Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/154

 16 Aug. 1658, was son of Joris Van Son (1623–1667), a well-known painter of flowers and still life in that city, whose paintings are frequently to be met with in collections. His mother's name was Cornelia Van Heulem. Van Son was a pupil of his father and a family friend, Jan Pauwel Gillemans. He practised in the same manner as his father, painting still life, flowers, fruit, and the like, but without attaining the same success. Van Son came therefore to London, and obtained a lucrative patronage through his marriage with a niece of the king's serjeant-painter, Robert Streater [q. v.] He was also patronised by Charles Robartes, earl of Radnor, who had a great number of Van Son's paintings in his house in St. James's Square. Some of Van Son's paintings were of considerable size. He lived for some time in Long Acre, but finally in St. Albans Street, St. James's, where he died about 1718. He sometimes introduced his own portrait into his paintings.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Van den Branden's Antwerpsche Schilderschool.] 

VAN STRAUBENZEE, CHARLES THOMAS (1812–1892), general, colonel of the 39th foot (Dorsetshire regiment), second son of Major Thomas Van Straubenzee, royal artillery, and of his wife Maria, youngest daughter of Major Henry Bowen of the 2nd royal veteran battalion, was born in Malta on 17 Feb. 1812. His great-grandfather, Philip William Casimir Van Straubenzee, captain in the Dutch guards, came to England about 1745, was naturalised by act of parliament, married Jane, only daughter of Cholmely Turner of Kirkleatham, Yorkshire, by Jane, granddaughter and sole heir of Sir Henry Marwood, bart., of Buskby Hall, Yorkshire, and died in 1765. He had a younger brother, General A. Van Straubenzee, who was governor of Zutphen in 1798. His third son, Charles Spencer, married a granddaughter of Sir George Vane of Raby, and had seven sons in the British army and navy; of these, the eldest, Henry, succeeded a grand-uncle as head of the family and in the property of Spennithorne, North Riding of York; and the seventh was the father of the subject of this memoir.

Charles Thomas Van Straubenzee received a commission as ensign in the Ceylon rifles on 28 Aug. 1828, and arrived in Ceylon in June the following year. He was promoted to be lieutenant in the 39th foot on 22 Feb. 1833. He joined his new regiment at Bangalore in India (Mysore), and on 17 March 1834 marched with it in the expedition under Brigadier-general Patrick Lindesay against Kurg (Coorg). Merkara, the capital, was found undefended, and occupied on 6 April, the raja surrendering in person on the 10th, when Van Straubenzee returned with his regiment to Bangalore.

He was promoted to a company in the 39th foot on 10 March 1837, and in November he went to England on furlough. In November 1841 he married, and in June of the following year he rejoined his regiment at Agra. In October 1842 he joined the army of reserve assembled at Firozpur on the return of the troops from Afghanistan. On 27 Aug. 1843 he was promoted to be regimental major, and in the autumn his regiment joined the army of exercise assembled at Agra in consequence of the state of affairs at Gwalior. Early in December he marched with it under Sir Hugh (afterwards Lord) Gough [q. v.] against Sindia. He distinguished himself at the battle of Maharajpur on 29 Dec., when the 39th foot, supported by the 56th native infantry, drove the enemy from their guns into the village, the scene of a sanguinary conflict; later the regiment in a gallant charge carried the entrenched main position at Chouda, when the commanding officer of the regiment was desperately wounded, and Van Straubenzee, succeeding to the temporary command, brought it out of action after capturing two standards from the enemy. Van Straubenzee was mentioned by Gough in despatches for his conduct at Maharajpur, was specially brought to the notice of the commander-in-chief for services at Gwalior, and received the bronze star. He was promoted to be brevet lieutenant-colonel on 30 April 1844.

On 30 Aug. 1844 Van Straubenzee exchanged into the 13th Prince Albert's light infantry, and, returning with it in July 1845, was quartered at Walmer. He took part in the ceremony of presentation of new colours to it by Prince Albert on 13 Aug. 1846 at Portsmouth. On 28 Aug. he exchanged into the 3rd ‘buffs,’ and accompanied his new regiment to Ireland in October. In April 1851 he embarked with the battalion for Malta, and on 11 Nov. was promoted to be regimental lieutenant-colonel to command it. On 20 June 1854 he was promoted to be brevet colonel.

On 12 Nov. Van Straubenzee took the regiment to the Piræus in connection with the war with Russia. He was made a colonel on the staff on 15 Nov. to command the British contingent in Greece. He remained at the Piræus until 23 March 1855, when the ‘buffs’ were relieved by the 91st foot, and he returned with them to Malta. The