Lee Stack

{{Short description|British Army officer and administrator (1868–1924)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Major-General | name = Sir Lee Stack |honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GBE|CMG}} | image = Major General Sir Lee Stack 1924.jpg | caption = Stack in c. 1924 | alt = | office1 = Governor-General of Sudan | term_start1 = 1917 | term_end1 = 19 November 1924 | predecessor1 = Reginald Wingate | successor1 = Geoffrey Francis Archer | birth_date = 15 May 1868 | birth_place = Darjeeling, India | death_date = 20 November 1924 (aged 56) | death_place = Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt | citizenship = | party = | other_party =  | partner =  | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | cabinet = | committees =  | nickname = | allegiance = | branch = British Army | service_years = 1888–1924 | rank = Major-General | unit = | commands = | battles = | awards = }} Major-General '''Sir Lee Oliver Fitzmaurice Stack''' (15 May 1868 – 20 November 1924) was a British Army officer and Governor-General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101036230/ |title='Stack, Sir Lee Oliver Fitzmaurice (1868–1924)' |access-date=10 February 2009 |author=Daly, M.W. |date=September 2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/36230}}</ref> On 19 November 1924, he was shot by assassins while driving through Cairo, and died of his wounds the next day.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Austen Chamberlain Diary Letters: The Correspondence of Sir Austen Chamberlain with His Sisters Hilda and Ida, 1916-1937 |last=Chamberlain |first=Austen |author2=Robert C. Self |year=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-55157-9 |page=300}}</ref>

==Early life== Born in Darjeeling, India, Lee Stack was the son of the British Inspector-General of Police for Bengal. He was educated at Clifton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.<ref name=odnb/><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=25785|page=895|date=10 February 1888}}</ref>

==Career== After service with the British Army, Major Lee Stack was seconded to the Egyptian Army in 1899. In addition to regimental appointments he served as Military Secretary to General Sir Reginald Wingate. He received the Order of Osmanieh, third class, from the Khedive of Egypt in 1902.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=27476 |page=6075 |date=23 September 1902}}</ref> Stack left the army in 1910 but took up the position of Civil Secretary of the Sudan in 1913, based in Khartoum. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he was granted the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28977|page=9408|date=17 November 1914}}</ref> and in 1917 that of major-general<ref>{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=29887|supp=y|page=59|date=1 January 1917}}</ref> when he became Sirdar of the Egyptian Army, combining this appointment with that of Governor General of the Sudan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.worldstatesmen.org/Sudan.html|title=Sudan|publisher=World Statesmen|access-date=25 October 2019}}</ref>

==Assassination== On 19 November 1924, Sir Lee Stack, accompanied by an aide de camp, was being driven from the Egyptian War Office in Cairo to his official residence. His car had halted in heavy traffic to give a tram car right of way when several Egyptian students, grouped on the pavement, fired a volley of revolver shots into the vehicle. Stack's driver, Frederick Hamilton March, although injured, was able to accelerate the car away from the scene of the shooting and reach the nearby residence of the British High Commissioner to Egypt. Major-General Stack suffered wounds to the hand, stomach, and foot. He died the next day.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61163024|title=The Assassination of Sir Lee Stack|newspaper=Townsville Daily Bulletin (QLD. : 1907 - 1954)|publisher=The Townsville Daily Bulletin|date=24 November 2014|page=4|access-date=25 October 2019}}</ref>

==Aftermath== The British High Commissioner, Field Marshal Lord Allenby, responded with anger, presenting a list of demands to the Egyptian government which included a public apology, an inquiry, suppression of demonstrations and payment of a fine. Furthermore, he demanded withdrawal of all Egyptian officers and Egyptian army units from the Sudan, an increase to the scope of an irrigation scheme in Gezira and laws to protect foreign investors in Egypt.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,728107-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107175637/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,728107-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 November 2012 |work=Time Magazine |access-date=30 August 2011 |title=EGYPT: Shots and Repercussions |date=1 December 1924}}</ref>

Seven men convicted of involvement in the assassination were executed by hanging in 1925. Several were identified by a taxi driver whose vehicle they had commandeered to escape from the scene. The pistols used were identified through a pioneering instance of bullet examination by forensic scientist Sydney Smith.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Paper-Blum.pdf|title=Going Ballistic: The Forgotten Origins of Forensic Weapon Identification, 1919-1924|publisher=Berkeley Law University of California|access-date=25 October 2019}}</ref>

Sir Geoffrey Archer, formerly Governor of Uganda, took over as Governor-General of the Sudan in January 1925, the first time a civilian had held this office.<ref>{{cite book |title=Sayyid ʻAbd al-Raḥmān al-Mahdī: a study of neo-Mahdīsm in the Sudan, 1899-1956|first=Hassan Ahmed|last=Ibrahim|page=92|publisher=Brill|year=2004|isbn=90-04-13854-4}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

== Further reading == {{Refbegin}}

* {{cite book |last1=Gifford |first1=Jayne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39-zDwAAQBAJ |title=Britain in Egypt: Egyptian Nationalism and Imperial Strategy, 1919-1931 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2020 |isbn=9781838604943 |chapter=The Assassination of Sir Lee Stack: The British Lion’s Final Roar?}} * {{cite journal |last1=Gifford |first1=Jayne |author-mask=6 |year=2013 |title=Extracting the Best Deal for Britain: The Assassination of Sir Lee Stack in November 1924 and the Revision of Britain's Nile Valley Policy |url=https://doi.org/10.3138/cjh.48.1.87 |journal=Canadian Journal of History |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=87–114 |doi=10.3138/cjh.48.1.87}} * {{Cite book |last=Badrawi |first=Malak |title=Political Violence in Egypt 1910-1924: Secret Societies, Plots and Assassinations |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |orig-year=2000}} * {{Cite book |last=Long |first=Richard |title=British Pro-Consuls in Egypt, 1914-1929 : The Challenge of Nationalism |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |year=2005}} * {{cite journal |last1=Reid |first1=Donald M. |year=1982 |title=Political Assassination in Egypt, 1910-1954 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/217848 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=625–651 |doi=10.2307/217848 |url-access=subscription}} * {{Cite thesis |last=Daly |first=Martin William |title=The Governor-Generalship of Sir Lee Stack in the Sudan, 1917-1924 |date=1977 |publisher=University of London |doi=10.25501/SOAS.00033659}}

{{Refend}}{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Sir Reginald Wingate}} {{s-ttl|title=Sirdar of the Egyptian Army|years=1916–1924}} {{s-aft|after=Sir Charlton Spinks}} |- {{s-off}} {{succession box|title=Governor-General of the Sudan|before=Sir Reginald Wingate|after=Sir Geoffrey Archer|years=1916–1924}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stack, Lee}} Category:1868 births Category:1924 deaths Category:Military personnel of British India Category:People murdered in 1924 Category:Assassinated British military personnel Category:Assassinated British politicians Category:Border Regiment officers Category:British Army major generals Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Deaths by firearm in Egypt Category:Governors-general of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Category:People murdered in Egypt Category:Murder in Sudan Category:British people in British India Category:Politicians assassinated in the 1920s Category:British Army generals of World War I Category:19th-century British Army personnel Category:Military personnel from Darjeeling