Cathcart, WILLIAM SCHAW,

Cathcart, WILLIAM SCHAW, first Earl Cathcart, a British general and diplomatist, son of the ninth Baron Cathcart of Cathcart, Renfrewshire, was born September 17, 1755. Educated at Eton and Glasgow, and admitted an advocate in 1776, when he succeeded his father, he next year entered the army, took a prominent part in the American war, and fought with distinction in Flanders and North Germany. In 1803 he was made commander-in-chief in Ireland. In 1805 he was engaged on a diplomatic mission to Russia; in 1807 commanded the land-forces co-operating with the fleet in the attack on Copenhagen, and, for his services, was made a British peer, with the title of viscount, and received a vote of thanks from both Houses of Parliament. Sent in 1813 as ambassador to St Petersburg, he accompanied the Czar Alexander in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, and was present at the congresses of Chatillon and Vienna. In 1814 he was raised to the rank of earl; and he died June 16, 1843.—His eldest son and successor, CHARLES MURRAY, long known as Lord Greenock, was born in 1783, served in Spain and at Waterloo, afterwards acted in Canada, and was made a general. He died 16th July 1859.—A younger son, SIR GEORGE CATHCART, was born in 1794. Educated at Eton and Edinburgh, he entered the army in 1810, served with the Russians in the campaigns of 1812 and 1813, and as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, was present at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. After helping to suppress the Canadian rebellion of 1835, and after holding the post of deputy-lieutenant of the Tower for five years, in 1852 he was made governor at the Cape, with command of the forces, and brought to a successful end the harassing Kaffir war. He returned to England in 1854 in time to be sent out to the Crimea as general of division. His bravery here was conspicuous, especially in the battle of Inkermann (November 5), where the odds were so terribly against the British, and where he fell, shot through the heart. He was buried on the spot where he fell, which in his honour was named Cathcart's Hill. Cathcart was the author of a very valuable work entitled Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812-13 (Lond. 1850). See vol. v. of Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea.