Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/260

 he entered the House of Commons at an advanced age, his intellectual alertness, legal knowledge, powerful memory, and physical vigour made him a power in debate; while his geniality and old-world courtesy rendered him personally popular. On the formation of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's administration in December 1905 Hemphill's years precluded his appointment to the Irish lord chancellorship. A peerage which he did not seek was conferred on him. He was created Baron Hemphill of Rathkenny and of Cashel on 12 Jan. 1906. He died on 4 March 1908 at his residence, 65 Merrion Square, Dublin, and was buried at Deansgrange cemetery, near Dublin.

Of distinguished presence, above the medium height, and of erect carriage even in old age, Hemphill was entertaining in conversation owing to his wide reading and varied experience.

A portrait by Morant is in the possession of his son, the second Lord Hemphill. Hemphill married on 11 April 1849 Augusta Mary, younger daughter of the Hon. Sir Francis Stanhope, K.H., and grand-daughter of Charles Stanhope, third earl of Harrington. She died on 12 April 1899. Two sons and a daughter of the marriage survive; the elder son. Stanhope Charles John, succeeded his father as second Baron Hemphill.



HENDERSON, GEORGE FRANCIS ROBERT (1854–1903), colonel and military writer, born on 2 June 1854 at St. Helier, Jersey, was eldest son of, afterwards dean of Carlisle [q. v. Suppl. II], by Jane Melville, daughter of John Dalyell of Lingo, Fife. Henderson was educated at Leeds grammar school while his father was headmaster, became head of the school, was captain of the cricket eleven and a good amateur actor. In 1873 he gained a history scholarship at St. John's College, Oxford, and an exhibition from his school, but did not graduate. In November 1876 he entered Sandhurst, being fourth in the list, and was also captain of the cricket eleven there.

On 1 May 1878 he was commissioned as second-lieutenant in the York and Lancaster regiment, and joined the first battalion (65th) at Dinapore. On promotion to lieutenant on 24 June 1879, he passed to the second battalion (84th); and after serving at Dover and in Ireland, he went with it to Egypt, where it formed part of Graham's brigade. In 1882 he was engaged at Magfar and Tercel-Maskhuta, and commanded a company at Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir. He received the medal with clasp, the bronze star and Medjidie (5th class), and on General Graham's recommendation he obtained a brevet majority on his promotion to captain on 2 June 1886. In 1883 he went with his battalion to Bermuda, and thence to Halifax, Nova Scotia, visiting Virginia to examine the battlefields of the American civil war. In January 1885 he joined the ordnance store department, and served in it five years, being stationed at Woolwich, Edinburgh, Fort George, and Gibraltar. During this time he was at work on the history of the American civil war and the Franco-Prussian war. In 1886 he published anonymously 'The Campaign of Fredericksburg' (3rd edit. 1891), which attracted the notice of Lord Wolseley, and led to Henderson's appointment in January 1890 as instructor at Sandhurst, at first in military topography, but afterwards in tactics and adininistration. In 1891 he published 'The Battle of Spicheren,' a masterly study in its breadth and minuteness. From 17 Dec. 1892 to 22 Dec. 1899 he was professor of military art and history at the Staff College, where 'he exercised by his lectures and his personality an influence upon the younger generation of the officers of the British army for which it would be difficult to find a parallel nearer home than that of Moltke in Prussia' (The Times, 7 March 1903). The publication in 1898 of 'Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War' (2 vols. 3rd edit. 1902) placed him in the first rank of military historians. Lord Wolseley wrote a preface for the second edition. Lord Roberts stated that it helped to shape his plans for the campaign in South Africa.

He embarked for the Cape with Lord Roberts on 23 Dec. 1899. He left the York and Lancaster regiment, in which he had become major on 10 Nov. 1897, and was made substantive lieutenant-colonel. On 10 Jan. 1900 he was appointed director of military intelligence with the local rank of colonel. Maps were much needed: in the post office at Capetown he discovered some hundreds of maps of the Transvaal, intended for the Boer government, and he prepared maps of the Free State. He accompanied Roberts to the Modder camp, and witnessed the beginning of the turning movement against Cronje; then his health failed, and he went home. He was men-