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OBITUARY.
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he was selected by Sir George White to be Deputy Assistant and Quarter- master General . During this campaign he organised and subsequently com- manded the mounted infantry, with which he performed numerous impor- tant services, which obtained for him special recognition in despatches and general orders. He was subsequently appointed Brigadier-General in the China Field force, where he saw much service and greatly distinguished him- self. His next appointment was to the command of the China-Lushai Expedi- tion, 1889-90, and his services were re- cognised by his being made C.B. His period of comparative inactivity was occupied 1890-2 in command of his regiment, and he was next appointed Assistant- Adjutant General for Mus- ketry in Bengal, 1893-5, and daring this period was sent in command of the 2nd Infantry Brigade in General Lockhart's Expedition against the Waziris. After the close of the cam- paign he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General in the SirHind dis- trict. On the breaking out of the frontier troubles in 1897, General Symon8 was first given the command of a brigade in the Tochi Valley, but subsequently when the rising threat- ened a larger tract of country he was placed in command of the First Division of the Terah Expeditionary Force, and for his services on this occasion, which included an expedition into the hitherto unknown Bazas Valley, he was created K.C.B. After the close of the campaign he returned to Umballa, the headquarters of his military district, and there remained until May of the present year when he was summoned to Natal to take pre- cautionary measures in the event of war with the Boers. He at once set himself to organise the Colonial forces
On the 3rd, at Longford Rectory, Derby, aged 81, Rev. Thomas Anchltel j son of Sir George Anson, K.C.B., M.P. Educated at Eton and Jesus College, Cambridge; played in the University Eleven, 1889-42; B.A., 1843; Rector of Billingford, Essex, 1843-50, when he was appointed Rector of Longford. Married, 1846, Jane, daughter of Henry Packe, of Twyford Hall, Norfolk. On the 3rd, at Paris, aged 76, Paul Alexander Rene Janet. Born at Paris; educated at the Lycee St. Louis and the Ecole Normale, 1841-8; Professor of Philosophy at Bourges, 1845-8 ; at Strasburg, 1848-57 ; Professor of Logic at the Lycee le Grand, Paris, 1857-64 ; Professor of the History of Philosophy at the Sorbonne, 1864-97 ; author of numerous philosophical works, of which the aim was to conciliate spiritualism with freedom of scientific research. On the 4th, at Pangbourne, aged 57, John Donaldson, grandson and son of the owners of the mail-coaches in the north of Scotland. Born at Elgin; educated at Aberdeen Grammar School; apprenticed as an engineer at Newcastle and afterwards chief draughtsman to Messrs. Cowan, of Carlisle; returned to Glasgow University to complete his education ; went as Engineer to the Fleet in the Abyssinian Expedition, 1667 ; appointed Chief Mechanical Engineer at Dum Dum Arsenal, 1869 ; tranferred to Public Works Department, India, 1870, to inquire into the coal and iron districts ; returned to England, 1878, and joined Mr. J. Thorny croft as a launch builder,
and to put the defences in good order. He made himself master of the frontiers of Natal, and promptly recog- nised the need of a far larger force than he had at his disposal to make them defensible ; but*with the troops under his command he was able to promise protection against any sudden raid. When a little later it was found necessary to increase the Natal force by 10,000 men, his former chief, Sir George White, was appointed to the chief command in the Colony, but on the breaking out of hostilities, Sir Wm. Symons remained in command at the advanced position of Glencoe, which was to bear the brunt of the first attack of the Boers. The battle, which opened the campaign and was fought on October 20, was forced by Sir Wm. Symons upon the enemy, his plan being to fight the Boers in detail before their other forces arriving by different routes could converge. His bold tactics were supported by his troops, and the Boer position, which seemed well-nigh impregnable, was carried by assault after a prolonged struggle. General Symons, who was in the fore-front of the battle directing and encouraging his men, was shot in the stomach, and from the first his wound was pronounced to be mortal. He however rallied enough to receive by telegram a battlefield promotion for his services; and the bullet was ex- tracted, and hopes were entertained of his recovery. But the position at Dundee had to be evacuated in haste by the British, who were forced to leave their wounded behind them, and it was after the town, which he had done so much to put in a state of defence, had passed into the possession of the Boers that he died, on October 23, and he was buried quietly without military honours in the cemetery of the town.
