Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/360

 papers (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. i. 377, 8th ser. iv. 421). But his book is of little value, and contains no information respecting Monck's career of any special value.

[Authorities mentioned in the article.]  SKINNER, THOMAS (1800?–1843), soldier and author, born about 1800, was son of Lieutenant-general John Skinner. He entered the army on 25 Jan. 1816 as an ensign in the 16th foot; he became lieutenant on 6 Aug. 1819, captain on 9 Oct. 1823, and exchanged into the 31st foot on 25 March 1824. He proceeded with his regiment to India shortly before 1826, and was stationed at Hardwar, in the North-West provinces, near the foot of the Himalayas. Thence he made expeditions into the little-known mountainous districts of the neighbourhood, and embodied the results of his explorations in a book called ‘Excursions in India’ (London, 1832). After returning home on leave, he went back to India in 1833 by the overland route through Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. Thence he proceeded down the Euphrates, and embarked on the Persian Gulf. He published an account of this journey in ‘Adventures during a Journey Overland to India’ (London, 1836). On 24 Nov. 1835 he attained the rank of major, and in 1842 he joined the force assembled at Jalalabad under Sir George Pollock [q. v.] for the relief of Cabul. He commanded the 31st foot in the ensuing campaign, and on 26 July 1842 was present at the conflict of Mazeena, near Jalalabad. He accompanied Pollock's advance, and was entrusted with the task of clearing the hills on the left of the valley of Tezin in the engagement there on 13 Sept. He received for his services the cross of the Bath and the Cabul medal, and was gazetted on 23 Dec. to the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. He died at Landaur on 6 May 1843 from the results of privations endured during the campaign.

[Gent. Mag. 1843, i. 314; contemporary Army Lists; Hart's Army List, 1843, p. 342; Kaye's Hist. of the War in Afghanistan, 1874, iii. 293, 309.]  SKINNER, THOMAS (1804–1877), engineer, born at St. John's, Newfoundland, on 22 May 1804, was the son of Lieutenant-colonel William Thomas Skinner, R.A. (d. 1829), by his second wife, Mary, daughter of Dr. Monier of the royal artillery [for the father's family see under, (1700–1780)]. In 1811 Thomas was placed at school in England, and remained there until in 1818 he proceeded to Ceylon, and obtained a second lieutenancy in the Ceylon rifles. In 1820 he was employed in constructing two roads to Kandy, one by the Kaduganava Pass, the other through the Seven Kirles, and was thenceforth connected with that branch of public works. In 1825 he was appointed staff officer of the garrison of Colombo, and on 27 Nov. 1829 deputy assistant quartermaster-general of the forces in Ceylon. In 1832 he opened a road from Aripo, on the western coast of Ceylon, to Anarajaporo. In the following year the public works of the colony were transferred to the civil authorities, and Skinner accompanied the surveyor-general over the country to initiate him in his duties. Subsequently Skinner undertook a survey of the mountain zone, the result of which was embodied in a one-inch sketch-map of the Kandian provinces and in a general map of Ceylon. In 1836 he was promoted captain, and in the following year was employed to regulate the surveyor-general and civil engineer's department, which had fallen into great confusion. This business occupied him until 1840; but as the department became again disorganised when he ceased directing it, he was appointed permanent commissioner for the roads in Ceylon in 1841. In 1847 he retired from his regiment with the rank of major, and in 1850 the civil engineer's department was incorporated with his own. In 1859 he was appointed auditor-general, but in consequence of a difference of opinion with the governor, Sir Henry Ward, as to the cost of a railway from Colombo to Kandy, he was superseded in 1861, and returned to his former post of commissioner of public works, which he continued to hold until, in 1865, he resumed the duties of auditor-general.

Skinner retired to England in 1867, and was made a companion of the order of St. Michael and St. George on 15 Feb. 1869. He took up his residence at Bath, where he died at 7 Grosvenor Place on 24 July 1877. His services to Ceylon were very great in opening up the country and rendering overland transport possible. He married Georgina, daughter of Lieutenant-general George Burrell, C.B., on 19 Dec. 1838. By her he had, with other children, Monier Williams Skinner, now lieutenant-colonel, R.E.

Skinner was the author of an autobiography entitled ‘Fifty Years in Ceylon,’ edited by his daughter Annie Skinner (London, 1891, 8vo), to which his portrait is prefixed. The book contains an outline of the history of his branch of the Skinner family.

[Skinner's Autobiography; United Service Mag. 1877, iii. 110.] 