{{Short description|British Army general}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} {{Use British English|date=March 2012}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Lieutenant-General The Right Honourable | name = Sir Henry Storks | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|GCMG}} | image = File:Henry Knight Storks.jpg | image_size = | caption = Storks in 1836 | birth_date = 5 April 1811 | death_date = 6 September 1874 (aged 63) | burial_label = | burial_place = | birth_place = | death_place = | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = | allegiance = {{UK}} | branch = 23px British Army | service_years = 1828 – 1874 | rank = Lieutenant-General | unit = | commands = | battles = | awards = {{plainlist| *Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath *Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George }} | relations = | other_work = }} Lieutenant-General '''Sir Henry Knight Storks''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|GCB|GCMG|PC|sep=,|size=100}} (5 April 1811 – 6 September 1874) was a British soldier and colonial governor.
==Military career== Educated at Charterhouse School, he entered the Army on 10 January 1828 as an ensign of the 61st Regiment of Foot.<ref name=qrs>{{Cite web |url=http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/colonels/072.html |title=Queen's Royal Surreys |access-date=30 August 2006 |archive-date=18 December 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051218023001/http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/colonels/072.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was promoted lieutenant on 2 March 1832, exchanged to the 14th Regiment of Foot on 23 March 1832 and was promoted captain on 30 October 1835. Exchanging to the 38th Regiment of Foot on 30 May 1836, he served with them in the Ionian Islands in 1840 and was promoted major on 7 August 1840.<ref name=qrs/>
He went on half pay from the regiment on 23 May 1845 and served in a variety of staff posts. He served as an Assistant Adjutant General during the seventh of the Cape Frontier Wars from 1846 to 1847, and was subsequently promoted to an unattached lieutenant colonelcy on 15 September 1848. From 1849 to 1854, he was Assistant Military Secretary at Mauritius, and was promoted colonel on 28 November 1854.<ref name=qrs/>
Promoted major-general, Storks superintended the British bases set up in Ottoman territory during the Crimean War, where he supported the nursing efforts of Florence Nightingale. After the war, he was awarded the KCB (2 January 1857) and employed from 1857 to 1859 by the War Office as Secretary for Military Correspondence.<ref name=qrs/>
He now began his career in colonial government, appointed Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands on 2 February 1859.<ref name=qrs/> While serving there, he was created GCMG in 1860, and reorganized the judiciary of the islands before the end of the commissionership (by treaty) on 14 November 1863. He was made a GCB on 1 July 1864. Sent next to Malta, he was appointed Governor on 15 November 1864.<ref name=qrs/> However, he was called the next year to Jamaica to investigate the disturbances there, including the Morant Bay rebellion, and was appointed Governor of Jamaica on 12 December 1865.<ref>[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Jamaica.htm World Statesmen]</ref> He held that post until 16 July 1866. Upon his return, he was created a Privy Councillor (10 November 1866). He resigned the Governorship of Malta on 15 May 1867.<ref name=qrs/>
Now back at the War Office, he was appointed Controller-in-Chief and Under-Secretary at the War Office on 19 December 1867.<ref name=qrs/> There, he was involved in the re-organization of Army logistics that took place after the Crimean War. He was appointed Surveyor-General of the Ordnance on 5 August 1870, the first to hold that post since the Crimean War. On 10 October 1870 he was appointed colonel of the 70th Regiment of Foot, an office he held for the remainder of his life.<ref name=qrs/>
==Last years in politics==
Entering politics in 1870, Storks was endorsed as the Liberal candidate at a parliamentary by-election for the Borough of Newark that followed the death of the sitting Liberal MP. He was opposed by Sir George Grey, standing as an independent liberal. Grey's views the Colonial Empire, of emigration, of Home Rule for Ireland and poverty were contrary to those of Gladstone's Liberal government. The administration arranged that both withdrew, allowing the Liberal Samuel Boteler Bristowe to take the seat. Storks was rewarded with the newly revived post of Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, and Grey returned to New Zealand later that year.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rees|first1=William Lee|last2=Rees|first2=Lilly|author-link1=William Lee Rees|author-link2=Annie Lee Rees|title=The Life and Times of Sir George Grey, K.C.B.|date=1892|publisher=Hutchison and Co|location=London|pages=437–452 |url=https://archive.org/stream/lifetimesofsirge02reesuoft#page/437/mode/2up|access-date=12 January 2016}}</ref>
The following year Storks was elected to parliament at the Ripon by-election. He was promoted lieutenant general on 25 October 1871. While in Parliament, he spoke in favor of the abolition of the purchase system for Army commissions. His stance on the Contagious Diseases Acts contributed to his defeat by the Earl de Grey in the 1874 general election. He died shortly after losing the election, on 6 September 1874.<ref name=qrs/> He was buried in the Western part of Highgate Cemetery.
<gallery> File:Henry Knight Storks, Vanity Fair, 1870-12-24.jpg|Caricature by Ape published in ''Vanity Fair'' in 1870 File:Sir Henry Knight Storks (1811-1874).jpg|Knight Storks around 1870 File:Grave of Sir Henry Knight Storks in Highgate Cemetery (West).jpg|Grave of Sir Henry Knight Storks in Highgate Cemetery (West) </gallery>
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | sir-henry-storks | Henry Knight Storks }}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box|title=Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands|years=1859–1863|before=William Ewart Gladstone|after=end of British protectorate}} {{succession box|title=Governor of Malta|years=1864–1867|before=Sir John Le Marchant|after=Sir Patrick Grant}} {{succession box|title=Governor of Jamaica|years=1865–1866|before=Edward John Eyre|after=Sir John Peter Grant}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Ripon | years=1871–1874 | before=Lord John Hay | after=Earl de Grey}} {{s-mil}} |- {{s-vac | last=Lauderdale Maule}} {{s-ttl | title=Surveyor-General of the Ordnance | years=1870–1874}} {{s-aft | after=Lord Eustace Cecil}} |- {{succession box | before=Charles Hastings Doyle | title=Colonel of the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot | years=1870–1874 | after=Thomas James Galloway}} {{s-end}} {{Governors of Malta}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Storks, Henry Knight}} Category:1811 births Category:1874 deaths Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery Category:British Army lieutenant generals Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:People educated at Charterhouse School Category:Governors of Jamaica Category:UK MPs 1868–1874 Category:West Yorkshire Regiment officers Category:61st Regiment of Foot officers Category:Governors and governors-general of Malta