George Stuart White (6 July 1835-24 June 1912) was a British Army Field Marshal who served as Commander-in-Chief, India from 1893 to 1898, succeeding Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts and preceding Charles Edward Nairne.
Biography[]
George Stuart White was born in Portstewart, County Londonderry, Ireland on 6 July 1835 to an Anglo-Irish family, and he joined the British Army in 1853 and was sent to India a year later. White was stationed in Peshawar at the time of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, and he was promoted to Captain in 1863 and to Major that December. In 1875, he was given a battalion command, and he fought at the Battle of Charasiab in 1879 and the Battle of Kandahar in 1880 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, earning himself the Victoria Cross for his bravery. White was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1881 and to Colonel in 1885, and he was given command of a brigade in the Madras Army and served in the Third Anglo-Burmese War that same year. In 1889, he was given command of the Quetta District and fought in the Zhob Valley and Balochistan. In 1893, he was named Commander-in-Chief in British India, and he was promoted to Lieutenant-General. In September 1899, he was transferred to Natal, serving in the Siege of Ladysmith during the Second Boer War. He rejected Redvers Buller's orders to surrender, insisting, "I hold Ladysmith for the Queen", and he was reassigned to serve as Governor of Gibraltar after the siege was lifted, as he had fallen into poor health. He was promoted to Field Marshal in 1903, and, in 1905, he left Gibraltar to serve as Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea until his death there in 1912.
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