Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/68

 as agent for the manufacture of gunpowder at Ishapur on 28 April 1835, and being confirmed in that appointment on 28 July, he ceased to be assistant adjutant-general of artillery. On 11 April 1836 he became a member of the special committee of artillery officers (see, Hist. of the Bengal Artillery, iii. 579). The minutes drawn up on various subjects by members of the board, when there was any difference of opinion, are both interesting and valuable. One by Tennant on the calibre of guns for horse and field artillery, and on the substitution in the latter of horse for bullock draught, is particularly so. He was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel on 18 Jan. 1837, and in consequence vacated the agency for gunpowder.

For his services on the committee of artillery officers he received the approbation and thanks of the government of India. On 21 March 1837 he was posted to the command of the 4th battalion of artillery. On 28 Nov. 1842 he was given the command of the Cawnpore division of artillery, and in the following year was specially mentioned for the superior state of discipline and equipment of his command. On 17 Nov. 1843 he was appointed to command, with the rank of brigadier-general, the foot artillery attached to the army of exercise assembled at Agra under Sir Hugh (afterwards Lord) Gough [q. v.] This force left Agra for the Gwalior campaign on 16 Dec., crossing the river Chambal on the 21st. In spite of great exertions, Tennant and the heavy ordnance got considerably behind. Gough did not wait for his heavy guns, and the battle of Maharajpur (29 Dec.) was rather riskily fought without them (cf. Gough's despatch ap. London Gazette, 8 March 1844).

On 10 Feb. 1844 Tennant was again appointed to be commandant of the artillery at Cawnpore. On 3 July 1845 he was promoted to be colonel in the army, and was sent on special duty to inspect and report on field magazines of the upper provinces. He, however, resigned this appointment, to the regret of the government, and resumed his command at Cawnpore. In 1846–7 Tennant was associated with Colonel George Brooke of the Bengal artillery, on a committee at Simla, on the equipment of mountain batteries. The experience of both, drawn from the Nipal war, 1814–16, produced valuable minutes. On 2 Sept. 1848 Tennant was appointed brigadier-general to command the Maiwar field force. He was then attached to the army of the Punjab to command the artillery with the rank of brigadier-general. He commanded this arm at the battle of Chilianwala on 13 Jan. 1849, and was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 3 and 23 March 1849). He also commanded it at the battle of Gujerat on 21 Feb. 1849, and was again mentioned in despatches (ib. 19 April 1849). He received the thanks of both houses of parliament, of the government of India, and of the court of directors of the East India Company (general order, 7 June 1849). He was made a companion of the Bath on 5 June 1849, and received the war medal and clasp.

On 13 March 1849 Tennant resumed his appointment at Cawnpore, and on 19 Dec. was transferred to Lahore as brigadier-general commanding. On 30 Jan. 1852 he was given the command of the Cis-Jhilam division of the army. He was made a knight commander of the Bath on 8 Oct. 1852. He died at Mian Mir on 6 March 1854. He married a daughter of Charles Pattenson of the Bengal civil service. Lieutenant-general J. F. Tennant, C.I.E., F.R.S., of the royal engineers, is his son. Tennant's attainments were of a very high order, and ‘he was better acquainted with the details of his profession than perhaps any officer in the regiment’.

[India Office Records; Despatches; Stubbs's Hist. Bengal Artillery, 1st and 2nd vols. 1877, 3rd vol. 1895; Life of Sir David Baird, 2 vols. 1832; Ross of Bladensburg's Marquess of Hastings (Rulers of India); East India Military Cal.; Thornton's Hist. of India; Prinsep's Hist. Political and Military Trans. in India during Administration of Marquess of Hastings, 2 vols. 1825; Grant Duff's Hist. of the Mahratas, 1826; Blacker's Memoir of Operations of British Army in India during the Mahrata War of 1817–19–21; Journal of Artillery Operations before Bhurtpore in East India United Serv. Journ. vol. ii.; Creighton's Narrative of the Siege and Capture of Bhurtpore, 1830; Seaton's From Cadet to Colonel, 1866; Thackwell's Second Sikh War.] 

TENNANT, JAMES (1808–1881), mineralogist, was born on 8 Feb. 1808 at Upton, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire, being the third child in a family of twelve. His father, John Tennant, was an officer in the excise; his mother, Eleanor Kitchen, came from a family of yeomen resident at Upton for more than two centuries. His parents afterwards removed to Derby, and he was partly educated at a school in Mansfield. In October 1824 he was apprenticed to G. Mawe, dealer in minerals at 149 Strand, and after the death of the latter he managed, and afterwards purchased, the business, residing on the premises. Industrious and eager to learn from the first, he attended classes at a mechanics' institute and the lectures of Michael Faraday [q. v.] at the Royal Institution. This gained him a friend, and he was also much helped