Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/292

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museum of various objects collected by its several detachments, and in this way Lord Greenock was led to take an interest in a subject to which he ever afterwards devoted much of his attention. Leaving Hythe on 22 July 1830, he took up his residence in Edinburgh, and for some years was occupied in scientific pursuits. He attended lectures in the university, took an active concern in the proceedings of the Highland Society, and was a member of the Royal Society, to which he read several papers, which were published in its ‘Transactions.’ In 1841 he discovered a new mineral, a sulphate of cadmium, which was found in excavating the Bishopton tunnel near Port Glasgow, and which received after him the name of Greenockite. It is a beautiful substance that was entirely new to mineralogists. He held the appointments of commander of the forces in Scotland and governor of Edinburgh Castle from 17 Feb. 1837 to 1 April 1842, and on 17 June in the following year succeeded his father as second earl and eleventh baron Cathcart. He was commander-in-chief in British North America from 16 March 1846 to 1 Oct. 1849, during very difficult times, and for some period combined with the military command the civil government of Canada. On his return to England he was appointed to the command of the northern and midland district, and the resignation of this post in 1854 brought to a conclusion his active services. He was colonel of the 11th hussars, 1842–7, of the 3rd dragoon guards, 1847–51, of the 1st dragoon guards, 1851 to his decease, and a general in the army, 20 June 1854. Among other honours, he was created a K.C.B. on 19 July 1838, and a G.C.B. 21 June 1859. In 1858 his constitution gave way, and he died at St. Leonard's-on-Sea on 16 July 1859, very peacefully, and in the full possession of his faculties. He was a man of powerful mind, which was improved by great industry and perseverance, and he had a kindly and generous heart, which threw a sunshine around the circle of his domestic life. He married in France on 30 Sept. 1818, and at Portsea on 12 Feb. 1819, Henrietta, second daughter of Thomas Mather. She died on 24 June 1872. He was the writer of two papers in the ‘Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’ in 1836, ‘On the Phenomena in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh of the Igneous Rocks in their relation to the Secondary Strata,’ and ‘The Coal Formation of the Scottish Lowlands.’

[Proceedings Royal Society of Edinburgh (1862), iv. 222–4; Gent. Mag. new ser. vii. (1859), 306–7.]

G. C. B.

CATHCART, DAVID, Lord Alloway (d. 1829), lord of session, was the son of Edward Cathcart of Greenfield, Ayrshire, and passed advocate at the Scottish bar on 16 July 1785. He was promoted to the bench as an ordinary lord of session on 8 June 1813, on the resignation of Sir William Honyman, bart., the title he assumed being that of Lord Alloway. On the resignation of Lord Hermand, in 1826, he was also appointed a lord of justiciary. He died at his seat, Blairston, near Ayr, on 27 April 1829.

[Haig and Brunton's Senators of the College of Justice.]

T. F. H.

CATHCART, Sir GEORGE (1794–1854), general, third surviving son of Sir William Schaw Cathcart, first earl Cathcart [q. v.], was born on 12 May 1794. He received his first commission as a cornet in the 2nd life guards on 10 May 1810, and was promoted lieutenant into the 6th dragoon guards or carabiniers on 1 July 1811. In 1813 he succeeded his elder brother as aide-de-camp and private secretary to his father on his embassy to Russia, when Lord Cathcart was at once ambassador to the czar and military commissioner with the Russian army. As aide-de-camp Cathcart was constantly employed in carrying despatches from his father to the various English officers with the different Russian armies [see Campbell, Sir Neil; Lowe, Sir Hudson; and Wilson, Sir Robert]. He was present at all the chief battles in 1813, was the first to raise Moreau from the ground when he received his mortal wound at the battle of Dresden, and entered Paris with the allied armies on 31 March 1814. He was aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington in 1815 at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and in Paris until 1818. He was then promoted to a company in the 1st West India regiment without purchase, and at once exchanged into the 7th hussars, of which he became lieutenant-colonel in May 1826. In 1828 he exchanged to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 57th regiment, in 1830 to that of the 8th hussars, and in 1838 to that of the 1st dragoon guards, and was promoted colonel on 23 Nov. 1841. In 1846 he gave up the command of this regiment, and took up the appointment of deputy-lieutenant of the Tower of London, where he resided until his promotion to the rank of major-general on 11 Nov. 1851. Cathcart was quite unknown to the general public, except from his excellent ‘Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813,’ published in 1850, and his appointment to succeed Major-general Sir Harry Smith as governor and commander-in-chief at the Cape was received with surprise