Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/508

 university of the Cape and chairman of the South African College Council. He was justice of the peace for Cape Town, Wynberg, and Simon's Town, and served on several government commissions. He was knighted by patent on 4 Oct. 1877, and was created K.C.M.G. on 25 May 1892. On his retirement from the speakership he acted for five years as agent-general for the colony in London. But his previous career had given him small opportunity of acquiring the requisite business aptitude for the position. He resigned on 31 Dec. 1901. He died on 29 March 1905 at 39 Hyde Park Gardens, London, and was buried in Brompton cemetery.

In 1856 he published a second and revised edition of his father's 'Notary's Manual for the Cape of Good Hope.'

Tennant was twice married: (1) on 3 May 1849 to Josina Hendrina Amoldina, daughter of Jacobus François du Toit of Stellenbosch, a descendant of one of the French refugee families who settled at the Cape after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 (she died on 19 April 1877, leaving two sons and one daughter); (2) on 8 Oct. 1885, in London, to Amye Venour, elder daughter of Lieutenant-general Sir William Bellairs, K.C.M.G., C.B., of Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, by whom he had no issue.

A portrait of Tennant in oils, three-quarter length, by W. Gretor, a Danish artist, is in the possession of his widow.

 THESIGER, FREDERIC AUGUSTUS, second (1827–1905), general, born on 31 May 1827, was eldest son of Frederick Thesiger, first baron [q. v.], by Anna Maria, youngest daughter of William Tinling. Educated at Eton, he was commissioned as second-lieutenant in the rifle brigade on 31 Dec. 1844, and exchanged to the grenadier guards as ensign and lieutenant on 28 Nov. 1845. He was promoted lieutenant and captain on 27 Dec. 1850. He went to Ireland in February 1852 as A.D.C. to the lord-lieutenant (the earl of Eglinton), and from January 1853 to August 1854 he was A.D.C. to Sir Edward Blakeney, commanding the forces there. He joined his battalion in the Crimea on 31 May 1855, and served there till the end of the war, being A.D.C. to General Markham, commanding second division, from 18 July to 29 Sept. 1855, and deputy assistant quartermaster-general from 8 Nov. 1855 to 24 June 1856. He was made brevet-major (2 Nov. 1855) and received the medal with clasp, the Sardinian and Turkish medals, and the Mejidie (5th He was promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel on 28 Aug. 1857, and exchanged into the 95th (Derbyshire) regiment on 30 April 1858, to take part in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny. He joined the regiment in November, and was present at the last action in which it was engaged, the capture of Man Singli's camp at Koondrye, where he commanded the infantry of Michael Smith's brigade of the Rajputana field force. He received the medal. From 13 July 1861 to 31 Dec. 1862 he was deputy adjutant-general of the British troops in the -Bombay presidency. He became brevet-colonel on 30 April 1863, He was employed in the Abyssinian expedition of 1868 as deputy adjutant-general, and Lord Napier spoke of his ’great ability and untiring energy' in his despatch (''Lond. Gaz.'' 30 June 1868). He received the medal, and was made C.B. and A.D.C. to the queen.

Thesiger was adjutant-general in the East Indies from 17 March 1869 to 15 March 1874. In a lecture at Calcutta in 1873 on the tactical formation of British infantry he maintained that much less change was needed than most people supposed, and that the two-deep line still met the case (Journal of the United Service Institution, xvii. 411-23). Having returned to England, he commanded the troops at Shorncliffe as colonel on the staff from 1 Oct. 1874 to 31 Dec. 1876, and then a brigade at Aldershot. He received a reward for distinguished service on 22 May 1876, and was promoted major-general on 15 March 1877. In February 1878 he went to South Africa, to command the troops, with the local rank of lieutenant-general. He took over the command from Sir Arthur Cunynghame [q. v.] at King William's Town on 4 March. A Kaffir war was in progress in that neighbourhood, the Gaikas having invaded Cape Colony and established themselves in the Perie bush. On 12 June Thesiger was able to report that this war had been brought to an end, thanks mainly to Colonel (Sir) Evelyn Wood and Major (Sir) Redvers Buller (Lond. Gaz. 15 July 1878). But there was a general ferment among the natives of South Africa, and he went to Natal in August 