Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/291

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Lindsay
285
Lindsay

James. He also left in manuscript ‘Anecdotes of a Soldier's Life.’ A selection from his correspondence during the Maroon war is published in the appendix to Lord Lindsay's ‘Lives of the Lindsays.’

[Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 174–175; Burke's Peerage; Lord Lindsay's Lives of the Lindsays.]

T. F. H.

LINDSAY, Sir ALEXANDER (1785–1872), general, colonel-commandant royal (late Bengal) artillery, son of James Lindsay, was born in 1785, and at the age of nine received an ensigncy in the old 104th (royal Manchester volunteers) regiment of foot, in which he became lieutenant in 1795. The regiment was disbanded in the same year, and Lindsay remained on half-pay as a reduced officer to the end of his long life. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and passed out in 1803, as a cadet for the Bengal artillery, and received his first Indian commission as first lieutenant (on augmentation) 14 Aug. 1804. He became captain on 26 March 1813, major on 30 June 1820, lieutenant-colonel on 1 May 1824, colonel and colonel-commandant on 2 July 1835. He served with the Bengal foot artillery at the siege of Gohud in 1806; at the sieges of Komanur and Gunnowrie and other affairs in Bundelkund in 1807–8. While with the Dinapore division of Ochterlony's army in the Nepâl campaigns of 1814–16, he was very severely wounded at the siege of Harriarpore in 1816, a musket-ball shattering the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, and entering the right hip-joint. He took part, however, in the siege of Hattras in March 1817, and in the operations against the Pindarrees in 1817–18. He was subsequently superintendent of telegraphs between Calcutta and Chunar, and agent for the manufacture of gunpowder at Allahabad, until disqualified by promotion. He commanded the artillery of General Morrison's division engaged in Arracan during the first Burmese war. He became a major-general in 1838, lieutenant-general in 1851, general in 1859, was transferred to the royal army as a colonel-commandant with the Bengal artillery in 1860, and was made K.C.B. in 1862. He had the East Indian Company's war medal, with clasps, for Nepâl and Ava. Lindsay married in 1820 the daughter of Captain Donald Mackenzie of Hartfield, Applecross, Ross-shire; she died in 1863. Lindsay died at Earlybank, Perth, on 22 Jan. 1872, aged 87.

[Dod's Knightage, 1871; English and Indian Army Lists; Stubbs's Hist. Bengal Artillery (London, 1877), vols. i. ii. chaps. ix. x. xi. xii.; information supplied by the India Office.]

H. M. C.

LINDSAY, Sir ALEXANDER WILLIAM CRAWFORD, twenty-fifth Earl of Crawford and eighth Earl of Balcarres (1812–1880), was born at Muncaster Castle, Cumberland, on 16 Oct. 1812. He was eldest son of James Crawford, earl of Crawford and Balcarres, by Maria Margaret Francis Pennington, daughter of John, first baron Muncaster. He was educated at Eton, where he began his career as a book collector, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was created M.A. in 1833. He spent his life in studious pursuits, in the collection of a magnificent library, and in travel. He became learned in genealogy and history, and when his father laid claim in 1845 to the earldom of Crawford, which was decided in his favour in 1848, Lord Lindsay assisted in preparing the case. In 1850 he assisted in prosecuting the family claim to the dukedom of Montrose, which was, however, not admitted. On 15 Sept. 1869 he succeeded to the earldoms of Crawford and Balcarres. Through life he was sincerely religious, and he devoted his last years to the study of religious history; his sympathy with its artistic side resulted in his best work, ‘Sketches of the History of Christian Art.’ Crawford's health was not good, and in November 1879 he visited Egypt. The following April he removed to Florence, where he died 13 Dec. 1880. His body was buried in the family vault at Dunecht, Aberdeenshire. On 2 Dec. 1881 it was found that the tomb had been broken open and the corpse stolen. The affair created considerable excitement, and in March 1882 a party of spiritualists unsuccessfully attempted to solve the mystery. On 18 July 1882 the body was found near the rifled tomb by the confession of Charles Suter or Soutar, who was arrested and sentenced to five years' penal servitude as an accessory. It was conveyed to Haigh Hall, near Wigan, Lancashire, and reinterred there. The earl married, 23 July 1846, Margaret, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-general James Lindsay of Balcarres (1793–1855), who was grandson of James, fifth earl of Balcarres. By her he had James Ludovic, the present earl, and five daughters.

The Crawford library, which the earl took many years in bringing together, was housed at Haigh Hall, but at the time of his death he was constructing for it a new building at Dunecht. He endeavoured to make it representative of the literatures of all nations. He always tried to procure the first and the best editions of a book. Much of the cataloguing he did himself. Where he was unable to understand the language, he often had abstracts prepared for his use