Drury Lowe

Subject: Drury Lowe Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:27 am

Hi all .
Drury Lowe led the 17th Lancers charge at Ulundi .

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1900-BOER-LT-GEN-SIR-DRURY-DRURY-LOWE-GCB-17TH-LANCERS-/140506125540?pt=Antiquarian_Books_UK&hash=item20b6d154e4

cheers 90th.

Subject: Drury Lowe Wed Feb 23, 2011 3:18 am

Another picture .

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1896-GENERAL-SIR-DRURY-CURZON-DRURY-LOWE-KCB-17-LANCERS-/160540782141?pt=Antiquarian_Books_UK&hash=item2560f9ee3d

cheers 90th.

Subject: Re: Drury Lowe Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:30 pm

"Lieutenant-General Sir Drury Curzon Drury-Lowe GCB (3 January 1830 – 1908)

had a distinguished military career in the 19th century British Army. He was born on 3 January 1830 and educated privately at his home, Locko Park near Spondon in Derbyshire, before gaining a BA at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He joined the 17th Lancers in 1854 as a Cornet. He was commissioned a Lieutenant in November 1854 and Captain in November 1856.
He served in the Crimean War at the Battle of Chernaya River and was at the Siege of Sevastopol when it fell. He also saw service in the Indian Mutiny in 1858–1859. He purchased a commission as Major in 1862, and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1866 - Sometime between 1862 and 1867 he assumed the surname Drury-Lowe in place of Lowe. He commanded the regiment for 12 years - most notably at the Battle of Ulundi the last pitched battle of the Anglo-Zulu War. He was appointed CB in 1879. In the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, he received the surrender of Urabi Pasha. He was publicly thanked in the House of Commons, and knighted on November 18, 1882.
Drury-Lowe was Inspector of Cavalry at Aldershot from 1885 to 1890. He was promoted to Lieutenant-General in 1890. He became Colonel of the 17th Lancers in 1892. He retired in 1895 and was awarded the G.C.B. and then resided at Keydell House, Horndean. He died on April 6, 1908"

years later, and General Drury Lowe was again in the headlines, after he commanded a cavalry division of the 7th Dragoons and three squadrons of Household Cavalry, which had been first to reach Cairo in the 1882 Egyptian War. A local revolt had taken place, and troops were sent to restore order. After victories at Kassassin and Tel El-Kebir, the cavalry was sent under cover of night to reach Cairo. They arrived at about 3a.m. and so surprised the remaining enemy, who were holding the city, that they surrendered immediately.

This is how The Times reported it:

General Drury-Lowe
Yesterday at Woburn Sands, Bedfordshire, an address was presented to General Drury-Lowe, who resides in the neighbourhood by the Duke of Bedford in the name of the inhabitants of the district. The Mayor and Corporation of Bedford and an influential company were present. General Drury-Lowe, in acknowledging the compliment, said that it was due to the gallantry of the troops he had the honour to command, and to some slight regard, which was, perhaps entertained for himself as a neighbour. He was not vain enough to imagine the successes in Egypt were in any way due to and peculiar ability on his part. It was solely and entirely owing to the endurance, the discipline and the thorough devotion to duty of the regiments comprising the expeditionary force, and, he might add, with pride, to the efficiency of the cavalry division under his command. No words of his could describe the gallantry shown by officers and men throughout the whole of the campaign. The charge at Kassassin was a very critical thing, but there was no hesitation, and had the enemy been 10 times their actual number, and been composed of the finest troops in Europe in place of the Egyptians, who were, however, not to be despised, the result would have been the same. He particularly wished to mention the Indian Cavalry, which had throughout exhibited the greatest ability, and maintained their right to ride at the side of their British comrades. The honour and credit of the whole campaign were due to Sir Garnet Wolesley. Before he left the ship in which he sailed from England , he knew that his duty with the cavalry was to get to Cairo ; that was planned by Sir Garnet Wolesley before they left England . General Drury Lowe’s speech was frequently interrupted by cheering. The Duke and Duchess, General Drury-Lowe, Lord Charles Russell and a few other friends were subsequently entertained at luncheon at the vicarage by the Rev J M Hamilton, vicar of the parish.

The following detail of the Egyptian campaign comes from the excellent britishbattles.com:

Egypt in the late 19th Century, ruled by the Khedive, remained a nominal part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Britain and France maintained a substantial interest in the country due to the Suez Canal, in which both countries had invested heavily and which provided the most direct route to their Asian colonies; India and Australia for Britain and Indochina for France. In the 1870s Egypt, through mismanagement and corruption, lurched towards financial collapse and political instability. Britain and France installed a commission to supervise Egypt’s government. In 1881 Colonel Ahmed Arabi Bey, a native Egyptian officer of the Egyptian Army with other Egyptian officers launched a revolt against the Khedive and the British and French. A British naval squadron under Admiral Seymour bombarded the defences of Alexandria Egypt’s main port on the northern coast on 11th July 1882. A British military force assembled under Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet Wolseley to invade Egypt, with the purpose of capturing Cairo and restoring the Khedive as nominal ruler and Anglo-French control of the country.

The leading elements of the British force landed at Alexandria in the second week of August 1882. The aims of the force were to secure the Suez Canal that ran North-South in the East of Egypt and then to march on Cairo, the capital of the country, which the rebels were threatening to destroy in the event of an invasion.

An Anglo-Indian force was sent from India to join the British contingent in the Suez Canal. The landing at Alexandria was a feint. General Wolseley concealed his true plan from everyone except his immediate staff, which was to land at Ismailia, at the Northern end of the Suez Canal and to march West to Cairo, attacking Arabi’s army in its positions at Tel-El-Kebir on the railway and main irrigation canal.

The British contingent landed at Ismailia around 20th August 1882 securing the local barracks and canal facilities, while the Anglo-Indian contingent came up the canal from the Persian Gulf in the South.

At 4am on 24th August 1882 General Wolseley’s army marched out of Ismailia along the line of the railway, moving West towards Cairo, to attack Arabi’s army at the town of Tel-El-Kebir situated on the line of the railway and irrigation canal.

Arabi’s army had in the meanwhile dammed the irrigation canal that ran alongside the railway with the aim of cutting off the water supply to the Anglo-Indian army and the town of Ismailia.

General Graham’s brigade was pushed forward to Kassassin where there was a lock on the irrigation canal. Graham’s brigade formed in position across the railway line and canal.

Late on 24th August 1882 an Egyptian force, comprising guns and infantry, appeared to the North of Graham’s position. Graham engaged them. Seeing that the Egyptians’ flank was exposed, Graham directed Major General Drury-Lowe to attack the Egyptians with the cavalry brigade.

Drury-Lowe lead forward his mounted force comprising a composite regiment of Household Cavalry (a squadron from each of 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards, the ‘Blues’) and 7th Dragoon Guards with 4 guns of N/A Battery, Royal Horse Artillery.

Drury-Lowe was aided in reaching the battle line by the gun flashes in the gathering darkness. The first fire was opened by the Egyptians. DruryLowe engaged them with his guns and then launched the Household Cavalry in a charge. The Egyptian infantry were swept away and their guns abandoned and captured in the ‘Moonlight Charge’ of the Battle of Kassassin.

Informed of this success Graham returned to his positions at Kassassin. General Sir Garnet Wolseley completed the build up of his army around the Kassassin position by 12th September 1882. Arabi’s Egyptian army lay at Tel-El-Kebir some 6 miles distant. Tel-El-Kebir comprised a small town to the South of the line of the canal and the Cairo-Ismailia railway that ran parallel and to the North of the canal.

Over the preceding weeks the Egyptian army of some 20,000 soldiers with 59 guns, some of them modern German Krupp-made weapons, had built a length of entrenchment starting with redoubts at the canal and railway and stretching north some 3 miles to the end of a raised section of ground. A second section of entrenchment covered the Egyptian camp to the rear.

General Wolseley resolved to attack the Egyptian line at dawn, following a night approach march. His army formed up with the 2nd Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Edward Hamley, on the left; the Highland Brigade leading with the second brigade of the Division in reserve immediately to its rear. The 1st Division took the right with Major General Graham’s brigade to the front and the Guards Brigade commanded by the Duke of Connaught, in reserve. The guns, commanded by Colonel Goodenough, advanced in the area between the 2 reserve brigades. The cavalry brigade commanded by Major General Drury-Lowe, augmented to a division by the addition of the Indian regiments, took the right of the army, conforming to the Guards Brigade, its role being to sweep around the Egyptian flank once the infantry had stormed the entrenchments and make for Cairo to prevent the destruction of the Egyptian capital by Arabi’s rebels.

The Indian brigade was to advance along the canal/railway line on the South side, to clear the Egyptian redoubts in that area, and take the town of Tel-El-Kebir, before moving on to the next station up the line, Zag-a-Zig.

The direction of the night-time advance was to be supervised by Lieutenant Rawson, Royal Navy, navigating by the stars from the left flank.

The night march to the entrenchments went surprisingly smoothly, except that the advancing army drifted to its right. Dawn broke with the Highland Brigade within 150 yards of the Egyptian line. A heavy fire immediately broke out. The 4 regiments of the Highland Brigade, led by its commander, Major General Allison, and General Hamley, the Divisional Commander, stormed into the entrenchments, the two centre regiments, the Gordons and Camerons leading. The Black Watch on the right of the brigade found the resistance hard to overcome, until supported by 3rd Battalion the King’s Royal Rifle Corps from the divisional reserve. On the left the Highland Light Infantry were unable to break into the entrenchments until reinforced by the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry from the reserve brigade.

On the right, General Graham’s brigade met heavy resistance but drove the Egyptians from their trenches with the support of guns from the centre.

Following the success of the infantry attack, General Drury-Lowe took his cavalry division in a sweep around the Egyptian left flank and rode down the Egyptian rear towards the bridge crossing the canal into Tel-El-Kebir, accelerating the route of the retreating Egyptian troops.

To the South of the canal, the Seaforth Highlanders attacked the Egyptian redoubt while and 20th Punjabis (Brownlow’s) moved around the Egyptian right flank and stormed a village from which fire was being directed, both battalions supported by 7th Bengal Native Infantry and 29th Bombay Native Infantry.

The Indian brigade then moved into the town of Tel-El-Kebir. The battle was finished with the Egyptian army in rout.

Following the battle the cavalry division secured Cairo on 14th September 1882 and accepted the surrender of Arabi. On 25th September 1882 the Khedive re-entered his capital escorted by British and Indian troops.

Drury Curzon Drury Lowe died in 1908. The Drury Lowe family archives are deposited in the Hallward Library at the University of Nottingham, where a scroll survives that the local dignitaries gave to Major Gen. Drury Lowe to congratulate him.

"To Major General Drury Curson Drury Lowe, C.B. Commander of the cavalry division of the Expeditionary force in Egypt.

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Document images courtesy of the Manuscripts and Special Collections department, at The University of Nottingham. Document reference Dr 2F 13.

"Sir, we, the undersigned inhabitants of Woburn, Aspley Guise, Woburn Sands, Wavendon and Crawley beg leave to offer you our most cordial and respectful congratulations on your return from active service in Egypt.

As English citizens, we rejoice at the decisive and unqualified success which has attended the operations of Her Majesty’s forces.

As you friends and immediate neighbours, we regard with particular satisfaction the distinguished part in those operations which has fallen to your share. The whole campaign, glorious in all its aspects, contained no feature more striking than the march to Cairo made by the Cavalry under your command. Holding that march to be unsurpassed alike in brilliancy of its execution and the importance of its results, we are proud to reflect that your name will be inseparably associated with its renown.

With earnest hope that you and Mrs Drury Lowe may live to enjoy, in health and happiness, the honour which justly belongs to so conspicuous and so memorable an achievement.

We beg to subscribe ourselves, very faithfully yours,"

Bedford

Tavistock

Charles ??? JP

George W. E. Russell MP

H. Willes Southey

J. Andrews

Arthur Lucas

Car??? Parker

James Chadwick Maltby

H. Veasey

B. Lawrence Hawkins

John ???

William Smith

G. Alo???

W. Selby Lownes

C. H. G??? Coote

Wm. ???

??? ???

George Whitman

H??? Pickering

F. ???

C. V. S. Downes

Charles Pole Stuart

James M. Hamilton

W. H. Denison

Thomas Swabey

J. C. Cleghorn

Fred F. Boultbee

James Fred Hobson

Henry Down

Fred. W. Down

James F. Smith

Frederick Parsons

William Whit???

Thomas Hudson

Thomas S. Newman

William Henry Inwood

William Platt

James Wright

George Miller

Joseph Pikesley

Henry Burney

B. S. Budgett

W. Sturgis???

W. H. Smith

Gibson Andrews

A. R. A. Orlebar

J. T. Luttman

G. T. Wilson

John Whitlock

George Castleden

John McKay

H. G. Fisher

George Turney

George B. Clarke

John E. Page

John Collins

??? Sturgis

Richard Sheperd

Fred Tanqureray

Edward Blundell"

Subject: Drury Lowe. Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:41 am

Hi All
Colonel Drury Lowe was struck from his horse , having been hit by a spent Round. He made a brief self - examination and
satisfied he had sustained no serious injury he remounted . Chelmesford said to Lowe , '' Go at them , Lowe, but dont
pursue to far ''. This was at Ulundi . From ' They Fell Like Stones ' by John Young .
cheers 90th.

Subject: Re: Drury Lowe Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:48 am

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Photo by Xhosa2000

Guest

thanks for that Pete.
kind as ever. xhosa

Posts : 615 Join date : 2013-05-07 Location : Brecon

What the above does not tell you is that it was only by a quirk of fate that Drury-Lowe went to South Africa in 1879.

The 17th Lancers were stationed at the Cavalry Barracks, Hounslow when the regiment was ordered to South Africa in February 1879. the then Commanding Officer Colonel Thomas Gonne met with an unfortunate accident - he probably committed suicide. Colonel Drury-Lowe was ordered to rejoined his regiment after retiring on half-pay. The Lancers arrived at Durban in two groups, on 7 April and 12 April 1879, and advanced to Dundee to become part of a cavalry brigade under General Marshall. The rest is history.

Guest

hiya kenny thats right,did not
know he had ' offed himself '
thought i read it was an
accidental discharge with only
a slight wound resulting..but
dont take that for gospel, its
from memory. Suspect

Posts : 747 Join date : 2009-10-18

http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/wsc/docs/1882drurylowe.html

Posts : 747 Join date : 2009-10-18

By Brian Best.

" The 17th (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Lancers were stationed at Hounslow and Hampton Court. They had not seen action since the 1850’s when they were prominently involved in both the Crimean War (1854-56) and the Indian Mutiny (1857-59). They were a tight-knit unit and most of the officers had spent their entire service within the regiment. Their colonel, Thomas Gonne, had met with a recent shooting accident during revolver practice at Hounslow and was seriously injured. In his place, their old colonel, the splendidly named Drury Curzon Drury-Lowe, was recalled from retirement to take over command"

Guest

thank's Mr Greaves Salute

so i wander..
' shot himself in the foot ' on the eve of
active service, seriously injured, or
suicide, i wonder which one is correct?
xhosa

Posts : 615 Join date : 2013-05-07 Location : Brecon

Sorry, I should have checked the facts - according to the Times - Monday 17 February 1879:

The 17th Lancers were on Hounslow Heath (is that now Heathrow airport?) undertaking some musketry practice on Friday 14 February. Col Gonne's revolver accidently went off and the bullet lodged in his thigh. The bullet was later extracted. Col Gonne died in 1886. However Drury-Lowe got the fame.

Guest

kenny, thanks for that. Salute

Posts : 3463 Join date : 2021-01-04

Natal Witness Wednesday 8th June 1881
Fort Amiel June 6th 7.25pm
General Drury-Lowe met with an accident this afternoon whilst visiting Bennett's Drift camp. His horse's forefeet got into an antbear hole and threw and rolled over his rider. The General has just returned here. His ribs and chest are badly hurt, and he is sufering great pain.

June 7th 5.55pm
General Drury-Lowe is progressing favourably. He is confind to bed where he will be for some time to come.

Posts : 1085 Join date : 2009-10-16

Hi All,
Drury-Lowe died 6 April 1908, and is buried at St Mary the Virgin Church, Denby, Derbyshire.
He appears on the findagrave website, there is a photograph of himself but not the grave.
Rai KLH

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