Sir Harry Smith, 1st Baronet
British Army general
Lieutenant-General Sir Henry George Wakelyn Smith, 1st Baronet, GCB (28 June 1787 – 12 October 1860) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. A veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, he is also particularly remembered for his role in the Battle of Aliwal, India in 1846, his subsequent governorship of the Cape Colony, and as the husband of Lady Smith.
Biography
He was born in Whittlesey, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, the son of a surgeon and major in the Wisbech, Whittlesey and Thorney United Battalion.
The east end of the south aisle of St. Mary’s church was at this time partitioned off and used as a schoolroom, the vicar or curate teaching. It was here that Harry Smith received his education from the Rev. George Burgess, then curate.
During a review of the unit by General Stewart, he got into conversation with the youth and offered to procure him a commission. A short time later a commission as a second lieutenant with the 95th Rifle Regiment arrived. A chapel in the town's St Mary's church was restored in his memory in 1862, and a local community college also bears his name: Sir Harry Smith Community College.
The public source identifies “Sir Harry Smith, 1st Baronet” as british Army general. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Harry, Smith and Baronet.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1606789. VIAF identifies the subject as 30410556. The Library of Congress control number is n85260917. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1787, 1860, 1846 and 1862.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sir Harry Smith, 1st Baronet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.