Charles Ash Windham

{{Short description|British Army officer and politician (1810–1870)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = General | name = Sir Charles Ash Windham | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB}} | image = Major General Charles Ashe (sic) Windham LCCN2002695390 (cropped).jpg | caption = Charles Ash Windham, 1855 | birth_date = 10 October 1810 | death_date = 1870 | burial_label = | burial_place = Hanwell cemetery | birth_place = Felbrigg, Norfolk | death_place = Jacksonville, Florida | burial_coordinates =  | nickname = | allegiance = {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom | branch = 23px British Army | service_years = | rank = General | unit = | commands = | battles = Crimean War | awards = | relations = | other_work = }} General '''Sir Charles Ash Windham''' (10 October 1810 – 2 February 1870) was a British Army officer and Liberal Party politician.

==Biography== thumb|Portrait of Windham as a captain in 1833 Educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Windham was commissioned as an ensign in the Coldstream Guards on 30 December 1826.<ref name=dcb>{{cite DCB |last1=Preston|first1=Richard A.|title=Windham, Sir Charles Ash|url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/windham_charles_ash_9E.html|volume=9|accessdate=30 August 2015}}</ref> Windham married Marianne Catherine Emily Beresford, daughter of Admiral Sir John Beresford, 1st Baronet, on 1 March 1849.

He led the charge on the Great Redan to the south of the Malakoff redoubt at Sevastopol on 8 September 1855 during the Battle of the Great Redan in the Crimean War. William Howard Russell, the correspondent of The Times, claimed that in doing so Windham had "saved the honour of the army."<ref name=dcb/> He also fought in the Second Battle of Cawnpore during the Indian Rebellion.<ref name=dcb/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Windham |first=Sir Charles Ash |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3N3uhfswSFYC&dq=info:x5jJ-ILM0VEJ:scholar.google.com/&pg=PA1 |title=The Crimean Diary and Letters of Lieut.-General Sir Charles Ash Windham, K.C.B.: With Operations Upon His Services During the Indian Mutiny and an Introduction by Sir William Howard Russell |date=1897 |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner |language=en}}</ref>

The Windham family were lords of the manor of Metton, Norfolk. Windham became a Member of Parliament (MP) for East Norfolk and held the seat from 1857 to 1859.<ref>{{rayment-hc|n|2|date=June 2014}}</ref>

Promoted to lieutenant-general on 5 February 1866, he became Commander of the British Troops in Canada in October 1867.<ref name=dcb/>

Windham died in Florida, was interred temporarily in Montreal and finally buried in Hanwell cemetery, Middlesex, England.<ref name=dcb/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZlQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA209 |title=Obituary: Sir Charles Ash Windham |year=1870 |publisher= The Illustrated London News, Volume 56}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite DNB|wstitle=Windham, Charles Ash|volume=62}} * ''Charles Ashe Windham: A Norfolk Soldier (1810-1870)'' by H.O. Mansfield. Terence Dalton Publishing, 1973 * [https://archive.org/stream/crimeandiaryand00windgoog#page/n11/mode/2up The Crimean diary and letters of Lieut.-General Sir Charles Ash Windham, K.C.B.: with observations upon his services during the Indian mutiny, and an introduction by Sir William Howard Russell; the whole edited by Hugh Pearse] (1897)

==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Charles Ash Windham}} * {{Hansard-contribs | general-charles-windham | General Charles Windham}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef | before = Sir Henry Stracey, Bt | before2 = Henry Burroughes }} {{s-title | title = Member of Parliament for East Norfolk | years = 1857–1859 | with = Sir Edward Buxton, Bt 1857–58 | with2 = Hon. Wenman Coke }} {{s-aft | after = Wenman Coke | after2 = Edward Howes }} {{s-mil}} {{succession box|title=Commander of the British Troops in Canada|years=1867–1870|before=Sir John Michel|after=Sir Charles Doyle}} {{s-end}} {{Windham family tree}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Windham, Charles Ash}} Category:1810 births Category:1870 deaths Category:British Army personnel of the Crimean War Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1857–1859 Category:British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Category:People from Felbrigg Charles Ash Category:British Army generals Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath