Member of Parliament for Chatham
What was the position of Frederick Smith (British Army officer, born 1790) from Mar 1857 to Jul 1865?
Frederick Smith ( British Army officer , born 1790 ) Major-General Sir John Mark Frederick Smith ( 11 January 1790 – 20 November 1874 ) was a British general and colonel-commandant of the Royal Engineers . He was also the Conservative Member of Parliament for Chatham from 1852 to 1853 and 1857 to 1865 . He was a Gentleman Usher and Fellow of the Royal Society . Life . He was son of Major-general Sir John Frederick Sigismund Smith , K.C.H. , of the Royal Artillery ( died 1834 ) , and grand-nephew of Field-marshal Friedrich Adolf , Count von Kalckreuth , commander-in-chief of the Prussian army . He was born at the Manor House , Paddington , Middlesex , on 11 January 1790 . After passing through the Royal Military College , then at Great Marlow , and the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich , Smith received a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 1 December 1805 , and in January 1806 joined his corps at Chatham . In 1807 Smith went to Sicily . He served in 1809 under Major-general Sir Alexander Bryce , the commanding Royal Engineer of the force of Sir John Stuart , at the siege and capture of the castle of Ischia and at the capture of Procida in the Bay of Naples . He also took part , in the same year , in the capture of the islands of Zante and Kephalonia under Major-General Frederick Rennell Thackeray , commanding Royal Engineer of the force of Sir John Oswald . Smith was deputy-assistant quartermaster-general and senior officer of the quartermaster-generals department under Sir Hudson Lowe in 1810 , in the battle before Santa Maura . He resigned his staff appointment in order to serve as an engineer officer in the trenches during the siege of Santa Maura under Oswald , the only engineer officer in addition to Thackeray and himself , Captain Parker having been wounded . The deficiency of engineer officers threw on Smith most of the executive work of the siege . He was mentioned in Sir John Oswalds despatches , and some years afterwards an effort was unsuccessfully made to get him a brevet majority for his services at Santa Maura . Smith was promoted to be second captain on 1 May 1811 . He served in Albania and in Sicily , and in 1812 returned to England to take up the appointment of adjutant to the corps of the Royal Sappers and Miners at their headquarters at Woolwich on 1 December . He held this appointment until 26 February 1815 . He was promoted to be first captain on 26 August 1817 , and in 1819 , on the reduction of the corps of Royal Engineers , was placed on half-pay for seven months . During the next ten years Smith was employed on various military duties in England . He was promoted to be regimental lieutenant-colonel on 16 March 1830 , and was appointed commanding royal engineer of the London district . In 1831 he was made a knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order by William IV , a Knight Bachelor on 13 September of the same year , an extra gentleman usher of the privy chamber in 1833 , and on 17 March 1834 one of the ordinary gentlemen ushers . The last post he held until his death . On 2 December 1840 he was also appointed inspector-general of railways , in which capacity he examined and reported on the London and Birmingham Railway and the other principal railways before they were opened to the public . In 1841 Smith , in conjunction with Professor Peter Barlow , made a report to the treasury respecting railway communication between London , Edinburgh , and Glasgow . Smith resigned the appointment of inspector-general of railways at the end of 1841 , and became director of the Royal Engineer establishment at Chatham on 1 January 1842 . On 5 July 1845 Smith and Professors George Airy and Barlow were constituted a commission to inquire whether future parliamentary railway bills should provide for a uniform rail gauge , and whether it would be expedient or practicable to bring railways already constructed or in course of construction into uniformity of gauge . On 30 March 1846 he was appointed one of the five commissioners to investigate and report upon the various railway projects in which it was proposed to have a terminus in the metropolis or its vicinity . On 9 November 1846 Smith was promoted to be colonel in the army , and on 1 May 1851 he was moved from Chatham to be commanding Royal Engineer of the southern district , with his headquarters at Portsmouth . In July 1852 Smith was returned to parliament as member for Chatham in the Conservative interest , but in March 1853 he was unseated on petition . He was promoted to be major-general on 20 January 1854 . In 1855 he was transferred from Portsmouth to the command of the Royal Engineers at Aldershot . He was appointed public examiner and inspector of the East India Companys Military Seminary at Addiscombe in 1856 . In March 1857 he was again returned to parliament as member for Chatham . He resigned his command at Aldershot , finding his time fully occupied with parliamentary and other duties . He was a member of the royal commission on harbours of refuge in 1858 , and of the commission on promotion and retirement in the army . He was again returned as member for Chatham at the election of April 1859 , and continued to sit for that borough until 1868 . He was promoted to be lieutenant-general on 25 October 1859 , colonel-commandant of Royal Engineers on 6 July 1860 , and general on 3 August 1863 . Smith died on 20 November 1874 at his residence , 62 Pembridge Villas , Notting Hill Gate , London , and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery . He was a Fellow of the Royal Society , an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers , and a member of many learned bodies . Works . Smith was the author of ‘The Military Course of Engineering at Arras,’ Chatham , 1850 , and he translated , with notes , Marshal Marmonts ‘Present State of the Turkish Empire,’ London , 1839 ; 2nd ed . 1854 . Family . Smith married at Buckland , near Dover , on 31 January 1813 , Harriet , daughter of Thomas Thorn , of Buckland House . There was no issue . References . - Attribution