William Crossman
Encyclopedia
Sir William Crossman K.C.M.G.
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

  (30 June 1830 – 19 April 1901) was an officer in the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

 and a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 and Liberal Unionist politician.

Crossman was born at Isleworth
Isleworth
Isleworth is a small town of Saxon origin sited within the London Borough of Hounslow in west London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane. Isleworth's original area of settlement, alongside the Thames, is known as...

, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

, the son of Robert Crossman and his wife Sarah. His father was a brewer of Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....

 who joined forces with Thomas Paulin to establish a brewery at Isleworth which was to become Mann, Crossman & Paulin. Robert Crossman returned to Berwick and acquired the manor of Holy Island and the family property at Cheswick
Cheswick
 Cheswick is a village in Northumberland, England. It is situated approximately south-east of Berwick-upon-Tweed, between the A1 and the North Sea coast.- Governance :Cheswick is in the parliamentary constituency of Berwick-upon-Tweed....

, Northumberland. In December 1848, Crossman became a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. He was sent to Western Australia and arrived there on the "Marion" in January 1851

Crossman was in charge of various public works in Australia from 1852 to 1856, and became a Magistrate of the Colony at Albany, Western Australia
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....

. He returned to England and from 1857 to 1861, he was under Inspector-General of Fortifications at the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...

, becoming captain in 1858. He then went to Canada where he was temporarily on the staff of Q.M.G., on the march of troops from Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

 to Riviere du Loup
Rivière du Loup
The Rivière du Loup is a river in southeastern Quebec which empties into the Saint Lawrence River at the city of Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec.There is a hydroelectric plant on the river near the city....

 in December 1861 and was then Secretary to the Royal Commission on defences of Canada. From 1866 to 1869 he was in charge of Diplomatic and Consular Buildings in China and Japan, and in 1869 at Constantinople too. He was a member of Treasury Committee on the Irish Board of Works in 1870. He was promoted to major in 1872 and to lieutenant-colonel in 1873. From 1874 to 1875 he was Assistant Director of Works for Fortifications. In 1875 he was in charge of the Royal Commission into the Black Flag Rebellion at Griqualand West
Griqualand West
Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km² that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people - a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, who established several states outside the expanding frontier...

 which was appointed by Lord Carnarvon
Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon
Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, PC, DL, FSA, FRS , known as Lord Porchester from 1833 to 1849, was a British politician and a leading member of the Conservative Party...

 and sat in Kimberley in January 1876. Crossman was placed in charge of submarine defences at the War Office in 1876 and became colonel in 1878. In 1881 he was on special service to report on the defences of the principal colonies - which included a visit to New Zealand. He was on a Royal Commission to inquire into the Public Revenues of the West Indies from 1882 to 1883. He commanded the Royal Engineers in the Southern District from 1882 to 1885 and was knighted in 1884. On retirement in 1886, he became Major-General. He was an Associate Member of Institute of Civil Engineers.

At the 1885 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1885
-Seats summary:-See also:*List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1885*Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918*Representation of the People Act 1884*Redistribution of Seats Act 1885-References:...

 Crossman was elected Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Portsmouth
Portsmouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Portsmouth was a borough constituency based upon the borough of Portsmouth in Hampshire. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.- History :...

. When the Home Rule Bill
Irish Government Bill 1886
The Government of Ireland Bill 1886, commonly known as the First Home Rule Bill, was the first major attempt made by a British government to enact a law creating home rule for part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

 split the Liberal Party, Crossman voted against the measure and joined the Liberal Unionists, holding off a challenge from the official Liberal candidate at Portsmouth in 1886. He did not seek re-election in 1892
United Kingdom general election, 1892
The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the 1886 general election...

. He was High Sheriff of Northumberland
High Sheriff of Northumberland
This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Northumberland.The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post...

 in 1894

Crossman's official residence was Cheswick, Beal, Northumberland, but he died in Plymouth at the age of 70

Crossman married Catharine Josephine Morley in Albany, Western Australia in 1855 and had sons Robert and Lawrence, and daughters Mary and Alice.

Crossman Road in Kimberley South Africa is named after him.

External links

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