Major Samuel Anderson, CMG, RE (1839-1881)
/
Major Samuel Anderson, CMG, RE (1839-1881)
August 2, 1983
Major Samuel Anderson CMG, RE is commemorated by a stained glass window and mural tablet on the south wall of the South Quire Transept.
The left hand of the three upper windows which is dedicated to Major Samuel Anderson, C.M.G., represents Moses during the fight against Amalek. Moses sits above armed men, his arms held up by Aaron and Hur (Exodus XVII. 11, 12.), the scene beneath an architectural canopy. Inscription 'Aaron and Hur stayed up the hands of Moses'. One of three representations of OT military episodes.
The inscription on the brass plate below is:
IN MEMORY Or SANUEL ANDERSON, O.M.G., MAJOR, ROYAL ENGINEERS, INSPECTOR OF SUBMARINE DEFENCES,
BORN 15TH NOVEMBER, 1839. DIED 11TH SEPTEMBER, 1881.
SURVEYOR TO BRITISH COMMISSION IN NORTH AMERICA, 1859-1862.
EXPLORER IN PALESTINE, I865-66;
CHIEF ASTRONOMER TO BRITISH COMMISSION IN NORTH AMERICA, 1872-74;
HER MAJESTY'S COMMISSIONER FOR THE DELIMITATION OY SERVIA, 1879.
THE UPPER LEPT WINDOW WAS INSERTED IN 1881 BY HIS BROTHER OFFICERS.
Samuel Anderson, son of S. Anderson Esq., Registrar of Affidavits in the High Court of Chancery, was born in London on 15th November 1839 and educated at St.Andrews University and the Military Academy, Edinburgh; he entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, one of the first batch of recruits under the new competitive system on 11th August 1857.
At Woolwich he was an under officer and received the regulation sword for good conduct before being commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 21st December 1858. He was promoted Captain on 3rd.August 1872 and Major On 13th September 1879.
On the 7th September 1859 he was sent to the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton for instruction, and then embarked for Vancouver Island, Canada, to be employed under It. Col. J. S. Hawkins as surveyor on the North American Boundary Commission for surveying and marking out from the Pacific to the summit of the Rocky Mountains the boundary on the 49th parallel. This was the boundary between British Columbia and the U.S.A. agreed in the Treaty of Washington, 15th June 1846. He returned to England in July 1862 and was employed in completing the recorded plans of the Commission.
In November 1865 he was selected to proceed to Syria with Captain Wilson (later Major General Sir Charles William Wilson KCB, KCMG, FRS) for duties under the Palestine Exploration Fund, whose object was to find the best way of conducting the scientific and systematic examination of the Holy Land. Wilson carried out the archaeological work while Lieut.Anderson did the surveying. The expedition returned in 1866 with material for a detailed map from Beirut to Hebron, including the shores of Lake Gennesaret. He was much admired by the Palestine Exploration Fund Committee, who acknowledged his work as the greatest contribution to Biblical illustration ever accomplished up to that time.
From November 1866 until November 1871 he held the appointment of Assistant Superintendent of the Special School of Telegraphy and Photography in the S.M.E. at Chatham. He was therefore one of the chief pioneers in developing the application of electricity as then employed in the army.
While in service at Chatham he was sent to New York under the Foreign office for verification of the boundary maps and ratification by the U.S. government. In the same year he went to Prussia to attend the manoeuvres of the Prussian and Pomeranian Army Corps.
The duty that brought him most into the public notice, however, was that of chief astronomer to the British Commission for the definition of 900 miles of North American frontier in 1872-4. Although the international boundary between the British possessions in North America and the U.S.A. had been theoretically established by the Convention of London In 1818, the creation of the Dominion of Canada induced the British and U.S. governments to appoint in 1872 a commission to complete visually the demarcation.
This task proved to be a most difficult and dangerous operation. On one occasion, 7-9 January 1873 Anderson was caught with two men in a great blizzard which prevailed over the whole of Manitoba and Minnesota and. in which 80 people died, frozen to death. Their dogs were unable to face the driving snow, and the party had to shelter for eighteen hours In a small island of poplars until cold and hunger drove them to continue their journey. Fortunately they eventually came across an Indian camp. During this storm two of his men overtaken near North Pembing had to out their horses loose and only saved their lives by remaining 48 hours in their sleigh wrapped in buffalo robes, but without food or fire. On other occasions fierce fires threatened the survey camps. The survey and astronomical parties were frequently liable to attack by Sioux, Crow and Blackfeet Indians. On the homeward journey of the survey parties, September to October 1874, the Blackfeet massed 6,000 warriors, and the Canadian government informed the commission that a combined Indian attack was imminent. Anderson considered that only the skill ,and discipline of his men saved them from death.
During the course of the survey work and the cutting of the boundary line a number of Chippewa Indians were engaged as axe-men. Anderson found it very difficult to get them to work with any vigour as they were always stopping to smoke, and were always demanding more food and money.
Anderson commanded the march home; 67 officers and men, 100 wagons and carts, 200 horses and ponies. The tangible results of the British Commission was that the whole boundary was marked by stone cairns or mounds at three mile intervals across the great plains and by iron pillars at one-mile intervals for 135 miles throughout the south boundary of Manit-oba.
For his services with the Commission he was created a Companion of the Order of St.Michael and St. George.
On 10th August 1876 in Edinburgh he married Louisa Dorothea, only daughter of Robert Brown of Firth, Midlothian. There were no children of the marriage.
He transferred to the War Office as Assistant Inspector of Submarine Defences on the 1st September 1876, and became Inspector 4th June 1881.
There was an interval of a few months in 1879 when he acted as British Commissioner for the delimitation of the new Serbian frontier, under the Treaty of Berlin 1878. He was offered the Order of Takova by the Prince of Serbia, but declined it in compliance with the British regulations regarding the acceptance of foreign decorations.
Debilitated by the hardships he had undergone during his service, he went on a fishing holiday to recuperate. He contracted a severe chill, however and died on 11 September 1881, at his mother's residence, Dalhousie Grange, Bonnyrigg.
Although he was never on active service, he served his country and his corps faithfully and with much honour. A fund for his memorial in Rochester Cathedral was started; one of the contributors was Captain W. J. Gill, who was to die less than a year later and whose memorial in the cathedral is adjacent to Anderson's. (q.v.)
From the notebooks ‘The Naval and Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral’ (1979)
by Roy Trett, OBE, TD,
Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library
Seventy-two brilliant stained glass windows were installed by prominent glaziers Clayton & Bell during the 1870s and 1880s.
Rochester Cathedral features an exceptionally large collection of Colonial-era military memorials and artefacts. This series has begun to highlight the stories behind these collections and their place in our global heritage.
