Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stannus, Ephraim Gerrish
STANNUS, Sir EPHRAIM GERRISH (1784–1850), major-general, born in 1784, was second son of Ephraim Stannus of Comus, co. Tyrone, by Susannah, daughter of Joseph Gerrish of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He went out to India as a cadet in 1799, was commissioned as an ensign in the Bombay army on 6 March 1800, became lieutenant on 26 May, and was appointed to the European regiment (now 2nd battalion royal Dublin fusiliers) in 1803. He served in the Kathiawar campaign in 1807, and became captain on 6 July 1811.
He distinguished himself in the Pindari war of 1817–18, was promoted major on 8 Oct. 1818, and was private secretary to Mountstuart Elphinstone while governor of Madras (1819–27). He was made lieutenant-colonel of the 9th native infantry on 31 Oct. 1822, C.B. on 23 July 1823, and colonel of the 10th native infantry on 5 June 1829. From 1823 to 1826 he was first British resident in the Persian Gulf. From this he was transferred to the 2nd European regiment (now 2nd battalion Durham light infantry). On 13 March 1834 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the East India College, Addiscombe, and he was knighted in 1837. He was promoted major-general (local) on 28 June 1838. Though just and kindly, he was no administrator, and was systematically irritated by the cadets into extraordinary explosions of wrath and violent language. During the latter years of his rule at Addiscombe the discipline seems to have got very slack (cf. ‘Addiscombe’ in Blackwood's Mag. May 1893); he remained there until his death on 21 Oct. 1850. On 16 Oct. 1829 he married Mary Louisa, widow of James Gordon. He had no children.
[Gent. Mag. 1850, ii. 659; Vibart's Addiscombe, 1894, chap. iv. (with portrait); Burke's Landed Gentry; Royal Engineers' Journal, January 1893.]