Major General Sir Robert Percy Douglas

 

The son of General Sir Howard Douglas, he was 4th baronet of Carr.

Lieutenant Governor and Colonel on Staff: Jersey 1860 - 1863
(I have a note elsewhere that he was Governor in 1857) and for 5 years Lieutenant-Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, when he held the local rank of Lieutenant General.

First commissioned at the age of 14, he became Colonel 2nd Battalion of the Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire) Regiment. In January 1864 he was made Colonel of, either, or both, the 2nd West India Regiment and the 98th Regiment.  He was sometime Commissioner of the Ionian Islands.

The town of Douglas, situated near the confluence of the Orange and Vaal Rivers in the Northern Cape province of South Africa is named after him. The town itself is a green patchwork of dramatic contrast - space for the solitary and activity for the energetic. Douglas is divided in two sections or locations named Bongani and Breipaal.

A series of reservoirs were built in the Eastern Cape of South Africa during the drought years in the 1860's.  One of these was named after Sir Percy Douglas, then Lieutenant Governor of the Eastern Cape Colony.

 

Click to enlarge

This coin, the second in the series, features the Percy Douglas, a three-masted ship named after Major General Sir Robert Percy Douglas, then Lieutenant Governor of Jersey. Although the Percy Douglas was built in Beaumont, Jersey by Edward Allen, it was registered in Liverpool to Thomas Hayley to whom the ship was awarded when Edward Allen went bankrupt. Registered as 781 tons and launched on 8 August 1861, the Percy Douglas worked the China routes until 14 December 1871 when it was finally wrecked after running aground off Rangoon, India. Read more...



His third son was Sir Arthur Percy Douglas, Bart., Under-Secretary for Defence, New Zealand.

Major General Robert Percy Douglas died on 30 September 1891 aged 87 at The Hurst, his residence in Bournemouth.

 

Mrs. Douglas:  February 7th, at Limerick, Anne, wife of Colonel Robert Percy Douglas, Assistant Adjutant-general at Head-quarters, eldest son of General Sir Howard Douglas, Bart., G.CJB.—She was the only daughter of Lieut.-Colonel G. H. Duckworth, 48th Foot (who was killed at Albuera), only son of the late Admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth, Bart., G.C.B., by his first marriage.   - Hardwickes Annual Biographies, 1856

 

Sir James Stewart DouglasAwaiting transcription

 

Research:

Not to be confused with:

General Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge 1611-1661
Major-General Robert Douglas (of Garlston, NB) Born c1744, died 7th June 1798
Lt General Robert Douglas  abt 1745 - 1827
Major General Robert Douglas Death: Aug. 20. 1828 At Great Baddow, Essex,
Major General Robert Douglas 1727-1809
General Robert Douglas, C.B. died at Claygate, Surrey on February 10, 1871
Major General Robert Wilkins Douglass Jr. born in 1900 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA

 

 

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This page was last updated on 30 September 2021

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