Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Biddulph, Robert
BIDDULPH, Sir ROBERT (1835—1918), general, was born in London 26 August 1835, the second son of Robert Biddulph, M.P., J.P., of Ledbury, Herefordshire, by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of the philanthropist, George Palmer, M.P. [q.v.], of Nazing Park, Essex. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1850, and passed into the Royal Artillery in 1853. In the following year he went to the Crimea and was engaged in the battles of Alma and Balaclava and the siege of Sebastopol. In the Indian Mutiny Biddulph was on the staff of Sir Colin Campbell as brigade major during the siege and capture of Lucknow. At this period he first met Garnet (afterwards Viscount) Wolseley, with whom he formed a life-long friendship. After Lucknow he joined the staff of Sir James Hope Grant [q.v.] as deputy assistant adjutant-general, Oudh field force, and, with the rank of captain, accompanied his chief to China in 1860. He was engaged in all the actions of the campaign which terminated in the fall of Peking. He subsequently returned to India, and was promoted major in 1861 and three years later lieutenant-colonel.
Biddulph returned to England in 1865 and served as assistant boundary commissioner for the Reform Act (1867). In 1871 he was summoned from the staff at Woolwich to be private secretary to Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Cardwell, secretary of state for war, in which post he had much to do with the introduction of the ‘modern system’ of army organization. He had previously thought deeply upon the question of army reform, and his chief, who recognized his exceptional qualities, appointed him assistant adjutant-general at the War Office, where he remained until 1878, having been promoted colonel in 1872. In 1878 he was selected for special service in Cyprus under Sir Garnet Wolseley, and in the following year he went to Constantinople as commissioner to arrange the financial details under the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1878. On Wolseley’s departure for South Africa a few months later, Biddulph succeeded him as high commissioner and commander-in-chief in Cyprus, where his main activities included the reformation of the currency, reorganization of the administration of justice, revision of taxation, the destruction of the locust scourge, and the construction of public works. In 1883 he was promoted major-general. He was very much respected and liked by the inhabitants of Cyprus, and the home government offered him a higher appointment in Natal; but, for family reasons, he was obliged to decline the post, and came home in 1886 in order to take up the post of inspector-general of recruiting. He was made lieutenant-general in the following year and general in 1892.
In 1893, having in the meanwhile filled the posts of director-general of military education (1888-1893) and quartermaster-general (January 1893), Biddulph was appointed governor and commander-in-chief at Gibraltar, where he remained nearly seven years. Here he again turned his mind to currency reform, and was also responsible for the re-arming of the fortress and the construction of new harbour and dockyard works. He returned to England in 1900, and later was president of the court set up to inquire into the supply of remounts during the Boer War. In 1904, the year in which he published Lord Cardwell at the War Office, he was appointed army purchase commissioner. He was the last person to hold that office, and it fell to him to complete one of Cardwell’s great reforms, the abolition of the purchase of commissions. In 1914 he succeeded Lord Roberts as master gunner of St. James’s Park. He died in London 18 November 1918. His career was connected principally with administration, but his military qualities were also very considerable. Throughout his life he was guided by strong religious principles. He was created K.C.M.G. (1880), G.C.M.G. (1886), and G.C.B. (1899). He married in 1864 Sophia (died 1905), daughter of the Rev. Anthony Lewis Lambert, rector of Chilbolton, Hampshire, and widow of Richard Stuart Palmer, of Calcutta. They had four sons and six daughters.
[The Times, 20 November 1918; private information.]