Death of Hobart Pa-ha.

Otago Witness, Issue 1805, 25 June 1886, Page 3 (Supplement)

Death of Hobart Pa- ha.

London, June 20. The death is announced of Augustus C Hobart (Hobart Pasha); aged 64.

Hobart, the Hon. Augustus Charles, generally known as Hobart Pasha, Marshal of the Turkish Empire, n> the third eon ot the Earl of Buckinghamshire, by his first wife Mary, eldest daughter of John Williams, Esq., King's Sergeant, and sistut ot the Right Hon. Edward Vaughan Williams, the eminent judge. He was born April lbt, 1882. In 1836 he joined the Royal Navy, and was distinguished while a midshipman lot his zeal in command of men-of-war's boats employed in the suppression of the slave trade in Brazilian waters. In. reward for these services he was, in 1845, appointed to the Queen's yacht, where he served two years. During the Crimean war he was in commaud ot H.M.S. Driver in the B iltie, and was highly commended iv official dispatches for his gallant conduct during the capture of Bomarsund and the attack on Abo. Having retired from active service on halt-pay, he found employment during the American Civil War trom 1861 to 1865, in commanding a swift blockade runner, the Don, along the coast of North Carolina, and keeping up maritime communications with the Southern States, in spite of the Federal blockading squadron. He published a narrative of these experiences under the name of "Captain Roberts." In 1862 he became a post captain, and in 1868 was appointed by the Turkish Government to a high command in. the Ottoman navy. In 1867 he was s^ nt, in command of the Turkish fleet, to Crete, with unlimited powers, and orders to stop the proceedings of the Greek blockade-runners. For this service, and for his conduct in a delicate negotiation off Syria, in the cause of geueral peace, he received high-class decorations and honours from the Austrian, French, and Turkish Governments. On his return to Constantinople he was promoted by the Sultan to the rank of Pasha and created a full admiral. Admiral Hobart Pasha afterwards served as Inspector-general of the Turkish navy. He was long occupied with the reorganisation and development of the Turkish navy, which osves its state of efficiency to his practical knowledge and untiring energy. In June, 1871, the Queen granted him her royal license to accept and wear the insignia of the second class of the Imperial Order of the Medjidie, conferred upon him by the Sultan. In 1867 the Greek Minister had called the attention of her Majesty's Government to the tact that Hobart Pasha had been engaged on behali of Turkey in the Cretan blockade; and the Admiralty, at the instance of the Foreign Office, struck his name off the British navy list. In 1874, however, Admiral Hobart Pasha addressed a letter to Lord Derby, admitting that he committed a breach of naval dis>cipline by accepting service under the Turkish Government without leave, but adding : — " During seven years that have elapsed since that time I have endeavoured to raaintaiu the character of an Englishman tor zeal, activity, and sagacity, and 1 have been fortunate enough to obtain a certain European reputation of which I hope 1 may be justly proud. 1 prevented by my conduct during avery critical period at the end of the Cretan Revolution (while 1 was in command of a large Turkish fleetj much bloodshed, and, many people think, a European war. 1 have organised the Turkish navy in a way which has led to high encomiums as to its state from all the Commanders-in-chief of the English (leets who have lately visited Constantinople. I have established naval schools, training and gunnery ships (and here I have been ably seconded by English naval officers.) While doing all this towards strengthening the navy of our ally, I naturally have made ■n -niemics. All that they can

many ene. .... find to say (and it is bitter enough) is, 'He has been dismissed the English service,' without, of course, explaining the cause. This is most painful to me, and is very detrimental to my already difficult position." He therefore asked that his offence might be overlooked and that he might be relieved from "the ban of disgrace." This application was bupported by the Earl of Derby, "as a matter of Imperial policy," considering it to be of material advantage that

Adnnr.il Hobart P.i-ha should occupy the position lie held in Turkey. Tbe Ldulb of the -V.lnunxlty therefore consented tv allow the Hon. Augustus Hobart to be reinstated in his ti>inir r rank as a captain in the Rijal Navy, placing him o:. the retired list 2S, Iti7 U, with tht. opportunity ol risn.g b.\ -'•nioritj to the rank of ti retired admiral On the. outbreak of the war betweeu fiu^-ia and Turkey Admu.il Hobart Pasha was appointed to the co'immuul-iii-thiet of the Black Sea Fleet of Tm key As our Governmenthail issued n pioclamatioi: ot neutrality, this appointment naturally attracted public attention, ami the •luf.-tion was raised in Farhament whether he, being ou "he official list, and still nominally in her Majesty's service, should not be required to '•■si^n altogether his connection with the British navy or to relinquish his position in the Turkish rieet. This question was soon ans<ered in a practical manner by his formal withdrawal from her Majesty's service and his election tc remain with the Sultan of Turkey. On January Bth, 1881. the Sultan raised him to r he rank of " Mushir " aud Marshal ot the Empire He is the first Christian on whom thin honour bas been conferred. He married, hist, sn 1848, Mary Anne, second dauglitor of Mr Oolquhoun Grant (she died April 13th. 1877/, secondly, on May sth, 1879, Edith Katharine, daughter of the late Mr Herbert Hore, of Polo Hore, County Wexford. — "Men of the Tune."