SIR RUFANE

See also:

• SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD (1856– )
• SHAW, HENRY WHEELER (1818–1885)
• SHAW, LEMUEL (1781–1861)
• SHAW, RICHARD NORMAN (1831– )

SHAW

See also:

• SIR RUFANE SHAW DONKIN (1773-1841)

DONKIN (1773-1841)  , British soldier, came of a military family . His father, who died, a full general, in 1821, served with almost all British commanders from Wolfe to Gage . Rufane Donkin was the eldest child, and received his first commission at the age of five in his father's regiment; he joined, at fourteen, with eight years' seniority as a lieutenant . Becoming a captain in 1793, he was on active service in the West Indies in 1794, and (as major) in 1796 . At the age of twenty-five he became lieutenant-colonel, and in 1798 led a light battalion with distinction in the Ostend expedition . He served with Cathcart in Denmark in 1807, and two years later was given a brigade in the army in Portugal, which he led at Oporto and Talavera . He was soon transferred, as quartermaster-general, to the Mediterranean command, in which he served from 18x0 to 1813, taking part in the Catalonian expeditions . Sir John Murray's failure at Tarragona did not involve Donkin, whose advice was proved to be uniformly ignored by the British commander . In July 1815 Major-General Donkin went out to India, and distinguished himself as a divisional commander in Hastings' operations against the Mahrattas (1817–1818), receiving the K.C.B. as his reward . The death of his young wife seriously affected him, and he went to the Cape of Good Hope on sick leave . From 1820 to 1821 he administered the colony with success, and named the rising seaport of Algoa Bay Port Elizabeth in memory of his wife . In 1821 he became lieutenant-general and G.C.H .

The

rest of his life was spent in literary and political work . He was one of the original fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, and was a member of the Royal Society and of many other learned bodies . His theories as to the course of the river Niger, published under the title Dissertation on the Course and Probable Termination of the Niger (London, 1829), involved him in a good deal of controversy . From 1832 onwards he sat in the House of Commons, and in 1835 was made surveyor-general of the ordnance . He committed suicide at Southampton in 1841 . He was then a general, and colonel of the 11th Foot . See Jerdan, National Portraits, vol. iii . ; Gentleman's Magazine, xcii. i . 273 .