the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' (10th edit.). He also wrote in 'The Times' on manoeuvres. He was a frequent lecturer at the United Service Institution and before the military societies of Aldershot and Ireland. Some of these lectures have been reprinted with other of his papers in 'The Science of War,' 1905, with a prefatory memoir by Lord Roberts, who writes of Henderson's 'most fascinating personality,' his gifts as a lecturer and a writer, and his value as a staff officer.
[In addition to the above memoir. The Times, 7 March 1903; Spectator, 14 March 1903; the Leodiensian (school journal), April 1903; private information.]
E. M. L.